- A Hunting in Venice
2023 – Mystery/Crime – 1h 43m – 2,5 in scale 1-5
Director: Kenneth Branagh, Interpetations: Kenneth Branagh, Kelly Reilly, Jamie Dornan, Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey.
After “Crime on the Orian Express” and “Crime on the Nile”, Kenneth Branagh continues from the position of the director as well as the protagonist of the transfers of Agatha Christie’s works to the big screen. We are in 1947 and in Venice, where the legendary Hercule Poirot has retired from active life, until he receives a visit from Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), a famous writer of mystery stories. She will entice him to participate in a séance, which takes place in an old palace owned by an opera singer.
However, when one of the participants is found murdered, Poirot undertakes to solve the mystery within the same night. Branagh and his collaborators adapt a lesser-known story by Agatha Christie (“Halloween Party”), placing it in atmospheric Venice, with its shadows, scary masks and dark canal waters. The pace of the film is quite good, enhanced by a well-placed twist; on the other hand, there is nothing really unexpected here from a cinematic point of view, with the film just doing what is necessary to keep the viewer’s interest alive until the finale.
- Oldboy
2003 – Mystery/Action – 2h – 5 in scale 1-5
Director: Park Chan-wook, Interpetations: Kang Hey-jung, Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Jin Seo Yoon.
Twenty years after its first release, the now classic – and cult – film by Korean Park Chan-wook is being re-released in a 4K restored version. A man will spend 15 whole years imprisoned in a room, without knowing the reason. When he is freed, he begins a race to track down his captors, learn their motives and of course take revenge. There are not a few who claim that the modern flourishing of Korean cinema begins with “Oldboy” – although there is e.g. the parallel course of Bong Joon-ho. Be that as it may, this particular film is a true masterpiece of originality, both in terms of conception and execution. From the scenes of (violent) anthology to the deep tenderness of other moments and the limbic moral background of most of the characters, the viewer is in front of an absolutely magnetic ensemble, which still retains its wild charm intact today.
