hahanoulis8

I saw this film in Thessaloniki,Greece film festival in November 2006 and I was simply amused by all the matters that occurred in it! But I wouldn't like to talk about the plot...

Right the previous day I had seen Grbavica, a film by Jasmila Zbanic- a young director from Bosnia Herzegovina , starring Mirjana Karanovic, the most known actress around the Balkan countries (except maybe for Greece). Grbavica was plain, interesting but totally in control and simply a nice film with a spicy subject matter. Most enjoyable of all,Mirjana Karanovic! I was happy enough to see all her charm, if u can call it that way, in a fresh film by an upcoming director but when I saw Das Fräulein, then I finally realized the depths of her acting...

Sorry for making such an intro but this film is about her and if you get to realize what she is standing for , everything makes a lot more sense. Of course she is not the main dish and that's also an exciting thing!

Director Andrea Staka made a film to talk about what these people carry with them, what they are made of. We don't really know... We don't... It's not about characters in a film, not about a plot, it's about the actors,the director,the people of Bosnia,Yugoslavia,Serbia.. Political backgrounds, immigration, war,personal past all mixed up with youth, health and life perspective...

... all packed up in a simple, honest way... That's what it is about!

Red Road is one of those films that you really don't know what is going to happen next...That the script is so well written that you don't have any choice but to follow the plot in order to figure out the whole point of the movie.So automatically you allow the main character to lead you in her own mysterious way into a game where stalking and maybe deceiving are legal in a way...

Definitely not a thriller, this film takes us into the depths of a woman who is watching a suspicious man through CCTV and finally gets involved with him in real life for some unknown reason.

The sex scene everyone was talking about in Cannes is not as hot as I personally expected and I think that the director Andrea Arnold used this scene as the point where all the goals of the main character are achieved and from then on all the hidden reasons will come out.

Generally speaking, Red Road is a fine and enjoyable film with many unique moments and feelings.

I saw Swedish Auto in "Opening Nights",Athens' international film festival, and I was really disappointed with it!It was supposed to be a boy meets girl movie which despite not having such a great script, allows you to get lost in the romance and atmosphere of the couple and the surrounding...I think the director really tried to create a film influenced by European cinematography(as he also admitted) but...he only tried!The script is really annoying from time to time.It is mostly typical!Being the director's first film and script, the plot is nothing more than a boy meets a girl-they both have problems-the boy fixes a car-the boy saves the girl and her mother from the evil stepfather or boyfriend or whatever.It is nothing more than a typical American story covered with wanna be European cinematography... What is there to notice only is the challenging performance of Lukas Haas and January Jones and a sympathetic soundtrack.