Upcoming reviews (during july/beginning of august):

1. Country Teacher

- A very new Czech film about a middle aged teacher who is going to the countryside to work in the local school, at the same time struggling with his own acceptance of his homosexuality and with his falling in love with a teenage boy. A very rare and good film!

2. Nachttocht

-A Dutch coming-of-age story about a boy who is falling in love with his sports/canoe-teacher, who in turn is falling in love with the boy´s mom. A very nicely done and rare triangle drama about love and friendship. Similar to ”Country teacher”, though with totally different twists and also much older (but equally good!).

3. Gutta boys

- A Norwegian TV-series about a group of boys in a coming-of-age drama.

4. Russian film (rare)

- A rare film (so rare I have forgotten the title but will of course update you with that information later), about a boy who is struggling to survive a hazardous boat trip.

5. My uncle Antoine

- Considered to be the best Canadian coming-of-age film, and is about the developing consciousness of a young boy as he learns to deal with both sexuality and death.

6. Malena

- An Italian coming-of-age-story about a young boy who encounters the beautiful Malena, the dream of all men. Said to be an intense and very interesting film.

7. City of Men

- A Brazilian TV-series about kids in the slum of Rio de Janeiro.

8. Captain Abu Raed

-A new film, not yet released in my country, about an older man finding a new task in life and becoming a sort of father figure to a group of boys/children. Seems interesting on the trailer, more info will come later.

And some bonus reviews…..

1. ”Close to Leo”

2. ”This boys life”

3. ”The wizard”

4. ”Saving Shiloh”

Hornets nest, 1970

How about a review of a US Hollywood production? Well, this flick from 1970 represents an era in which there were a little more freedom in the American film industry. A film like ”Hornets nest” would never have been produced in the US today, but could well have been so in for example Italy or Spain. It´s a pity that the best films produced in the US today concerning anything about the genre of coming of age are films like for example ”Dog days of summer”, ”Hotel for dogs” and similar rather lame productions. I know that there are exceptions, but they are few. The story of the film takes place in Italy during the WWII. An American parachute soldier (Rock Hudson) is shoot down by the German troops and rescued by a group of orphaned boys (and one girl) of about 11-13 years old, and taken to their isolated camp in the forest. During the following night they force a female doctor (Sylva Koscina) to go to the camp and help the soldier. After he recovers he gets on with his mission to blow up a dam, thus intending to flood the German military base located downstreams. However this task isn´t so easy to accomplish without involving the kids in the operation, something the doctor is strongly against. Underneath the main story there is the psychological drama of the orphaned children having to have witnessed the shooting of their parents in the beginning of the film. This use of multiple layers in the story, makes it deeper than many US films, that many times have difficulties in getting a single thread going. The children in the film are beautifully acted by very talented boys.

         

Photo: *****(excellent)

Acting: ****(very good)

Story: ****(very good)

Soundtrack: **(below average)

Total: ****(very good)

          

The boys:

Aldo (Mark Colleano)

Carlo (Mauro Gravina)

Dino (John Fordyce)

Franco (Giuseppe Cassuto)

Tonio (Amedeo Castracane)

Romeo (Giancarlo Colombaioni)

Mikko (Ronald Colombaioni)

Arturo (Valerio Colombaioni)

Rico (Giuseppe Coppola)

Paolo (Luigi Criscuolo)

 

This review would not have been possible without the valuable support of CVMC. I would like to thank them for supporting my blog by providing the DVD of  “Hornets nest” .

Check out lots of other coming of age films at cvmc.net, the oldest movie rental service on the internet – since 1998. Specializing in hard to find & rare films from around the world!