1 May 2026
There are too many releases this week, so I’ll try to make these reviews as short as possible. Two excellent films to catch and two English-language ones to avoid – saving both your money and your sanity.
EN TERRAIN NEUTRE **** (vo French)
This documentary should be seen by every curious, politically-concerned resident of Switzerland, for it explores the status of this country’s neutrality. Its director, Stéphane Goël brings along his journalist friend, Mehdi Atmani, to interview various people around Switzerland on the historical and present situation of their cherished position of neutrality, and if it still exists.
The brilliance of the film is its tongue-in-cheek, actually irreverent, look at how the different Swiss – from key politicians and top businessmen to workers and farmers – see the circumstances surrounding this complicated tradition.
Goël and Atmani take us from the UN in NewYork to vast armament expos in this laidback analysis of the Swiss. In this small country with four languages, what a wonderfully united yet paradoxical people they are.
It’s serious, it’s light, it’s an intelligent delight. Not to miss, even for the non-Swiss.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 **1/2
They’re back after twenty years, and it’s like seeing old friends again.
There’s the marvelous Meryl Streep, imperious as ever as Miranda, bordering on bitchy, yet nuanced enough so that we can’t hate her. The glowing Anne Hathaway, the ever heartfelt girl who cares about what’s right. Stanley Tucci, the stalwart, discreet, debonair best friend. And Emily Blunt, still tightly wound and achingly ambitious.
Of course the settings are sumptuous – from buzzy Manhattan and the Hamptons to Lake Como and Milano. So many cameo celebrities, fashion week excitement, though much of it whizzes by too fast. And those spectacular clothes!
Pity that the new male roles feel diminished – the great Kenneth Branagh has maybe twelve lines as Streep’s new husband, and Hathaway’s recent love interest hardly registers. Is this role reversal – using the male figure as just an object?
Here’s the vicious fashion world once again, where backstabbing is like shaking hands, and high class luxury and money are everything. It’s fizzy and fun like a few glasses of champagne, with no hangover or indelible memories…
PRIMAVERA – VIVALDI ET MOI ***1/2 (vo Italian)
Lovely young girls in a religious orphanage in Venice, where they learn the art of music in the beginning of the 18th century. Singing and fine instruments are their joy and ours, for the musical harmonies are sublime, especially when the young composer Antonio Vivaldi (Michele Riondino) arrives as their music master.
This is where the girls feel at home, protected yet walled-off from the world, and where Vivaldi hones his great and budding talent.
Beautifully filmed by Damiano Michieletto in his directorial debut, and delicately performed by pure-faced damsels (especially Tecla Insolia as Cecilia), it is a graceful slice of musical history, plus a look at a quiet rebellion.
DIVINE COMEDY **1/2 (vo Farsi)
The talented Iranian director Ali Asgari is back again with another lightly comedic look at the problems of repression in his country, especially here concerning film censorship. This latest work, a tip of the hat to his idol, Italian director Nannie Moretti, depicts the difficulties of an Iranian director who wishes to screen his latest film in Iran, though it doesn’t have the stamp of approval from the Ministry of Culture.
We follow his various schemes to bring his film to the public, all the while trying to keep a low profile.
Winner of the Grand Prix at the Fribourg Film Festival, it’s a rare lighthearted view of the many frustrating subjugations the Iranian people have endured for almost fifty years, which Asgari examined more seriously in his last brilliant 2023 film, “Terrestrial Verses”, also known as “Les Chroniques de Téhéran”.
That earlier film – a still-timely testimony – will be shown at the Grütli on May 28th at 20.30, courtesy of the Cine-Club-Persan. Not to be missed.
DIE MY LOVE *
This is surely one of the most uncomfortable, useless films of the year. Supposedly about postpartum depression, or ‘the baby blues’, we have to watch Jennifer Lawrence act out the most severe, ugly version of it, with a husband (Robert Pattinson) who doesn’t quite know how to react to or handle all her crazy moods.
It looked more to me like the portrayal of a deranged, exhibitionist nymphomaniac – Lawrence certainly shows her nude body as often as she can.To make it worse, this film by the Scottish Lynne Ramsay (of that ice cold, depressing film, “We Need To Talk About Kevin”) tries to raise the sensual tension, to no avail, and jumps all over the place with its non-linear narrative. You finally don’t care and just want to get out of the oppressive atmosphere.
Both Lawrence and Pattinson are producers of the film. Make of that what you will.
THE MASTERMIND –
The title is such a misnomer…there’s nothing brilliant nor intelligent in this film. In fact, the hero is the dullest loser you’ve ever seen, as is this dismal film starring the usually compelling Josh O’Connor, directed here by the over-rated Kelly Reichardt.
Based on an actual event in 1972, our idiot hero sort of masterminds a heist of four paintings from a sleepy, local museum. Things go wrong of course, and he’s on the run. Filmed in bleak colours, it’s a hopeless non-thriller – listless, depressing – a waste of time.
Yet, Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 90% rating – go figure.
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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