Peter Murmann

After seeing Almodovar’s two recent movies Talk to Her and All about my Mother, I left the theatre deeply satisfied. Both films were extraordinary pieces of cinema. I felt different about Bad Education. It took me some time to figure out what made this a good film yet noticeable inferior to his two previous [Read More]

One reason why people see the same film in very different ways is that we filter it through our past experiences and hopes for the future. Grapes of Wrath, made in 1940, documents the hardship of one family that can no longer make a living on the depleted soil of Oklahoma and leaves the Dust [Read More]

In contrast to On the Waterfront (1954), this film—also directed by Elia Kazan— feels dated although it is only three years older than On the Waterfront. Brando’s acting is not at fault. It is impeccable. The film has the timeless theme of the battle between men and women. But it is so much grounded in [Read More]

Kinsey is quilt-like, stringing together scenes that are crafted with brillance and others that are poorly conceived and enacted. I wish the writer-director had spent a little more time removing the occasional second rate material from the film. What makes the movie charming is our amazement about how far western society has travelled in only [Read More]

This is one the best action based dramas I have seen in a long time. The sequel is dramatically better than the first film in the franchise, The Bourne Identity. Call it a James Bond movie for the adult mind.  007 is not a real human being and his employer, the British secret service, [Read More]

Some time ago I came to the conclusion that film is the highest art form for it can combine all means of communication: words, pictures and music. It comes closest to how we actually experience life and in the hands of a competent director, movies can make you forget completely your own reality for two [Read More]

After watching its sequel Before Sunset, I wanted to see the first part of the story. A young American (Ethan Hawke) and a young French student (Julie Delpy) meet in a train. She decides not go on to Paris as planned but step out of the train with him in Vienna and spend the [Read More]

Do not read this review before reading my review of its predecessor film “Before Sunrise.” Nine years ago two young people spent, we are told, an amazing night in Vienna togehter. To play with fortune they did not exchange phone numbers but promised each other to meet on a particular day six months later in [Read More]

Even good acting (Marlon Brando) cannot save a script that has no depth and a director who lacks an eye for how to pick stories that are worth telling. If one is confused in one’s head (as writer or director), it does not make for good art to let confusion take over the story. The [Read More]

Unlike Gladiator, Russel Crowe’s earlier historical action movie, the drama in Master and Commander” is quite dull. I was so bored after the first hour that I needed to rest a day before I could watch the second hour. Why did I continue at all? Well, Britain became the world’s greatest power in the 18th [Read More]