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juliejuliette
Reviews
Histoire de Marie et Julien (2003)
Cured of Film Festival Envy
I saw this last night at the Toronto International Film Festival. I am now cured of wanting to attend screenings at this festival. I'm more than happy to allow others to decide which movies are worthy of release and which ones need an hour edited out to be bearable! This movie combines some typically French elements (older man / younger woman romance, sex scenes that are neither sexy nor further the plot, characters without past or context behaving inexplicably) with a plot "twist" that has been overused in recent years since a certain very successful movie. It is also two and a half hours long, with "plot" worthy of maybe one and a half hours. When the final scene started there was a collective sigh from the audience - we had been hoping the previous scene was the last one, coming as it did after yet another scene that should have been the last! At the end of the movie there was applause, but I'm pretty sure we were just happy it was finally over.
The lovely Emmanuelle Beart spoke briefly before the screening, and she wore a beautiful tailored pantsuit which hung off her perfect couture-clothes-rack body perfectly. That was the highlight.
The Good Girl (2002)
hideous person (SPOILERS)
SPOLIERS - i thought Anniston's character was completely hideous by the end. because a relationship has become inconvenient for her, she 1) almost tries to kill her lover by feeding him poison berries 2) goes to his parents and tries to get him commited... perhaps he is ill, but she totally lies about the relationship to protect herself, and going to the parents portrayed in the film as uncaring, distant and hated by their son is a total betrayal of him... 3) finally she betrays him again and he shoots himself. She could have let him leave town without telling the police where he was - sure, it would have been a little uncomfortable for her at retail rodeo, but to betray him like that? life goes on for Justine however, especially since she is able to convince her husband her baby is his. one could argue she was doing him a favour... but when the whole town will be suspicious of the parentage.... i can deal with morally ambiguous characters, but justine turned out all bad and just so very selfish & base. that's what i got out of the movie. anybody else?