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Articles by Nikola Grozdanovic
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The Montreal International Documentary Festival
Reviews From the Doc Fest - On Now
The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is back and running right now. It promises to bring “the year’s best documentaries and films on subjects that matter.”
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The Spectacle of the Year
Life of Pi Premiers at FNC
Having Ang Lee’s Life of Pi premiere in Canada at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema must have caused a lot of partying at festival headquarters. “El vino did flow” as David Brent would say. It was the biggest film from the roster by a country mile…
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Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Reviews
Reviews of films featured at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema. Check back throughout the week for updates.
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The Film Fest of Hidden Gems
Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Brings Cinematic Excitement Into the Fall
If Montreal’s heart is its cultural richness, the festivals throughout the year are the blood vessels that bring it to life. There’s something for everyone and when it comes to lovers of film, there’s only one festival in town that has it all.
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Frame to Frame
Built With Bad Intentions
“A powerful story, with a dramatic end.” The narrator of this touching documentary mentions that line a couple of times in the beginning. You’d think that the Friedrichs brothers are trying too hard to make the viewer understand the importance of their message.
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Frame to Frame
The Worth of a Human Being
“One kilo of cocaine, one AK47 or one Moldovan girl – it’s all the same,” is one of many haunting statistics that you’ll hear in Mimi Chakarova’s documentary about the illegal trafficking of Eastern European women.
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Frame to Frame
Nonchalant Corruption all the More Frightful
Believe it or not, not all of the film industry revolves around the Academy Awards. Here’s a good example of a film that most certainly should have been floating around the Best Foreign nominee list, but didn’t make the cut.
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Frame to Frame
It’s all About Sex
You hear that title and I bet sex is the last thing on your mind. Not so for Arcand. It’s one of those conversational films where dialogue is the core strength of the whole piece.
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Frame to Frame
A Tale of Coming Home
Ralph Fiennes deserves a lot of props. Known across the globe as one of the most serious and best actors around. With highlight roles including Oscar nominated uber-evil Nazi in Schindler’s List and romantic hero in The English Patient, among a vast number of supporting and other leading roles
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Frame To Frame
The Top 10 Films of 2011
So 2012 has begun, and a plethora of film blogs, columns, sites, critics and lovers have already made their obligatory best-of lists for 2011. Better late than never for this column to make its contribution, then. Last year was a year in film that boasted a record number of sequels (“Why try something original when you’ve got tried and true…
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Frame to Frame
Atmospheric Eeriness
“Fear is the most amazing feeling of all,” says Patrick (John Hawkes) to our heroine Martha (Elizabeth Olsen), as the final act begins. With that line we’re hit with a realization – fear is the driving force behind Sean Durkin’s debut feature film. Underneath the lush cinematography, hiding behind the ominous score by Daniel Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans and present in almost every glance and gesture Martha makes, lurks a fear that dominates the narrative and spurs the plot onward. It’s also what keeps us glued to the screen.
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Weekly Spins
Still in Hibernation
Youth Lagoon’s Year of Hibernation came out of nowhere (well, Idaho), and quickly found itself sitting pretty on the dream-pop shelf. -
Frame to Frame
A New Level of Violence
Gritty realism has rarely been as chilling as it is in Justin Kerzul’s debut feature Snowtown. Based on true events that plagued a small South Australian town in the ‘90s, Snowtown provides a close look at Australia’s worst serial killer, John Bunting.
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Frame to Frame
The Miserably Glorious Apocalypse
Saying that the state of current world affairs is grim would be an understatement, so it’s no wonder then that the apocalypse has become a popular and contemporary theme in cinema.
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Frame to Frame
A Little Romance and Plenty of Shame
Sion Sono likes to raise the bar just to see how high he can go, expanding his cult status and fan base around the world. He’s a controversial poet-filmmaker whose Guilty of Romance unearths sexual desires and dark pasts in very colourful style.
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Frame to Frame
The Montreal World Film Festival is All About Connection
With the common themes of human compassion, loss and a search for meaning and understanding, the MWFF stands proud against the heavyweight festivals that usually take the most commercial films, and their celebrity power, for their own rosters.
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Frame to Frame
Fantasia’s Highs and Lows
Amidst the big names like Kevin Smith and Guillermo Del Toro and the usual gore-infested outlandish genre films that pump the adrenaline of Fantasia fans, it’s easy to understand why first time director Filip Tegstedt would feel a little nervous before his debut feature premiered for the very first time to a public audience.
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Frame to Frame
The Bizarre and the Beautiful
Hate him or love him, we’re pretty blessed to have someone like Werner Herzog running across the globe and pointing his camera at the bizarre wonders of our world.
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Frame to Frame
Spiritual Awakenings
Walking out of the theater as the end credits rolled for Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, a slightly dumbfounded man turned to his friend and said, “That’s a movie not really meant for understanding.” And you can’t blame him.
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Frame to Frame
Films in the Cannes (Part 2)
The Cannes Film Festival wrapped up last Sunday, and the line-up it showcased is already being hailed as one of the best in recent memory.