Review: "Love Life" Sings a Tragic Song

by Cláudio Alves

Under the right circumstances, a whisper can sound like a shout, soft caresses like barb-wire across the skin. In Kôji Fukada's cinema, a directorial style full of quiet oddities becomes the perfect context for such paradoxes to thrive ferociously. They never resolve themselves completely either, a sense of mystery prevailing until the end credits roll, whether it's the perversions of Harmonium or A Girl Missing's puzzle box plot. For his latest film, now in limited release, the Japanese auteur let go of those previous projects' violent spirits, redirecting his attention to a premise that sounds like easy-digestible melodrama. But, of course, that's not what Fukada has in store for his audience

Love Life was reportedly inspired by a romantic tune, but its final song rings barren, no rose-colored loveliness muffling the agony hiding between the notes. The sound produced is no crooning chant but a shattering, the glass of fragile joy broken before the first act is over…

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Venice at Home – Day 6: (A)Moral Tales

by Cláudio Alves

Good news for Martin McDonagh fans - The Banshees of Inisherin is getting great reviews, marking a potential return to form after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri proved to be a polarizing picture, regardless of its awards success. The new film reunites the Irish director with two of his favorite thespians, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. With another hit on his resume, the latter is having a marvelous year. Maybe that will materialize in Oscar buzz, or maybe not.

In contrast, Koji Fukada and his cast need not worry about such matters. The Japanese auteur rarely registers with voters beyond the festival circuit. Nevertheless, fans should be excited about Love Life, a family drama centering on a returning patriarch who brings with him much pain and guilt. Such aching themes are a constant in Martin McDonagh's cinema, too, featuring prominently in the first collaboration between the director, Farrell, and Gleeson. So let's remember that brilliant black comedy and one of Fukada's offbeat oddities… 

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Venice Diary #5 - L'Immensità, Other People's Children, Padre Pio, Love Life

by Elisa Giudici

Today we have on our menù four movies so different one for the other there's no point in trying to find common ground or a theme. Let’s begin with the surprising and very good Penélope Cruz film... 

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