22 April 2022. By Neptune I was happily writing a very positive review of the excellent English film, THE DUKE, until I learned its released had been postponed to June 1st. Now we must patiently wait for another 2 months for this delightful film starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. Pity, it would have lightened […]

23 September 2021. By Neptune BIGGER THAN US *** Malati, a young girl of 18 from Bali, started her campaign against plastic pollution in her country at the age of 12. She takes us on a journey around the world, visiting like-minded, caring young people who have decided to take the future into their own […]

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.  […]

21 May 2021. By Neptune One thinks of idyllic, “happiness-quotient” Bhutan as a peaceful, verdant, quite closed country of rural people. Well, this film shows how hip and world-conscious the young are in its capital, and why one of them wants to leave for the wider world.  Bhutan does not make many films, but when […]

1 January 2021. As French-speaking Switzerland is right next to France, I thought I would salute our neighbors with a few of their many superb films. After all, it was the Lumière brothers of nearby Lyon who gave us the beginnings of cinema way back in December 1895! And film has continued to be a […]

17 December 2020. Let’s do these classics for the season, for the snow and the free, nothing-to-do days (once Christmas is over…). Sadly cinemas will remain closed through mid- to late January, as will all other cultural activities. Indeed tragic for the living arts. Animation may often be directed towards children, but so many are […]

14 February 2020. By Neptune. ARAB BLUES (Un Divan à Tunis)  ***  (vo French)  First shown at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, this social comedy received the Audience Award there, mostly due to the radiant Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who plays Selma, a Tunisian psychoanalyst who has decided to come back home from Paris to […]

7 February 2020. By Neptune. THE GENTLEMEN  *** Hugh Grant is unrecognisable, but such sleazy fun; the usually cool Colin Farrell looks like a geek here, but is razor sharp; handsome Charlie Hunnam is hidden behind glasses and a goatee as a loyal lieutenant, while Matthew McConaughey rules the roost as a smooth operator from […]

10 January 2020. By Neptune. THE VITTORIO DESICA RETROSPECTIVE at the GRUTLI The best thing in town this week, other than the films I have previously reviewed, is the exceptional Italian retrospective continuing at the GRUTLI CINEMAS until 16 January 2020. Some of the highlights of the great years of Italian cinema that remain are: […]