I did, DoH in particular. TTRL is full of very real feeling carnage and matter of fact warfare but it has the same ponderous, dream like quality. I’ll have to watch it again, probably saw it twice, may three times, and was really taken with it.
That dreamlike quality is what makes Days of Heaven so magical. It’s very rare, but it’s what makes the best movies so good. I wouldn’t use the word ponderous, which suggests plodding, elephantine; unhurried perhaps is better. Badlands has it too, despite the frequent brutality in the story. Roger Ebert didn’t think much of TTRL, but I might take a deep breath and give it a go.
Yeah I’ll cop that, I think I was optimistic it might contain the origin of ‘to ponder’ but I gather it doesn’t. The other film maker, (and I’m sure there are more than a few), that achieves something in the same neighbourhood but with as much a focus on detail as expanse is Tarkovsky. Stalker in particular is a slow, compelling trip that rewards in a similar way, similar calm with a specific kind of unease. Very different sort of filmmaker in most regards but the films do the same strange job on me at least.
The French Film Festival starts in Melbourne on March 4, through to April 8.
Older Blitzers like myself might remember a short article in The Sun in 1974/75 about a lone Japanese soldier who wandered out of the jungle after 30 years to surrender. This film tells his story and it was a remarkable tale of survival. As such it is not like any other war movie you will ever see. It is a long movie and not filled with lots of action so won’t appeal to everyone, but takes plenty of time to develop Onada and a few other characters.
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I saw The Richest Woman in the World this evening as part of the French film festival. It’s based on the story of Liliane Bettencourt, in the film called Farrere, who came under the influence of a gay photographer and artist called Banier (in the film Fantin) and gave him gifts worth almost a billion euros. (She had 38 billion, so it didn’t hurt much.) This led to a dispute with her daughter, who regarded Banier/Fantin as a complete fraud, which got to court but was eventually settled.
It’s a good film. Very wordy and two hours long. It did drag a little towards the middle, but I never lost interest and it became really gripping at the end. Isabelle Huppert plays the woman, Laurent Lafitte plays the greedy photographer and Mariana Fois plays the daughter. They’re all excellent, as are the rest of the cast. Not for those who think Fast and Furious is the zenith of film-making achievement, but I’d give it a solid 8.
Mrs 10 and I will be seeing Maigret and the Dead Lover tomorrow. I’ve also seen About Time, which is a bit of fluff but I liked it a lot.
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And we just saw Maigret et les vielliards (literally Maigret and the old people, English title Maigret and the Dead Lover). Denis Podylades (you’ll recognise him if you watch any French movies) is Maigret and he’s perfect: solid, calm, competent, loves a beer and a good meal and good wine, loves his wife, smokes his pipe. No agonising self-examination for this detective.
It’s a police procedural. A wealthy former government minister is found dead in his study by his faithful housekeeper for the last 46 years, Jacotte. She’s played by Anne Alvaro, who’s absolutely excellent. The dead man has been carrying on for decades a platonic affair with the wife of a prince who died of natural causes a couple of days before, thus clearing the way for the to marry. There are interrogations, inspections, lab reports, etc., and the crime is solved. But with a nice twist at the end. It’s all played dead straight and is all the better for it. And it’s only 80 minutes. Another 8. So far so good this year.
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And today it was Jean Valjean, described as freely adapted from the first two volumes of Les Miserables. It shows the origins of Jean Valjean, his time in prison and on the galleys, up to his encounter with the bishop and his household. The director is Éric Besnard, whom I’ve never encountered before, and the main stars are Grégory Gadebois as Valjean and Bernard Campan as the bishop. Gadebois is a fantastic actor; I’ve seen him before in a number of films and his background is as a classical actor with the Comédie Française. Another 8 for me. It’s such a powerful story and it’s done with intelligence and sensitivity. Lovely photography too.
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Today I saw What is Love, with Laure Calamy and a bunch of others. It’s a comedy. Normally I avoid French comedies because they’re usually completely unfunny, but I figured that Laure Calamy would be good enough to carry it and she was. It was also very well made, with a lot of small touches that worked very well. The audience laughed a lot, including me. And she hasn’t lost her penchant for getting her gear off at the slightest provocation, in fact without any provocation at all.
The one false note was the final scene, which was completely unnecessary and a very crass, schmaltzy, Hollywood-esque feel-good tear-jerk thing that made me cringe. Still, it didn’t spoil the film as a whole.
The basic story is about a woman, Calamy, divorced and remarried, with a couple of daughters, who’s contacted by her ex, who wants a church marriage with his new fiançée, which is impossible unless the Church annuls the first marriage. Complications ensue. As I said, it’s a comedy, but like all good comedies it has moments that are actually quite serious. It’s directed by Fabien Gorgeat with a very nice, light touch.
8 again. I haven’t struck a dud yet.
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Another one today. The Party’s Over (French title Classe Moyenne; how they choose the foreign language titles is beyond me), with inter alia Laure Calamy and Laurent Lafitte.
It was a double first for me. First dud movie or TV show that I’ve seen Laure Calamy in and first dud of this festival. It was supposed to be a comedy, but suffered from the defect of being completely unfunny. Laurent Lafitte played the objectionable leech in The Richest Woman in the World, and in this one he played an objectionable conceited rich lawyer. Laure Calamy and her husband played the caretakers at his incredibly luxurious holiday home in the south of France; Lafitte and his wife and daughter and his daughter’s boyfriend were there for the summer. It was a mess. First it started in one direction; then it started again in a different direction; then another and another and another and finally ended with something completely out of left field. A critic could make a case for it, but for someone who just wants to see an interesting and enjoyable movie, it was the waste of a couple of hours.
It held my attention, so 6. Don’t bother.
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But did Laure stay true to form and drop trou?
Sadly no.
I usually really enjoy French and Spanish family comedies, and 53 Sundays is on Netflix with a cast of big Spanish stars - Carmen Machi, Alexandra Jiménez, Javier Cámara and Javier Gutiérrez. Alexandra is JC’s patient wife. The other 3 are siblings and need to meet up to discuss how to look after their father who’s starting to struggle with living on his own. Two meetings are cancelled and only in the third do they get into it. The first two meetings, two attend of the three and they discuss the missing one’s faults. The ending is somewhat predictable but preceded by some great putdowns.
It’s a sit back, smile and enjoy, unlike many English-speaking ones that need action. Javier Cámara carries the film with Alexandra Jiménez. He’s the least successful but the wisest.
A good 7.5/10
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Signs of Life. Debut directing effort by Werner Herzog in 1968. This is a WW2 movie like nothing else you have ever seen. Three wounded German soldiers are sent to a Greek island for rehab and to look after an ammo dump in an old stone fort. One flips out completely. Shot in black and white this is a character study with little in the way of action. 7/10
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/1962363459732
For more details, see…
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I saw The Stranger (L’Etranger) today. It was on in the French Film Festival, but now it’s on general release at Palace and the Nova. It was made by François Ozon, who’s made a lot of movies and most of them have been very good. This one is up with his best. It’s based on the Camus classic novel, which to be honest I’ve never really thought much of.
The film moves quite a way from the book, adding back story, which normally I don’t like at all, but in this case the additions give a lot of context that would have been known and understood by the novel’s original French readers, but most of today’s readers would lack. It’s in black and white and there’s quite a lot of old footage. It’s very good. Too wordy for action lovers, but well worth watching if action’s not your priority.
8/10
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I had to read that novel in form 4, 1968, and loved it, while recognizing it isn’t for everyone, but is an acquired taste. I will have to keep a look out for that movie up here, but doubt l will be able to find it.
Currently on at Palace Barracks in Brisbane. Also James St in FV.
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Well, well, well. Thanks for that. I have to take my car to Bowen Hills on Thursday morning for a safety recall fitting. The car will be in there all day, so l will see if l can slip in to see this then.
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