I didn’t notice after the film that this was directed by Paweł Pawlikowski who know of from Ida. In retrospect it should have been obvious as the crisp, black and white images here are definitely similar to that of Ida which can truly be described as being every frame a painting. Unfortunately while being excellent in terms of production values, Cold War is inferior in every respect and its title is somewhat misleading.

This is a film that wasn’t on my radar at all and I noticed it only when our cinephile friend mentioned that it has been earning great reviews. It has an ensemble cast made up of some big names, but as a non-franchise film in a genre that is now very unpopular, it seems doomed to mediocrity. Yet it is has been doing very well and it just might be popular enough to spark a revival in the much neglected murder mystery genre.

This title marks not just the directorial debut of Taiwanese singer Rene Liu and is also Netflix’s first original Chinese-language film. It also has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, mainly because so few accredited critics have reviewed. Still I wasn’t expecting too much as I had it pegged as a sappy love story and that turned out to be precisely what it is.

There’s no doubt that Michael Mann is true auteur though he specializes in thrillers and action films. Even before considering the plot or the themes, the use of colors to give every scene an overt emotional tone and the pulse-pounding music makes this film distinctively his. Manhunter is one of those films that was underappreciated at the time of its release but its reputation improved over time.

Like people, most films have a clear nationality. Even when a director works outside of his or her country of origin, the resulting film usually still tilts clearly one way or another. Oh Lucy! is a rare exception, being a film that has both Japanese and American characteristics. Appropriately enough its director and writer Atsuko Hirayanagi is a Japanese who studied in and lives in the US and this is her debut directorial feature, being itself an expansion of an earlier short film.

We’ve hardly watched any Danish films at all and this time we’re plumbing the depths of cinematic history for this very old film. What’s especially interesting is that this was made during the Nazi Germany occupation of Denmark and so the austere society depicted here can be interpreted as a kind of indictment against totalitarian rule. It’s also great how this film offers a very ambiguous morality that could really be read either way.

At the time of writing, my wife and I have just returned from a longish trip to Turkey so this is just some light watching while we recover. No one can fail to know about Dumbo the Flying Elephant but I don’t believe I’ve ever watched the original animated film. Still from what I know this update is very different and though it closely tracks the familiar arc of animal rescue genre, I think it may actually be superior to the more simplistic original.