filmart-2

Unforgettable moments in film - how your hard-working career hopes get creamed by a newcomer with "talent".

A solid little picture with a top cast and techs.

WARNING: the picture illustrating this title is not, repeat not, from The Hazards of Helen series. Yes, it does feature several of the actors who were to appear in Hazards episodes, but this is from 'The Conductor's Courtship' which preceded the series. Misleading by IMDb to keep featuring this image! Producing one episode a week, yes one per week, over 119 eps, what an achievement the Hazards was, no wonder that Helen Holmes and J.P. McGowan went on to found their own studio (Signal Corp, devoted to railroad melodramas) after ep 49!

Whatever may be the future of 'cinema', this film will endure for its gripping film creativeness and its intense presentation of a culture and deep humanity. This is a Bali of the centuries, millennia even, quite different from the tawdry consumption pit that many tourist Australians seek so shallowly. Writing and direction are simply sublime in creativity and extraordinarily polished in execution. One to see many times (as was the Singapore film 'A Yellow Bird'). Voted Best Feature Fiction film at Adelaide Film festival 2018, Crystal Bear at Berlin. Apparently crowd- or subscriber-funded: well done, all. A nod to Doha Film Institute for its support of a truly major film achievement. See it in a dark cinema room, not on television.