Ewelina Rudnicka
Ewelina Rudnicka
Recent Stories
Sex Week 2012 organizers: educational, courageous, sexy
Among the eight leaders of Sex Week at Yale, it is safe to say that one can find most, if not all types of students of our campus.
‘Wall Street’ sequel gives voice to financial warlords
After 20 years of declining to make a sequel to “Wall Street,” Oliver Stone finally gave in when the markets crashed in 2008. The result, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” continues the story of the memorable villain, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), who after eight years in jail makes a comeback to the financial world. With no license or support to return to Wall Street, he publishes a book with quite a familiar title, “Greed Is Good.” On the other hand, we have a young, yet successful, broker, Jake (Shia LaBeouf), who is an unorthodox Wall Street type — idealistic and with a lot of integrity. The problems start when the hedge fund he works for goes bankrupt. In search of new opportunities, Jake gets in touch with Gekko, who also happens to be the father of his fiancée (Carey Mulligan).
An ‘Animal Kingdom’ of family, crime and decay
In “Animal Kingdom”, Josh “J” Cody (James Frecheville) has no other option but to live with his grandmother’s crime-wracked family after his mother’s death. While his relatives are not exactly the welcoming type, they accept him and treat him as one of their own. Simply living in the house makes J a witness to or even an accomplice in the crimes committed by all three of his uncles. And while all of this seems like a story of a good kid going bad, it’s much more complicated than that.
Cinema Europa: 12:08 East of Bucharest
“There are no ‘waves’ just individuals,” claims one of the most prominent Romanian film critics, Alex Leo Serban, when asked about the existence of the New Romanian Wave. Despite the skepticism of film critics at home, the Romanian filmmakers receive kudos at many international festivals as those who represent a “new quality.” Sometimes they are called the representatives of the new realism or neo-neorealists because of the striking similarity to the films of Rossellini, Visconti, Antonioni or even the Iranian directors. However, even Mungiu, Puiu and Nemescu very often deny that they belong to any collective movement of a new film style. It is totally understandable that filmmakers might resist this idea because they do not want to be deprived of their individualism. Whatever the case is, I decided that this week we should turn to Romanian film directors, which present a new quality in world cinema. Read more after the jump.
Neo-noir Polanski
“The Ghost Writer,” Roman Polanski’s latest film, tells the story of a British writer (Ewan McGregor) who gets the chance to write the memoirs of the former Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). His predecessor, the previous ghost writer, died under mysterious circumstances. This, however, does not stop him from undertaking the task, especially since the award for doing so is 250,000 dollars.
Cinema Europa: 'Funny Games'
This week we turn to Michael Haneke’s "Funny Games" (1997). The reason why I chose this film is because of my complete admiration for his latest The White Ribbon which somewhat ties into the topic of this week’s review. The story is simple. An upper-class Austrian family, Anna (great Susan Lothar from La Pianiste), Georg (Ulrich Muhe, well-known for his role in The Lives Of Others) and their son Schorshi (Stefan Clapczynski), go to their lake house for a vacation. At their doorstep appear two men, Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering), who introduce themselves as guests of the neighboring household. Soon after, the whole family becomes hostages to the two sadistic strangers who make them play humiliating and violent games. Read more after the jump.
Cinema Europa: Babbette's Feast
I want to start this film blog with a film that would best depict what kind of movies I will be discussing. Instead of the well-known and popular choices like La Dolce Vita or Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) you will find films that some may have forgotten, but to me are the best films European cinema has to offer. This week I chose Babette’s Feast (Babettes gæstebud), a Danish film from 1987 directed by Gabriel Axel. It tells the story of two sisters, Martina (Birgitte Federspiel) and Philipa (Bodil Kjer) who live in a small hamlet on the shore of Jutland. The film depicts their ascetic upbringing inspired by their father, the founder of a Christian sect. Even when he dies the two sisters continue to live modestly and practice their religion with the few followers of the sect. With time, however, the faith of the people in the hamlet is weakened by petty quarrels and arguments.