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Reviews
Les témoins (2007)
Painful, slow, boring
There is much potential for this to be made into a great film with flashes of brilliant ideas - a young homosexual who sells himself for sex lives with his budding opera singer of a sister; yet this relationship is barely touched upon, and her character barely developed. A Muslim cop married to an atheist writer who struggles with maternity; a lonely and ageing doctor who watches his would-be lover contract HIV.
This film is a perfect example of how to write a bad screenplay -- every scene in which there is dialogue is an argument. The characters are haphazardly portrayed, and whole chunks of storytelling are left up to our imagination. Our homosexual protagonist seems to travel through wormholes between Paris and south of France, as he is poor, and we never see him drive, fly, or take the train. Seaons come and go faster than the characters and relationships develop. We are given glimpses into a female writer's life, yet the reason why she is a writer is of little to no importance to the story, and there is only a suggestion of what she writes.
The dreary, stilted arguments, where the script leaves no subtext or nuance for the actors to work with make soap operas seem high brow.
Vers le sud (2005)
A so-so picture
This latest from Cantent attempts to grapple with several issues - sexually dissatisfied, ageing women; innocence and experience, and a corrupt government; amongst other things. The film however fails to delve deeply into any of these, offering only teasing glimpses into Haitian life. The characters are only half drawn, and veteran Rampling juices as much as she can from what seems to be a shallow-sketched script. Most frustratingly, the whole film seems to be too theatrical - Ramplings clipped RP tones and calculated gestures, even the monologues seem straight out of a 70s feminist play. Rampling's character, Ellen, claims to feel most at home on the island, yet she seems most awkward and socially conscious when she's on the beach. Most disappointingly, the character of Legba is decidedly tepid, at best enigmatic. The only real consolation are the performances of Lys Ambroise, who plays a restaurant host; and the actress who plays Legba's mother. Karen Young, who plays a Brenda brimming with Valium offers a performance strong enough to sustain interest, but at times too small for the big screen. And of course, who can deny that the views of Menothy Cesar's body are anything less than delicious?