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Reviews
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
a bitter-sweet masterpiece
I do not use the word 'masterpiece' too often, in fact, I think this is my first review containing it. But worthy is the price winner: Jeunet's absolutely excellent movie 'a very long engagement' (international title).
The film is so good because it balances two story lines, one in 1920 and one in 1917. The 1917 line is set in the trenches of WW1 and is full of despair, hunger, death, and confusion. The 1920 story line, and most of the movie, is set around Mathilde, who is trying to find out what happened to her fiancé in the trenches. Even though she hasn't heard from Manech in three years, she is hopeful beyond belief and stays optimistic in her endless quest to find out what happened. On top of that, her life is full of happy, silly characters that aid her in her quest. The magic that makes the movie work lies in Mathilde (Audrey Tautou from Amelie), who is so bright and happy that she makes you endure the desolate scenes from the trenches, and her actions makes you have hope, against all odds, that she might be right.
What more can be said? The script is very clever and puts you nicely on the wrong foot, the characters are a delight, the acting is good, the camera work is fantastic yet restrained. Jeunet's characters do not evolve during this film, they just continue to be what they are. It is their interaction, and the unbelievable events that happen, that make the film progress. One point of critique is that I found it hard to follow all the details of the five soldiers, their families and what happened to whom, when. But it didn't hurt much and surely the confusion I felt as a viewer was only a shadow of the disorientation that must have reigned in the trenches, or in anyone trying to dig up the story of their loved ones in 1920.
If you have seen Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, or Amelie, you will find countless back references in this movie: It has the hope of Delicatessen, the happiness of Amelie and the blackness of the City OLT. It has all of Jeunet's little obsessions: orphans, moustaches, goggles, superstition, heavy-set men with hats, crazy characters that just enter the film as a sideline and leave it 2 minutes later (the barman with the wooden hand), and main characters that are naively happy and determined to not share the general wave of pessimism that is about.
Also, the the origins of Jeunet's visual language in Delicatessen and The City OLT were revealed to me: the men in raincoats, the gleaming light, the desolateness of no-mans-land, the old fashioned but deadly technology, an almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere of despair: it was all there in the previous two films (but not in Amelie, of course) and it finds its perfect match in the setting of this film, the first world war. Almost in between other things, Jeunet has made the most powerful and awful footage on that war that I have seen so far.
Finally, praise for the ending, which is in tune with the film and does not let the story, or the viewer, down. It is superb note of bitter-sweetness that finishes this film in style. Bravo!
Respiro (2002)
simply wonderful
This is really and simply a wonderful film. I saw it by accident, so it took me by surprise. The film is like other (very good) Italian films in that it features a simple story, wonderful characters, lots of 'couleur locale', and very good actors. And then add some very nice shots and a superb location.
If I was reading this, I would start to fear for a film that gets lost in its niceness and remains too light. But not Respiro (or Lampedusa, after the island it was filmed at). Already in the opening scenes it is made clear that there is a lot of violence and suspense in the air. Not that there is any blood to be seen in this film. There is a lot of fighting between groups of young boys and the adults defend their honor with physical violence, but things never get really mean.
Between the beauty of the island and the harshness of existence on it walks, no, floats, one woman named Grazia. The camera loves her, her sons love her, and even the other islanders love her. But she too different, too non-conforming to be tolerated in the long run.
In an interesting twist, it is not Grazia but her son Pasquale who is the story teller in this film. We see things through his eyes and it is only through him that we get to know his wonderful but mysterious mother. Like the rest of the village, Pasquale is torn between convention and love for her. With him being a 13 (or so) year old in a very traditional family, it is totally believable that we see Pasquale commanding his mother to not swim in the sea in one scene, and adoringly follow her in the next.
And this sums up the film for me: A simple but beautiful story, with an undercurrent of critique or bewilderment at the traditional family style and its low tolerance for being different; a very positive outlook and a love for life, which is shared by all and reflected in the end of the movie; and beautiful and sometimes magical atmosphere which is the most difficult thing ever to create in a movie.
Go see this movie!
PS I you like this movie, consider seeing Blier's "Un, deux, trois, soleil" which is so obscure that I wanted to mention it here.
Die Reise nach Kafiristan (2001)
very subtle but good
I quite liked this movie. From what I read before seeing it, I expected more beautiful scenery. But the Dubinis clearly wanted to show us a psychological journey more than a physical one, so the camera glides over the most picture-perfect hills, ruins etc, only to swiftly return to our actresses. And this, I think, is good: The film could have become a National Geographic style documentary and that would have left the interesting topic of what moves these two very different characters, who are doing something much out of the ordinary in the 1940s.
Rather then spell things out for you, the directors choose to hint at feelings, to leave dialogs uncompleted and to move on at the point where you would expect a conclusion to be reached. There are pros and cons to that: There is no preferred interpretation and the actresses can use expressions and body language to suggest much more than could have been put into words (and Jeanette Hain is very good at that). But the film seems to move slowly because nothing unexpected can happen this way and in the end, it all was a bit *too* subtle for me.
This said, there are plenty of very moving scenes. Especially the flirtatious side of Annemarie gets well depicted (the dance at the ambassador's house) and at the same time it stays constrained and half-hidden, as you would expect for a woman in that period of time.
The real dramatic moment of the film comes near the end, when the women have to part their ways. Even then, things are very quiet and stilted. Is this a flaw of the Dubinis' film or did they want to show an era in which you didn't discuss your most intimate feelings with others?
I really do not know the answer, I think the film could have improved from a little more ``say what you mean and say it mean''. But it still ranks as a good 8 on my scale.
The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama (1999)
Interesting
I saw this film at the Montreal Film Festival. I love Greenaway, I like Andriessen's music and the festival put me in the right mood to see something experimental. Given all that, it was quite good. But it was also s-l-o-w, sometimes pointless and only after I read the plot summary here, I begin to understand what the story was meant to be about. But hey, if you like (modern) opera, beautiful Greenaway-type scenes and such, don't miss out on this one!