I feel most discussions of this film would more than dabble in the realm of SPOILERS, so for those of you who have not seen this yet...I'd recommend stop reading this and other reviews, and check out the film. It's alright...not fantastic or even fantastique but in short I feel worth viewing overall.
Okay....so fellow viewers, are we alone now?
Or aren't we? This film plays with the audience, setting out a tantalizing trap with not only the adorable Audrey as bait but a saturation of color as well. Audrey, as the ironically diabolical Angelique portrays a successful art student, much to my pleasure the art this film proffers as hers does come across as interesting. That's a small success in itself. I wonder if it was just the art department, or if they hired an artist to come up with the few items we see.
Along those lines I loved the scene wherein she defaces the "nude" portrait. Actually someone else on this list wrote that the model posing for that was nude, but as I saw the film, he clearly had shorts on. I found myself briefly wondering if for the sake of the all-American fear of male nudity, an alternate shot was inserted for stateside DVD's. We've the right to bear arms, but not to bare penises?
Anyways the scene is meant to underscore the absolute devotion Angelique has for Loic, she only has eyes for him. Regrettably we learn those eyes are turned completely inward. If language is a virus from outerspace, then love as represented here is a mental disease from the galaxy as well. The film is strictly split in two, Venus going first and then Mars following its floral path.
I've recently read Ian McEwan's "Atonement" and that like "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" was another piece of fiction that hinged a great deal upon its construction. In reflecting back upon both, the construction is what I consider most... the main female character in both ends up being to a degree untrustworthy and well, unlikeable. Instead of her personality, perspicuity or perfume that lingers, it is the sense of manipulation involved. In this film, both the manipulation by the sweet stalker on the target of her love...and the manipulation of the director on us the, somewhat unwitting, audience.
It is interesting to me that so many people complained about "The Swimming Pool" and none here gripe about "A la folie..." To me, the former is a far better film and its ambiguities give the film more resonance. Oh well, vive le difference...
As always with foreign films, I worry that living in the subtitles I may miss some witty dialog. More so with this film...still the translation did include some pointed phrases and echoes. Yet I cannot even find a literal translation of the French title... it cannot be as tidy as the English titling.
Oh, okay here it is
http://www.splicedonline.com/03features/lcolombani.html
Interesting, it actually comes from the same ritual, but I think the English is even more succinct for this film.
Even before the title, the film rating mentioned something about "obsessive behavior." It sorta cracked me up, I'd never seen that before. I actually thought it was a joke included by the filmmakers, but mpaa.org shows it as part of the official warning. Too bad in real life, the people we meet do not come with such guidance tattooed on their foreheads.
I see some reviews refer to this as a "horror" film, I think it is much more in the "suspense" category, although that isn't quite right as the film is built upon a dream then takes an abrupt u-turn into a nightmare. The scariest thing about "A la Folie...Pas du Tout" is that the director was only 26 and able to craft something so glossy. With IMDb showing nothing in her current queue, I hope she has not frightened off all of the producers.
6/10
Okay....so fellow viewers, are we alone now?
Or aren't we? This film plays with the audience, setting out a tantalizing trap with not only the adorable Audrey as bait but a saturation of color as well. Audrey, as the ironically diabolical Angelique portrays a successful art student, much to my pleasure the art this film proffers as hers does come across as interesting. That's a small success in itself. I wonder if it was just the art department, or if they hired an artist to come up with the few items we see.
Along those lines I loved the scene wherein she defaces the "nude" portrait. Actually someone else on this list wrote that the model posing for that was nude, but as I saw the film, he clearly had shorts on. I found myself briefly wondering if for the sake of the all-American fear of male nudity, an alternate shot was inserted for stateside DVD's. We've the right to bear arms, but not to bare penises?
Anyways the scene is meant to underscore the absolute devotion Angelique has for Loic, she only has eyes for him. Regrettably we learn those eyes are turned completely inward. If language is a virus from outerspace, then love as represented here is a mental disease from the galaxy as well. The film is strictly split in two, Venus going first and then Mars following its floral path.
I've recently read Ian McEwan's "Atonement" and that like "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" was another piece of fiction that hinged a great deal upon its construction. In reflecting back upon both, the construction is what I consider most... the main female character in both ends up being to a degree untrustworthy and well, unlikeable. Instead of her personality, perspicuity or perfume that lingers, it is the sense of manipulation involved. In this film, both the manipulation by the sweet stalker on the target of her love...and the manipulation of the director on us the, somewhat unwitting, audience.
It is interesting to me that so many people complained about "The Swimming Pool" and none here gripe about "A la folie..." To me, the former is a far better film and its ambiguities give the film more resonance. Oh well, vive le difference...
As always with foreign films, I worry that living in the subtitles I may miss some witty dialog. More so with this film...still the translation did include some pointed phrases and echoes. Yet I cannot even find a literal translation of the French title... it cannot be as tidy as the English titling.
Oh, okay here it is
http://www.splicedonline.com/03features/lcolombani.html
Interesting, it actually comes from the same ritual, but I think the English is even more succinct for this film.
Even before the title, the film rating mentioned something about "obsessive behavior." It sorta cracked me up, I'd never seen that before. I actually thought it was a joke included by the filmmakers, but mpaa.org shows it as part of the official warning. Too bad in real life, the people we meet do not come with such guidance tattooed on their foreheads.
I see some reviews refer to this as a "horror" film, I think it is much more in the "suspense" category, although that isn't quite right as the film is built upon a dream then takes an abrupt u-turn into a nightmare. The scariest thing about "A la Folie...Pas du Tout" is that the director was only 26 and able to craft something so glossy. With IMDb showing nothing in her current queue, I hope she has not frightened off all of the producers.
6/10