Posts

Showing posts with the label comedy

"Roald Dahl's Esio Trot"

Image
Roald Dahl's Esio Trot  is a British comedy television film that was first broadcast as part of  BBC One 's 2014 Christmas programming. It is an adaptation of  Roald Dahl 's children's novel  Esio Trot  in which a retired bachelor falls in love with his neighbour, a widow, who keeps a tortoise as a companion after the death of her husband. A rare romance from the typically dark imagination of children’s book author Roald Dahl, “Esio Trot” spells more than just “tortoise” backwards, but an evening of warm-fuzzy feelings all around as  Dustin Hoffman ’s Mr. Hoppy devises an elaborate scheme to woo the chelonian-loving widow downstairs, as played by  Judi Dench . Commissioned as a New Year’s telepic for British TV, this delightful family offering is already making its way to homevideo in several European markets, but could potentially support a more substantial treatment Stateside, if someone were to shell out for theatrical (exec producers Harvey and ...

"Train de vie"

Image
Train of Life  (in  French   Train de vie ; in  Romanian   Trenul vieÅ£ii ) is a 1998 tragicomedy film by  France ,  Belgium ,  Netherlands ,  Israel  and  Romania  made in the  French language . It tells the story of an eastern European Jewish village's plan to escape  the Holocaust . The film starts off with a man, named Schlomo ( Lionel Abelanski ), running crazily through a forest, with his voice playing in the background, saying that he has seen the horror of the  Nazis  in a nearby town, and he must tell the others. Once he gets into town, he informs the  rabbi , and together they run through the town and once they have got enough people together, they hold a town meeting. At first, many of the men do not believe the horrors they are being told, and many criticize Schlomo, for he is the town lunatic, and who could possibly believe him? But the rabbi believes him, and then they try to tackle the p...

"Tu veux ou tu veux pas"

Image
Sophie Marceau ("LOL") and Patrick Bruel ("What's in a Name?") co-star in this latest romantic comedy from writer-director Tonie Marshall ("Venus Beauty") You would think that the French have had enough of the cliche that they’re a nation of well-dressed, well-bred horndogs, but then comes  Sex, Love & Therapy  ( ‘Tu veux ou tu veux pas’ ), a vaguely high-concept rom-com about two Parisian therapists who are so obsessed about getting into the sack with anyone they meet, they can’t ever get it on with each other. Hardly funny despite a few decent one-liners early on, and hardly sexy despite an eternally young  Sophie Marceau  ( LOL ) in the lead role, this latest effort from distaff writer-director  Tonie Marshall  feels about as a fresh as a condom that expired sometime back in the late 90s. It was then that Marshall had a breakout hit with her salon-set chick flick,  Venus Beauty , which introduced  Audrey Tautou  to the public a fe...