FOREIGN FILMS: “The Shadow of Violence.” / “The Guardians.” / “The Passing.” / “The Chambermaid Lynn.”

“The Shadow of Violence” (2019, Amazon Prime) a.k.a. “Calm with Horses.” Irish crime drama about an ex-boxer who works as an enforcer for a criminal family in rural Ireland while providing for his autistic son. 



       This movie is a performance tour De force by the ensemble: Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Niamh Algar, Ned Dennehy, David Wilmot.

       Arm is a helpless, hapless fighter facing a deadened wall as a crime clan's muscle and the torn father. Mr Jarvis channeled Arm with confused vulnerability and defiant resolve.

       First-time director Nick Rowland's piercing, no-chaser handling of Joe Murtagh's tight script (from Colin Barrett's short story) makes this movie a work of a veteran filmmaker. 🎥👍📽


“The Guardians” (2017, Amazon Prime) French historical drama about the women who were left behind to work a family farm during the Great War. 




       The director Xavier Beauvois is known for the brilliance and sensitivity of 1995's “Don't Forget You’re Going To Die” and 2010's “Of Gods and Men,” which I enjoyed. "The Guardians” proves that there are other shades and tones to war's cruelty that are not usually explored in a canvas. The sylvan calm of rural France in this movie is not at all “peaceful” yet it eventually offers hope. 

       Kudos to the performance of Nathalie Baye as Hortense, a distraught but take-charge elderly mother and wife, and Iris Bry as Francine, as a young love-struck farm help. Two women who managed the farm as the men fought in war. 🎥💻📽


“The Passing” (2015, Tubi) Welsh drama. When two young lovers crash their car into a ravine in the remote mountains of Wales, they are plunged into a lost world. Dragged from the river by a mysterious figure, they are taken to a ramshackle farm, a place untouched by time. 


       The muddy isolation and dark vibe are already depressing. But I was kept glued waiting for a jolt, a shudder somehow. But is it all Stanley's sullen face and Sara's unrequited shenanigan? And Iwan's confused state of haplessness and pussyness? And an end game that is both confused, confusing or whatever? 

       No complaints about the acting of Mark Lewis Jones (Stanley), Annes Slay (Sara), and Dyfan Dwyfor (Iwan), and I enjoyed the sound of the Welsh language. But some things are missing or just dense. 

       Director Gareth Bryn though seems like a very sensitive or insightful filmmaker. I'd like to see his other projects. 🎥💻📽


“The Chambermaid Lynn” (2014, Tubi) German comedy-drama, adapted from Markus Orths' novel, about a maid who, while hiding in people's hotel rooms, happens to spy upon a session between a dominatrix and her client. This movie exudes typical European-style character-driven slowness but doesn't lose brevity and intrigue. 


       The ever-interesting to watch Vicky Krieps is the chambermaid Lynn. Thrifty movements, controlled emotional delivery, and quiet eroticism. She is my new Isabelle Huppert of Euro cinema. 🎥💻📽


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