Studio Babelsberg

Russian Ark (2002)

Russian Ark (2002)
Rating: ★★★★
Oct 9, 2003Walk Through Russian History/Temporal Disjunctions
Extraordinarily ambitious film all shot in a single take at the former St Petersburg Winter Palace where the camera drifts dream-like from room to room and in and out of periods of Russian history. More n illustrated art and history program than a dramatic film but beautiful to watch.
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The Book Thief (2013)

The Book Thief (2013)
Rating: ★★
May 16, 2014Growing Up in Nazi Germany/Death Personified
Narrated by Death, this story of a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany comes with the self-importance of awards consideration bait. One of the great crimes of modern history (The Holocaust) is reduced to picture postcard sentiments
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Beauty and the Beast (2014)

Beauty and the Beast (2014)
Rating: ★★★★
Jan 18, 2015Fairy-Tale
Adaptation of the fairytale that takes place in an exquisitely dreamy sumptuousness – a stunningly designed, costumed and photographed world that has a genuine magic. However, the motion-capture animated Beast looks far too much like a CGI effect
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The Voices (2014)

The Voices (2014)
Rating: ★★★½
May 10, 2015Inside a Mentally Ill Man's Mind/Black Comedy
On the scale of weird movies, this is about as out there as it gets – Ryan Reynolds has conversations with his cat and dog who urge him to cut people's heads off, which continue to talk as he keeps them in his refrigerator. A mind-bogglingly warped film and quite brilliant in its dark funniness when you work out what is going on
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Isle of Dogs (2018)

Isle of Dogs (2018)
Rating: ★★★★
Nov 17, 2018Stop-Motion Animation/Talking Dogs
Wes Anderson is at his best when he does stop-motion animation as in Fantastic Mr. Fox and here. Essentially a Disney talking animals animated film where the animals talk like real people, this comes with considerable charm
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Mute (2018)

Mute (2018)
Rating: ★★
Mar 3, 2018Future-Set Neo-Noir
Duncan Jones has become a director of promise in the last few years. Here he appropriates the Blade Runner look to make a futuristic neo-noir but the result never quite works. The noir plot never sufficiently keys in, while the derivative future setting is of no real relevance to the story
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Charlie’s Angels (2019)

Charlie’s Angels (2019)
Rating: ★★
Feb 28, 2020TV Series Remake/Action Film
The second big screen revival of the hit 1970s tv series. Essentially a Girl Power version of one of the Mission: Impossible films, which turns what was originally a girl-fronted detective show into a spy caper featuring SF gadgetry
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Rating: ★★
Jan 13, 2024Future Televised Human Hunting
The Hunger Games was one of the biggest franchise of the 2010s. Here a number of the key talents return to make a prequel to the events, telling a story from the early days of the Hunger Games
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