This marks the first film we’ve watched by legendary Italian director Roberto Rossellini and part of his so-called Neorealist Trilogy, so named because they most use non-professional actors. While it is solid work, I didn’t find it particularly noteworthy because we’ve seen so much like it already. What is remarkable is that this film was made just one year after the real events it depicts about a Rome under German occupation, and hence the difficult conditions and crude production quality were due to the very limited resources available to the filmmakers.

The release of a new adaptation of this famous story a couple of years ago reminded me that I had yet to view any version of it. Yet after some research the best version seems to be this one directed by Sidney Lumet who have come to be one of my favorite directors of the era. Naturally it also features a star-studded cast for its many characters, led by Sean Connery and including Ingrid Bergman is a small supporting role.

I am not generally a big fan of Seth Rogen’s brand of humor but this title in particular was noted by a number of critics and the premise sounded. I suspected almost immediately that this was a mistake once I heard the faux accent Rogen adopts as an Eastern European of the early 20th century. It’s a sign that the film isn’t just not taking the subject matter seriously, it’s actively trying to mock and belittle everything. Sure enough this film turned out to be pretty much trash.

This film was the first of the director’s collaborations with actress Setsuko Hara and forms part of his so-called Noriko Trilogy. In all three films of the trilogy, Nara plays an unmarried woman named Noriko though they are all of course different characters. I feel that this is actually the most sophisticated and avant-garde of the director’s films that I have seen so far as the themes here go beyond the traditional ones of wholesome family values to venture into darker territory.

Here is Elizabeth Moss again in another film which can be characterized as being about the kind of shit women have to put up with. In keeping with the source material by H.G. Wells. all good treatments of the story have focused on the inherently horrifying aspect of the premise. What this adaptation brings is that it is from the perspective of the victim and is perhaps the most extreme form of gaslighting anyone has ever imagined. Unfortunately the plot tries to be just a little too clever and the film could probably benefit from being shorter.

This is an eccentric tragicomic film from Iceland that delivers exactly what its title says and what it shows on the poster. This delightful gem of a film is very short and has very minimal dialogue but is nevertheless packed full of surprises and shocks. I suspect that its depiction of rural life in Iceland is more mythological than real and its insouciance towards grievous injury and death highly affected. However, authentic or not, it is wonderfully entertaining and original.

So we’re just now done with the four seasons of this show that has been out so far and this has been amazing every step of the way. It has also grown to become a particular favorite of my wife, combining as it does the lavish spectacle of the British monarchy, the sweeping sense of watching history in the making, the soap opera nature of its characters interacting with one another and you even feel less guilty about liking it too as it successfully convinces you that it is educational. Most of all, it’s fun to talk about each episode after you’ve watched it especially when you happen to recall a bit of your memories of the real events it is based on.