This French film is actually one of the best films of the decade. Unfortunately it was hampered by budget problems and never made its money back. So it got this bad reputation. Of course, the subject matter dealing with an intense love story between two homeless people might be a subject some don't care to see. It stars Juliette Binoche (before she was much known in the U.S.) as a one-eyed homeless artist who falls in love with a disturbed street punk. They spend their days and nights on a bridge that's been closed for renovation.The film builds a lot of tension around the madness of the love affair. Binoche's character is going blind and she needs help but the street punk is so obsessed with her he won't let her be go. Stylistically it is very flamboyant and bold especially in it's editing and shot selections. And that may be why some don't like it. The love story too is hard to believe but most love stories rely on a leap of faith so that's nothing new. Like any great film it takes narrative and stylistic chances but if you're a cineaste you'll most likely enjoy it.
Reviews
3 Reviews
The Blair Witch Project
(1999)
A scary indie film that puts "horror" back into horror films.
10 May 1999
At once scary, clever and disturbing this film is designed to give audiences the creeps. With video and some 16mm footage one woman and two guys head into the forest of Maryland to find the legendary "Blair Witch." They become lost and wander for many days pursued by something they (and we) never actually see but which they encounter in many frightening ways at night while they camp. Their scary story is recorded on jittery video and film footage that is apparently the only thing found of their remains. The two directors Myrick and Sanchez used a "method" directing style to enhance the movie's effect. Sometimes the actors become annoying but in context of the directing method it works out well. The film teeters between documentary and fiction and will most likely keep people from camping in the woods for a while in the same way "Jaws" kept people from swimming in the ocean.
The Apple
(1998)
Two girls locked in home for eleven years finally get a chance to go out and play.
28 October 1998
Like many recent films from Iran this one has a simple plot line, light humor, and a humanitarian streak that is rarely seen in American films. Yet it too has a resonance due to its use of metaphor and to a rather complex theme. The film starts with concerned neighbors signing a petition for social workers to investigate a home where their blind mother and out-of-work father have locked up two girls for eleven years. Social workers "rescue" the (now slightly autistic) girls then give them back to their parents. What follows is an initiation period in which a social worker and the father have a seriocomic encounter in which he gets a kind of comeuppance and the girls go out into the neighborhood and begin to make friends despite their lack of social skills. What's most harrowing about the film is that it's based on a real life event and the principal characters play themselves. What's more it's directed by an 18 year-old Iranian woman. Highly recommended.
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