I went to see this movie thinking that it would be appropriate for adults; I had seen many friends reading the novel, they seemed to enjoy it at any age. I was damn wrong... This is definitely a movie for children. It is pretty nicely filmed, though I think you can reach much higher levels of oniric poetry without so many special effects (like Paul Grimault & Jacques Prévert's "Le roi et l'oiseau"). But it does treat the audience like a bunch of kids no older than 11. Where is all the satiric tone I was told was abundant in the book? Is it really the best way to raise children, keeping them in a naive Disney-like "gnan-gnan" world? The cast is pretty good, I liked the animated portraits on the walls in the background (This is poetry that touches both adults and kids...). But overall it is far below what I was supposed to expect. 5/10.
Reviews
11 Reviews
Mulholland Drive
(2001)
great lynch movie, not that much innovative though...
3 December 2001
This movie is definitely worth having a look at, Lynch is definitely the master director this year's Cannes film festival has awarded. The cast and the two heroins of this hollywoodian oniric thriller is fantastic; however I get somewhat a bit used to the classical Lynch's directing tricks, which are sometimes predictable I think... Mulholland has the same weird atomsphere of Lost Highway or Blue Velvet, and the case evolves in the same challenging and irrational way of Twin Peaks. Making it somewhat not that much innovative, right in the continuity of other movies from this great american director. 9/10.
The Piano Teacher
(2001)
Highly disturbing and disturbed masterpiece
29 October 2001
Be prepared for the Trip to Haneke's "La pianiste"...The psychological sickness of the main character, wonderfully played by Huppert, goes beyond any limit you could expect. The most stunning part of it is that you start feeling compassion for the character Erika. Trash-Sexuality (no nudes scenes though), perversion, masochism, incestuous relations...Haneke gives us a crude meal, heavy to digest; sometimes, the only way you can escape the extremism of some scenes is to start laughing at it. The "mise en scène" is maybe not the most appealing part of the movie, it has obvious austro-germanic, sometimes scandinavian notes : static, long scenes, but never boring. The vienna settings, the french language used, make the whole look like a european blend. The permanent germanic music Background (Schubert) is beautifully chosen. Above all, both of the Cannes awards for best actors are well deserved: one of the greatest performance of the year by one of the greatest french actress ever.
Read My Lips
(2001)
unexpected chemistry between very special characters...
23 October 2001
Audiard made here a very interesting movie. It begins with the description of an almost-deaf young woman, in its working universe as a secretary; she is ignored, frustrated, rejected... Hiring an intern as an assistant appears to be a way for her to find someone in her life : but the guy is just coming out from jail. Their both being rejected by the society reunites them progressively. Characters'description is profund, goes into details...both start to help each other; for she can read on lips, which reveals itself to be very useful for him...She will progressively evolve, far from what she was at first.
It's beautifully filmed; the whole is very convincing, even if it turns into a film noir at the end. Gesture is in particular beautifully observed in Audiard's filming. Emmanuelle Devos should be nominated at the Best Actess Cesar Awards for her magistral play. Action towards the end of the film prevents it from being a simple "etude de moeurs". It's actually surprisingly entertaining : 8/10.
It's beautifully filmed; the whole is very convincing, even if it turns into a film noir at the end. Gesture is in particular beautifully observed in Audiard's filming. Emmanuelle Devos should be nominated at the Best Actess Cesar Awards for her magistral play. Action towards the end of the film prevents it from being a simple "etude de moeurs". It's actually surprisingly entertaining : 8/10.
The Crimson Rivers
(2000)
average thriller, entertaining...but the novel is much better.
19 October 2001
Beautiful scenery in the french alps, great acting and directing, beautiful score from Bruno Coulais (his best with "Himalaya"). Jean Reno, who is getting more and more into "pop-corn" stuff these days, has been pretty OK this time.
Don't expect too much of a "french touch", Matthieu Kassowitz really filmed it according to the most academic hollywood standards...which makes it puzzling in many ways, especially for european viewers.
The problem is with the plot, which is lacking credibility for me: an elite college in the middle of nowhere, in a public-education country? Eugenism developed without overall control of authorities? Revenge spreading over more than 20 years from childhood? It may be OK on the paper with all the convincing descriptions, but this superficial 120-minutes movie doesn't go deep enough to draw your attention without any doubt...
As a matter of fact, the director Kassowitz (by the way so good in acting, like in "Amelie"...), seems to take pleasure in not detailing the script to the audiences...you have to understand by yourself. Trendy since "Usual suspects" or "Memento", this elliptical process starts to really suck...! It's not because it's obscure that it is necessary well-written!!
To finish with, the end is not convincing, botched up...
Overall, an average entertaining thriller, with hollywood-filming technics in french locations, better viewed with home video for the photography. But certainly below "Silence of the Lambs" or "Sev7en"...I give it 6/10.
According to my friends, the novel on which it's based is a Masterpiece, first-class thriller: Jean-Christophe Grangé, "les rivières pourpres". To be checked out...
Don't expect too much of a "french touch", Matthieu Kassowitz really filmed it according to the most academic hollywood standards...which makes it puzzling in many ways, especially for european viewers.
The problem is with the plot, which is lacking credibility for me: an elite college in the middle of nowhere, in a public-education country? Eugenism developed without overall control of authorities? Revenge spreading over more than 20 years from childhood? It may be OK on the paper with all the convincing descriptions, but this superficial 120-minutes movie doesn't go deep enough to draw your attention without any doubt...
As a matter of fact, the director Kassowitz (by the way so good in acting, like in "Amelie"...), seems to take pleasure in not detailing the script to the audiences...you have to understand by yourself. Trendy since "Usual suspects" or "Memento", this elliptical process starts to really suck...! It's not because it's obscure that it is necessary well-written!!
To finish with, the end is not convincing, botched up...
Overall, an average entertaining thriller, with hollywood-filming technics in french locations, better viewed with home video for the photography. But certainly below "Silence of the Lambs" or "Sev7en"...I give it 6/10.
According to my friends, the novel on which it's based is a Masterpiece, first-class thriller: Jean-Christophe Grangé, "les rivières pourpres". To be checked out...
Opening Night
(1977)
Masterpiece Drama from Cassavates...
19 October 2001
Beautiful film, pure Cassavetes style. Gena Rowland gives a stunning performance of a declining actress, dealing with success, aging, loneliness...and alcoholism. She tries to escape her own subconscious ghosts, embodied by the death spectre of a young girl. Acceptance of oneself, of human condition, though its overall difficulties, is the real purpose of the film. The parallel between the theatrical sequences and the film itself are puzzling: it's like if the stage became a way out for the Heroin. If all american movies could only be that top-quality, dealing with human relations on an adult level, not trying to infantilize and standardize feelings... One of the best dramas ever. 10/10.
Moulin Rouge!
(2001)
energy driven by easy love, if not rythm...Alas!
14 October 2001
Love, Love, Love...it seems to be the only purpose of this musical... True, the action and settings are really great; everything is in excess of everything: it is nervous, vibrating, loud (sometimes too loud). It's cacophonic in the first half hour, so that you lose almost all contact with the story, but you later get back on your feet. But when you consider the plot, it's really predictable. If a simple story is not really a problem for the first half of the film, with so many other things occupying your mind, it becomes a big one when the action is slowing down in the second part. Here you discover the one-sided face of the characters, the simplicity of the script at a whole : the total weakness of the second role characters (never seen such an insignificant Toulouse-Lautrec in a Montmartrian movie...), and the relatively small variety in settings starts to really suck towards the end. The movie is promising at the beginning, but end in a very loose way due to a total lack of rythm, if not love!!! Amelie is far more fun and captivating, if you want to deal with the "Paris-clichés" romances...without the boring. I give 4/10.
Zulawski's masterpiece
12 October 2001
Beautiful movie of three persons seeking to live, love and survive... Romy Schneider's performance is stunning as a porn actress desperately in love with a man who doesn't wish to live anymore, and resisting the seduction of a photograph. The picture is pretty "intellectual", but not boring. Soundtrack is fabulous...A great 70's melodrama. And what a pleasure to see Kinski!
Must see.
Must see.
La chambre des officiers
(2001)
Fabulous, Moving and historical, questions importance of appearance
11 October 2001
Beautiful film, after a difficult (almost unbearable) first half hour in WWI Parisian hospital. Beautiful costumes and settings, great acting...very touching at times.
Really modern with its theme around the physical appearance and the way we accept ourselves and the other's look.
A great tribute to the "gueules cassées" (broken faces) of the World War I.
I rank it among the David Lynch's "Elephant Man", or Van Dormael "the eighth day", both festival winners. No less... 9/10
Really modern with its theme around the physical appearance and the way we accept ourselves and the other's look.
A great tribute to the "gueules cassées" (broken faces) of the World War I.
I rank it among the David Lynch's "Elephant Man", or Van Dormael "the eighth day", both festival winners. No less... 9/10
Devils on the Doorstep
(2000)
Masterpiece from Asia, universal message on human nature.
11 October 2001
Warning: Spoilers
This is a really beautiful movie. The picture is marvelous, the plot is great; it's amazingly funny, I surprised myself keeping laughing very often on jokes in Chinese language!!!...Black and White is a really justified choice. The story is of the japanese occupation of China during WWII is very new to westerners. Cruelty of the then Japanese occupants is sudden and devastating. The end is a terrible movie scene, one of the most stunning ends I've ever seen.
I'm usually into us or european movies, and not at all into asian movies, but I think it's one of the greatest chinese movies I've ever seen, with hong-kong's "in the mood for love" and taiwanese "yi yi". But it's much easier to see : anyone could see it without getting bored.
It's been acclaimed in France and Cannes Film Festival. It should have deserved an international acclaim. I keep recommending it around me in Paris. Hope it's played elsewhere in other western countries; and in Japan of course... 10/10
I'm usually into us or european movies, and not at all into asian movies, but I think it's one of the greatest chinese movies I've ever seen, with hong-kong's "in the mood for love" and taiwanese "yi yi". But it's much easier to see : anyone could see it without getting bored.
It's been acclaimed in France and Cannes Film Festival. It should have deserved an international acclaim. I keep recommending it around me in Paris. Hope it's played elsewhere in other western countries; and in Japan of course... 10/10
Europa
(1991)
Black and White at its greatest
11 October 2001
This is the definite Lars von Trier Movie, my favorite, I rank it higher than "Breaking the waves" or the latest "Dancer in the Dark"... I simply love the beauty of the picture...the framing is so original; acting is wonderful, A MUST SEE.
Tell Your Friends