We’re in that rough patch for moviegoing- post-Oscar, pre-Memorial Day, (pre-MFF !!!), but there are some amazing movies to see. THE WHITE RIBBON, a recent Best Foreign Film nominee, and nominee for Best Cinematography, is a visually stunning study of the unacknowledged realities that are often part of small town life. The fictional German baronial village portrayed in the movie, set just before WWI, seems to be nothing if not stable. From the mysterious opening shot, you can feel the ground shifting under the children and adults in this tiny community, disrupting its Germanic discipline. And, of course, the children will populate the Third Reich. From Austrian Michael Haneke.
THE PROPHET, also fresh off its Best Foreign Film nomination, amazingly finds new ground to explore in the prison/gang/underworld genre. Director and co-writer Jacques Audiard takes us inside one prison outside Paris where civilization divides starkly between gangs, Corsicans or Muslims. We watch a new prisoner who speaks both Arabic and French try to learn the ropes before they entangle him. I liked last year’s much-praised GOMORRAH, but think this is better.
And, don’t miss ALICE in 3D (Melina got to see the Imax presentation; I saw it in Digital 3D at White Marsh), or the terrific article about David Simon and company in Sunday’s NY Times Magazine. He’s in New Orleans, alas, shooting a new HBO series, TREME.
-Jed Dietz, MFF Director
Maryland Film Festival Blog 