Jean de Florette was originally 4 hours long. Instead of cutting essential scenes, the director, Claude Berri, split off the second half and called it Manon of the Spring (a.k.a. Jean de Florette - Part 2). But he didn’t have to. Anyone who watches the first part of the story will want to go on to the second part immediately. Fans of Cinema Paradiso or Antonia’s Line will love it. I can’t say much more without giving it away, but it is a gorgeous film, full of engaging characters and a story that builds in its intensity and doesn’t let up until the very last scene. I wanted to go back to the beginning and watch it all over again as soon as it was finished. (Read the reviews I’ve linked to if you want to know the story, but don’t read too much. It’s best to go in just knowing you’re going to see a wonderful film.)
The Triplets of Bellleville is full of crazy animation, definitely on the bizarre side, surreal, sad and poignant at times, grotesque, yet elegant and perhaps profound, and highly satirical. I just took a peek at Ebert’s review and I notice he tries to describe it like I just did: “It is creepy, eccentric, eerie, flaky, freaky, funky, grotesque, inscrutable, kinky, kooky, magical, oddball, spooky, uncanny, uncouth and unearthly. Especially uncouth. What I did was, I typed the word “weird” and when that wholly failed to evoke the feelings the film stirred in me, I turned to the thesaurus and it suggested the above substitutes — and none of them do the trick, either.” Read the linked reviews to get an idea of what we’re talking about.
Movies like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly are why I love movies. It’s a motion picture that takes hold of you from the first frame and doesn’t let go until the end credits are rolling. It’s a true story of a guy who has a stroke that leaves him unable to do anything except blink one eye, and from that one blinking eye he writes a book and communicates with people. In the opening shot (and for the first half hour of the film), we see what he sees after the stroke. His waking up. His distorted vision. We hear his voice — but no one else does because he’s unable to speak his thoughts. We hear his thoughts as he reacts to seeing his reflection for the first time, as orderlies clean his body that he can’t feel, as his children come to visit him, all of it. The experience of seeing what he sees is immediate and affective. (It’s also funny because he has a better sense of humour than most of the people around him.) I’ve never seen anything like it. I sat in my seat until the theatre lights came back on. It’s an extraordinary film.
From Ebert’s review: “The modern heist movie was invented in Paris in 1954 by Jules Dassin, with ‘Rififi,’ and Jean-Pierre Melville, with ‘Bob le Flambeur.’ Dassin built his film around a 28-minute safe-cracking sequence that is the father of all later movies in which thieves carry out complicated robberies… Francois Truffaut [called 'Rififi'] the best film noir he’d ever seen.”
The Double Life of Veronique is a beautiful film about two identical but unrelated woman living completely separate lives but who may or may not have an indirect influence on each other. Krzysztof Kieslowski remains my favourite director. His films are poetic, profound and mysterious. I saw Veronique years ago on VHS. Watching it again on DVD is like watching an entirely new film.
I’ve watched most of Kieslowski’s films. I’ll eventually post about in them more detail as I re-watch them.
A Very Long Engagement tells the story of a young woman (Audrey Tautou from Amelie playing a slightly less quirky version of the same child-like character) trying to track down her boyfriend who was supposedly killed in the trenches in World War I. Just about all the shots — from the warm, picturesque rural scenes to the cold, brutally realistic battle scenes — are composed like paintings, so much so that the subtitles are distracting at times. That’s one minor criticism. The other is the storyline which does meander a bit (some tighter editing might have improved the pacing). But the performances are great and there’s magic and fantasy and something beautiful in every scene, so who cares? It’s an excellent film.
Ponette is an extraordinary film about a 4-year-old girl dealing with her mother’s death — and it’s not a downer. From the first frame to the last, you are living in a 4-year-old’s reality as dramatic and moving as any adult world. It’s a one-of-a-kind film that’s hard to forget. Highly recommended.
The Science of Sleep is the most fun I’ve had watching a movie is 2007. Written and directed by Michel Gondry, it’s a trip to just sit back and watch the stuff that pours out of this guy’s head. The same goes for the main character of the movie. At least half the movie consists of his dream life where everything is created from clay, yarn, cardboard, cellophane, dried macaroni — the kind of things kids create in art class, but fully animated and interactive. The movie shares much the same look and feel of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which Gondry co-wrote and directed), but leans more towards the comedic side due in large part to the extremely likeable, childish performance by Gael Garica Bernal. Some might think of it as a love story, but it’s more about the exploration of the inner world of a guy who has a lot of growing up to do. Sort of. (The DVD commentary is strange and funny, too.)
The look and feel of Bon Cop, Bad Cop reminded me of every CBC-TV crime drama I’ve seen in the past 15 years: too clean and brightly lit to be gritty. I wanted to like it (it’s not all bad), but it did nothing for me.
Jean de Florette was originally 4 hours long. Instead of cutting essential scenes, the director, Claude Berri, split off the second half and called it Manon of the Spring (a.k.a. Jean de Florette - Part 2). But he didn’t have to. Anyone who watches the first part of the story will want to go on to the second part immediately. Fans of Cinema Paradiso or Antonia’s Line will love it. I can’t say much more without giving it away, but it is a gorgeous film, full of engaging characters and a story that builds in its intensity and doesn’t let up until the very last scene. I wanted to go back to the beginning and watch it all over again as soon as it was finished. (Read the reviews I’ve linked to if you want to know the story, but don’t read too much. It’s best to go in just knowing you’re going to see a wonderful film.)
The look and feel of