I've heard about _A Coffee in Berlin_ for some time, and was really, really disappointed when I saw it. If it were not in B&W and in German, there would have been little to separate it from comedies about your standard American callow youth cutting
class and hanging out with slacker friends (always male, in eternal bromance). I knew it won a ton of awards, and looking up "German Film Award 2013" I found that it took best film and best direction over Cate Shortland's masterful _Lore_ and von Trotta'
s powerful _Hannah Arendt_. Are you kidding me? I love Berlin, but the director hardly had an exceptional eye for locations -- especially when compared with films like _The Berlin Syndrome_ and _Anonymous_, to say nothing of _Wings of Desire_.

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If it weren't for a few Terrence Malick features, I would have felt obliged to rank _Lore_ the best film of the decade (2010-2019). There are no lack of Malickian touches in _Lore_ -- the constant cuts between sordid human endeavors and glorious wild
life recall _Days of Heaven_, as does the sense that Nature, in all its immanent magnificence, betrays a supreme indifference to Man's fate. But the astonishing story-telling in _Lore_ is distinctly cowriter-director Cate Shortland's. Like her _
Somersault_ and _Berlin Syndrome_, the film is a young woman's coming-of-age story; the conflicted heroine travels to faraway places to find herself. Hannalore embodies the poisonous self-delusion and ideology of the young generation who grow up with
Hitler and Fascism. In the space of a few days (weeks?) the 14-year-old grows to become both father and mother figure to her younger siblings, leads them across a defeated Germany partitioned by the Allies, confronts her family's lies, learns to lie and
survive herself, and also deals with her burgeoning sexuality. But she is much more than a symbol; Shortland and actress Saskia Rosendahl imbue her with such psychological precision, emotional complexity, and sheer conviction, she is easily one of the
most memorable characters in recent cinema. Her mother, played by Ursini Lardi, only shows up for 15 minutes but also leaves an indelible imprint. The camera work is truly inspired; it turns the Black Forest into a magical but murderous Grimm's
fairytale-land. It is astonishing that the director coaxes such naturalistic performance out of the child actors, considering that German isn't her native tongue. _Lore_ is a far better film than so many critics' darlings: Anne Fontaine's _The
Innocents_ (which I do like very much); Christian Petzold's _Phoenix_ and _Transit_, about fluid identities in times of war; the list goes on. If the director were European instead of Australian, perhaps she might have been more highly regarded? Last
decade has seen the emergence of many great woman directors, and Cate Shortland may well be the most talented of them all.

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And finally, Charlotte Gainsbourg tries her best to brighten Desplecin's limited imagination in _Ismael's Ghost_ but fails ...

Charlotte Gainsbourg is always so compelling to watch. There is so much going on between her eyes; she seems an eternal teenager fixated on an idea. She is one of those French actresses who will never grow old. Here she plays an astrophysicist and makes
the role more interesting that it deserves to be. Marion Cotillard seems to sleep walk through her films (with a couple of exceptions). She is more alive in this film than usual, but their love-triangle with Amalric is a no-contest; why would anyone not
choose Gainsbourg? I'm really not sure why Cotillard is held is such high regard; there are so many French actresses who are more interesting. Similarly, Arnaud Desplechin is inexplicably anointed a top-shelf French auteur (alongside the equally
undeserving Olivier Assayas). He has such a limited set of ideas/obsessions, and is so indulgent about turning his own life into movies he was famously sued by his ex-companion. Here Cotillard is yet another of his neurotic, somewhat air-headed sirens,
there are elements of spy-craft and movie (or theater) within a film, and he reuses iris shots borrowed from Truffaut -- haven't we seen all that before? The unheralded Jerome Bonnell, who grew up in the Calais area like Desplechin, creates so many more
memorable characters because he doesn't do as much navel gazing. Maybe it is time the art-house critics stop bend over backward to heap praise on Desplechin's incomprehensible films.

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