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God's Not Dead 2 (2016)
God's Not Dead 3?
Is there going to be another sequel? Yes, please! The reviews are very entertaining! :D
Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) (2010)
If Gainsbourg was a river that ran deep in your world...
Captivating biopic directed by French director, novelist, comics artist Joann Sfar.
If Gainsbourg was a river that ran deep in your world, if he was part of your cultural fabric, you will fall in love with the film, grateful that he has been recreated—beautifully—, that you can spend two hours in his company again, trying to puzzle out what happened to him. I loved witnessing once again the remarkable eloquence of this man of letters, his musical and poetic genius, his cutting wit, cheekiness, poker face, understated singing style, the subversiveness that was present from the outset, his vulnerability, his antics, drunken debauchery, quiet rage, the ears, the hooter, the string of alluring and high-profile women...
Each episode blends into the next seamlessly - a rare feat in a biopic.
I loved witnessing the love with which one artist, Sfar, paid homage to another.
A feast.
The Age of Innocence (1993)
The Age of Innocence, a Riveting Failure
I watched Scorsese's The Age of Innocence again, after many years.
The quality of the actors may have escaped me before. I remember finding Day-Lewis' acting and character far too languid and exasperatingly soft-spoken for instance. Having examined the film closely this time, I have found that both Day-Lewis and Pfeiffer are in fact breathtaking. Day- Lewis' character is meek only on the outside; on his face, he lets you glimpse into the storm and the rebellion that are raging inside. Pfeiffer's Countess Olenska is vivid and charming, at times woeful. In those incredible eyes of hers - made of glass, tinged with blood sometimes - and under her smile, there is struggle, vulnerability and abnegation. When you watch this film, you cannot be knitting or snacking, you should not leave the actors out of your sight for a second or you will miss the "action". The film is like a bow that is being subtly stretched and stretched to its utter limit and never released.
The story is wonderful from a writer's point of view, awful from a human perspective.
Edith Wharton is the negative image of Jane Austen. She studies 19th century American high society with the same scrutiny and mercilessness as Austen observes the ridicules of the Regency landed gentry. But Austen is infinitely pleasing and funny, Wharton's characters are tormented, desperate, trapped, their lives wasted. Your heart breaks.
I come to the point I really wanted to make. Scorsese's film is flawed. The incredible acting, Wharton's story, the costumes, the music and the director's unquestionable skills result in a film that is utterly compelling, but a disaster... of sorts.
First of all, there is the awful narration. Yes, the words are beautifully written. Of course they are, they belong to Edith Wharton. But they are a nuisance in the context of the film, like a mosquito buzzing in your ear, or unwanted background music. Why does a director of this caliber resort to such a clumsy method to inform the audience?
Secondly, Scorsese's virtuosity gets in the way of the story. He is too present as a director. What works wonderfully well in his other films often appears superfluous or downright monstrous here. Not a single frame is shot without the director's ostentatious signature on it. Everything is filmed flamboyantly, stylishly.
The lavish camera work is trying to match point by point the sumptuous nature of the story, the magnificent costumes, the opera house, the forbidden and exacerbated feelings, the muted scandals. It becomes a character of its own, a distracting, overwhelming creature. In this story of restraint, the camera is too loud.
The BBC makes better period adaptations, they seem to have worked out that the best make-up is the one you cannot see. With works by Austen and Wharton, you do not have to muster all your directorial sorcery, the stories are so exquisitely written that, once you have got your team of writers, actors, hairdressers etc, you just have to let the plots unfold. They take care of themselves.
What a strange period drama Scorsese has given us. A riveting failure. A beautiful disaster. Like the lives of Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska.