#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
Francisca – Exquisite 1981 period drama from Manoel de Oliviera, in which, as usual, we discover that men are trash. The artificiality of the performances and the actors’ delivery is hypnotic. The sets and production design are spectacular. I watched it in Portuguese (a language that I might be able to book a hotel room in over the phone, at a push), with French subtitles (a language that I definitely could book a hotel room over the phone in, but not, y’know, translate Rousseau or Balzac or whatever).
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) – Catching up on the Noah Baumbach films I missed when I thought I didn’t like Noah Baumbach films. Men are trash pt 2. Stand-out performances from Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel, and Emma Thompson. It's very funny. (I tried to watch White Noise last night but had to switch it off 30 minutes in becasue I wanted the talking to stop.)
Late Shift – Film of the week with best performance of the week from Leonie Benesch as a nurse on a late shift in an understaffed Swiss public hospital. We simply follow her trying to juggle all the demands of the patients and staff during her shift, as things become increasingly stressful. There are beautiful moments of real empathy. Essential viewing.
Matria – Another pretty stressful film with a great central performance, by Maria Vásquez, as we follow the hand-to-mouth struggles of a woman in a Galician fishing village trying to scrape together money to ensure her daughter can go to college. Deftly handled, on the whole, with a fair bit of humour.
