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La Promesse is one of the best films of this decade. With its simple style and character-driven plot, one may think that the film comes from one of the Dogma 95 manifesto directors but it doesn't. The film's strengths lie in its theme of morality and responsibility and in its no-nonsense portrayal of the immigrant situation in Belgium (with reverberations reaching all across Europe). One can say that it's a coming-of-age tale--and in some ways it is--but when one thinks of the usual film categorized as such, the moniker doesn't match. Even the scene where Igor is being seduced by an older woman, while his father and his father's girlfriend look on, has no follow-up, no clumsy bedroom scene where we see Igor lose his virginity. The film makers just cut from the seduction scene in the bar to Igor the next morning back to his "job" at the dilapidated building site. Clearly, the directors are unconcerned with the staples of the "coming-of-age" genre. More precisely, I think it should be called a "coming-of-conscience" film. The final scene is at the same time heartbreaking and thought-provoking. The way they end the movie is a masterstroke because it forces the viewer to ponder what will come next, thus prompting self-reflective questions on what the viewer himself or herself would have chosen to do.

A film about the relationship between a man and leopard that's very reminiscent of "The English Patient," even down to a scene similar to when Ralph Fiennes' character carries the body of his lover across a desert-rock cliff. In "A Passion in the Desert," the main character carries the body of the leopard across a desert-rock cliff but in the opposite direction (calculated decision or unconscious contrast?). Historically expanded from a very short Balzac story, the film is not perfect but a treat no less. Final shot will haunt me for weeks. (8 of 10)

Though among 1998's movies were quite a bunch of doozies, the decidingly dudly and deadly doozie is Meet Joe Black. A film of immense inanity, Meet Joe Black contains one of the worst performances of the year (model/dilettante Claire Fontani) and one of the most embarrassing (Anthony Hopkins -- after starring in a film this bad, I would never act again too.) The only performance that stings me with regret for giving the movie a rating of 1 is Marcia Gay Harden's. Her scene with Anthony near the end of Meet Overwrought Opus when she tells him that she knows he doesn't love her as much as his other daughter (Claire Fontani -- As If!) is heartbreaking and the only scene with genuine emotion. I won't even discuss Martin Brest's style and technique as a director because all that comes to mind is "Hack, Hack, Hack."