Kiyoshi Kurosawa must have been licking his chops when he signed the deal for Daguerrotype. "You mean I get full creative control, and I get to make a proper gothic ghost/romance tale, in frigging France even!? Hells yeah!" Its interesting to watch if you're at all familiar with the director's oeuvre, as its pretty much akin to his previous works in so many ways, but its also a distinctively French movie in as many. He gets to play around with ancient photography tech and Victorian dresses. As per usual, Kurosawa prejudices atmosphere and tone against narrative coherence, which is a flaw I'm willing to overlook. If you've ever been able to groove to Kurosawa's by now very practiced style (don't take a drink every time somebody stares into an empty room, you'll die) you'll probably dig this one, as I did.
I've not seen all of the Dardenne bros. films, but of those I've seen The Unknown Girl is their least great. This is not a slam, per se, as their social-realist dramas and pseudo thrillers are never not heart rending or completely gripping, but this one is a bit clumsier. It sometimes feels inauthentic, which is something that they've never done before. Its still a very good film though, and I honestly could have done with much more of the film's B-plot (a state service family doctor making her rounds to her impoverished patients) over the main thrust (murder mystery).
and my favorite film of this year's International Film Festival would be the very good, blackly comic, gritty and twisty Spanish daylight noir The Fury of a Patient Man. I'm really hoping this breaks out of the festival circuit so I can more easily recommend it to people, as its pretty much all around excellent. Visually well composed, great acting, man did I ever dig this film. I'd love to say more, but, you know, spoliers and all that. It kicked major arse in the Spanish film awards if that means anything to you (toke on that Almodovar).
