27 August 2021. By Neptune EIFFEL **** (vo French) This is the fascinating story of the man who built the most famous landmark of Paris. The engineer Gustave Eiffel had just collaborated on the Statue of Liberty, and was being encouraged to create something as spectacular for the 1889 World’s Fair that was to […]
FILM: FRENCH EXIT – 1 star
13 August 2021. By Neptune FRENCH EXIT * I was really looking forward to this film. Michelle Pfeiffer in Paris – two beauties meeting – how fitting. Well, it doesn’t quite work out that way. Pfeiffer is still lovely and a fine, matured actress, and this looks like an Oscar-winning role for her. In fact she’s […]
Music in Geneva: Variations Musicales de Tannay
By Neptune It’s August and so the intimate concerts of world famous artists will be once again taking place in the chateau of the charming town of Tannay, just outside Geneva from 16th to 29th of August. Make sure you book early, as the tickets go fast for such luminous artists as the French pianist […]
FILM: SUICIDE SQUAD 2 – what fun!
6 August 2021 It’s high summer in Geneva and it looks and feels like November! What have we done to deserve this continuous rain and these dreary skies? Great movie weather, but there again it’s the summer misery of action or horror films (which I simply refuse to see), mediocre French comedies, and tons of […]
FILM: THE MAURITANIAN – the shameful, secretive prison of Guantanamo
16 July 2021. By Neptune THE MAURITANIAN (Désigné Coupable) *** There have been too many lost lives hanging in limbo in the shameful, secretive prison of Guantanamo. It is a modern day stain on anything considered human. Yet it is legitimate in the eyes of a great power. And continuing. This film by director Kevin […]
FILM: THE CLOCK – a cinematic art show
9 July 2021. By Neptune THE CLOCK As I have been away in sunny, summery Italy, I have missed quite a few press previews, so I cannot judge this week’s releases of SEIZE PRINTEMPS, BLACK WIDOW, and the musical ANNETTE, with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver, which opened up this year’s ambitious Cannes film fest. […]
FILM: THE UNITED STATES vs BILLIE HOLIDAY – a gripping important work
2 July 2021. By Neptune THE UNITED STATES vs BILLIE HOLIDAY *** Billie Holiday, the jazz legend who struggled through an abusive childhood which led to drug and alcohol addiction that ended her turbulent life at age 44. “Strange Fruit”, the achingly painful song about the lynching of blacks in the American South that she […]
FILM: IN THE HEIGHTS – a rollicking musical
25 June 2021. By Neptune IN THE HEIGHTS (D’OÙ L’ON VIENT) ***1/2 Do you want to see a rollicking musical with lots of Latino Salsa thrown in? And all about the aspirations of good people ‘coming to Amerika’ for a better life? This is the film for you, based on the second musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, […]
FILM: PETER RABBIT 2 – The Runaway
18 June 2021. By Neptune PETER RABBIT 2 – The Runaway ** Doesn’t everyone love Peter Rabbit? We certainly did when the first one in this franchise was released in the spring of 2018, in those carefree pre-Covid years. I gave it ***1/2 then, and wrote this in the intro: “All is right with the […]
FILM: NOMADLAND **** fully deserves all of its awards
11 June 2021. “I’ll see you down the road”. That’s the credo of these people who live on the road, in vans and campers, as long as they are free to roam the land and settle momentarily where they want. They are the modern pioneers of another face of America, unknown to most of us. […]
