Movie Junction

Russian writer Anton Chekhov is often hailed as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. In his brief, prolific career, Chekhov was known for writing short stories and plays, even though he practiced medicine throughout his professional career. Released in 2010, Dover Kosashvili’s “Anton Chekhov’s The Duel” is an adaptation of Chekhov’s novella that was initially shown as part of a touring European film festival. The film received generally positive reviews in the art-house circuit.   Kosashvili, who is well known for the critically acclaimed “Late Marriage” (2001) beautifully creates a period drama, reminiscent of a Merchant-Ivory production. We meet three principal characters in film, whose lives are inexorably connected to each other by unusual circumstances. Laevsky (Andrew Scott) is a Russian aristocrat employed by the Russian Civil Service. He now lives with his mistress, Nada (Fiona Glascott), who is apparently another man’s wife. It is revealed that Laevsky ...

Woody Allen is no stranger to the world of cinema. Since making his debut movie, “What’s up Tiger Lily?” in 1966, Allen has directed about forty-four feature films, thus making him one of the most prolific filmmakers in Hollywood. That’s like a film a year up until the release of his recent film, “Midnight in Paris” (2011). Allen’s actual golden run started in 1973 with the critical hit “Sleeper,” and it pretty much ended in 1990 with “Alice.” It is in the earlier period that he directed one of my favorite movies, “Annie Hall” (1977), following it with an equally entertaining movie, “Manhattan” (1979). Among others that he released in this period were critically acclaimed films like “Love and Death” (1975), “Stardust Memories” (1980), “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985), and “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986).   He worked closely with Diane Keaton in the ‘70s, whereas the ‘80s was the period when Mia Farrow starred in every Woody Allen movie. The sixteen-year golden run pretty mu...

The ‘60s and ‘70s were years when rock music was at its peak. The music created in this period not only defined the rock ‘n’ roll genre forever, it also became a catalyst for several rock movements later on, namely the ‘80s punk rock movement and the popular alternative rock scene emerging from Seattle in the ‘90s. Heavy metal arrived with a bang in the ‘70s. With several bands developing their own styles, it became categorically impossible to classify heavy metal as purely heavy metal only. Several words were tossed around to define heavy metal such as rock, rock ‘n’ roll, hard rock, and psychedelic rock. Moreover, the emergence of a number of bands in this period resulted in diversity in rock music, with each band playing in their trademark styles. If you are a fan of ‘70s rock music, you easily recognize songs from Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and AC/DC. Even though there was some overlap of styles, these bands at the core were simply playing ro...