josymontmartre-1 Reviews

After Lucia (2012)

I think we've found the Mexican Haneke (spoilers)

[6/10 · 12 October 2012]

"Después de Lucia" is interesting although it's a bit of a show-off from the director who already did the very disturbing "Daniel y Ana". I'm not sure about what his point of view on the story really is, for it is blurred by the abundance of topics : how to survive a loss, how much you are able to accept to suffer so as to find redemption from your guilt, how fast you can get to self-justice, and on top of that, the very modern and recurrent theme of school bullying, central to the film.

Franco's way of filming is so self-consciously reminiscent of Michael Haneke, in this quiet but terrible series of semi-violent events (obviously more psychological than physical), that it is almost annoying at times. The final scene is just a reproduction of Funny Games' final scene... and I'm wondering if, as a spectator, I have to see it just as an homage to Haneke or as sequence of the film in itself. I mean... was it necessary to complete the film, powerful enough and explanatory in itself, that way ? Not sure, even if it brings some sort of balance to the absurdity of the rest.

Anyway Michel Franco is someone to watch, "Después de Lucia" is a very strong piece... but I think it's time he finds his own path, away from his apparently beloved master and model.

Je vais te manquer (2009)

The worst of so-called "French Quality". Lelouch should sue.

[1/10 · 11 June 2009]

I didn't expect much of this movie, whose premises are in itself the biggest cliché of "French auteur quality cinema" from these last few years : a roundabout of characters whose destinies intertwine on one given day, the day their fate will probably change forever (tadaaaa !). Most of the film taking place in an airport, of course, because in case you didn't know, airports are the place where people always reveal to themselves. And so here we go : life, love, death and all this sort of very important matters are being dealt with, in this ridiculous, tedious and over caricatural pattern of a "chick flick".

Everybody's been called, everybody's there. That is every living cliché & every possible approximation of a character : - the obnoxious and angry writer whose only daily duty is to check if his books are being sold in airports and railway stations (but he hides a heart of gold, of course) - the very old couple once separated by life, who meet again after 40 years thanks to the Internet (but they don't know how they look like now... seems they don't really know how to use the Internet after all) - the racist cop who hunts political refugees (only because he can't face the fact that his fiancée has left him, sob sob) - the cute teacher who quits everything to rebuild a new life in Canada (land of promises for the French) and finds Prince Charming right at the airport after making an announcement on the airport loudspeakers (now that is VERY realistic) - the beautiful but dying (but beautiful still) woman who has given up on life (last sequence with her is an absolute must see)...

Let's not forget one gay son and one lesbian daughter (quotas are what they are), one cute little girl, one sad and hungry refugee who discovers the Arc de Triomphe in awe...

Not one single scene, not one single sequence looks genuine, authentic, or just even merely realistic. Everything is fake. Fake feelings, fake situations, fake acting. But true uninspired, bourgeois, chick flick film-making.

Claude Lelouch, come back, they've all gone mad !

De l'autre côté du lit (2008)

Deserves the right to be called a "bouse"

[2/10 · 8 January 2009]

... or "turkey" in English. For those who still haven't understood, this film is a total waste (of money, talent & time). The director flunked the funny, witty, edgy tone of the novel, a book which illustrated the surrealistic 'pitch' (a man and wife switch life to see how it's like to be 'on the other side') with just enough irony to be somewhat "realistic" (which wasn't the point). The "TV prime-time movies" standards being what they are, all the acid juice has turned into lukewarm syrup, breeding a romantic comedy which is repellent from A to Z. The mess even gradually becomes a catalogue of stereotyped characters, dismissing along the way 30 years of feminism (of course, women CRRRRAVE to buy jewelry while slouching on the pool side, or they would KILLLLL to buy the services of a male model who would do handiwork at their homes). The story basically consists in sending men & women back to back, stating that the war of sexes is useless since "both have good and bad sides". Hoho, what a breakthrough in humor, intelligence and cinema in general ! All this with overacting (and under-directed) actors, thrown under the laziest camera in the world. Times are hard for comedy fans...