The witty FrenchPopulaire cleverly dresses up a conventional romantic comedy with a Mad Men-esque 1959 setting and the flavor of absurdity. The result is a pleasing confection that triggers some chuckles, if not guffaws.
A very attractive bachelor hires a very attractive but clumsy young woman as his secretary. As in any rom com, they’re clearly meant for each other, but they must battle through his obsession that she win a speed typing championship that is – and here is the absurdity – portrayed as just a rung below the World Cup in public prominence.
Populaire takes full advantage of its 1959 setting to spoof the fashions, decor and culture of the period, including a wickedly cheesy cha cha cha performance. It’s harmless and good-hearted fun.
(The radiant Berenice Bejo (The Artist) sparkles in a small role.)
Haute Cuisine is the French foodie saga of the woman who rose to work as personal chef to France’s president, based on the true story of Daniele Mazet-Delpeuch. She is remarkably obsessed with sourcing premium ingredients, and it’s not hard for her to satisfy the President, who prefers simple country cooking. But palace intrigue takes its toll as she battles both sexism in the downstairs kitchens and a soul-killing bureaucracy upstairs.
Veteran French actress Catherine Frot successfully portrays the chef’s determination and moxy. Haute Cuisine is watchable, but not particularly compelling. The food, however, is outrageously tantalizing, and Haute Cuisine goes on my list of Best Food Porn Movies.
Niels Arestrup (A Prophet, War Horse) stars as the owner of French wine estate who places impossible expectations on his son, with lethal results. The poor son has gotten a degree in winemaking, has worked his ass off on his father’s estate for years and has even married well – but it’s just not enough for his old man. The father’s interactions with the son range from dismissive to deeply cruel.
The father’s best friend is his longtime estate manager, whose health is faltering. The son is the natural choice for a successor, but the owner openly prefers the son’s boyhood friend, the son of the manager. The first half of You Will Be My Son focuses on the estate owner’s nastiness toward his son, which smolders throughout the film. But then the relationship between the sons turns from old buddies to that of the usurper and the usurped. And, finally, things come down to the decades-long relationship between the two old men.
Deep into the movie, we learn something about the father that colors his view of his son. And then, there’s a startling development that makes for a thrilling and operatic ending.
The absorbing French drama Augustine is based on the real work of 19th century medical research pioneer Jean-Martin Charcot, known as the father of neurology. A young kitchen maid begins suffering wild seizures and is brought to Charcot’s research hospital. He ascertains the triggers for the seizures, and begins to close in on cure. Needing funding for his research, he triggers her seizures before groups of his peers; he is showing off his research, but it’s clear that his affluent male audience is titillated by the comely girl’s orgasmic thrashes.
She is drawn to this man whose kindness to her belies their class difference and whose brilliance is the key to her recovery. The good doctor intends to cure her – but not until she has performed for his potential funders. She is unexpectedly cured just before Charcot’s most important demonstration, and she gets to decide whether to continue her exploitation. In the stunning conclusion, she gets the upper hand and her simmering feelings erupt.
The fine French actor Vincent Lindon (Mademoiselle Chambon) excels at playing very contained and reserved characters, and here he nails Charcot’s clash of decency and professional ambition. The French pop singer Soko is captivating as his patient.
It’s an auspicious first feature film for writer-director Alice Winocour. She has constructed a story that about two sympathetic characters whose interests converge, then diverge and then…
In the clever French movie In the House (Dans la maison), we met a high school literature teacher who is continually disappointed by his lackluster students. Then a new student shows a special talent for creative writing. Every day after school, the teacher provides extra coaching to the young writer, who starts spinning an episodic tale about his creepy infiltration of his friend’s family. We want to know what’s gonna happen in the next installment, and the teacher becomes hooked – even obsessed. Although the teacher is supposedly the mentor, soon the student is controlling the teacher.
The wonderful French actor Fabrice Luchini plays the teacher. Luchini is a master at playing socially awkward and inappropriate situations a la Seinfeld, Larry David and, of course, Woody Allen. (In my favorite Fabrice Luchini movie Intimate Strangers, he plays a tax lawyer who can’t bring himself to tell a woman that she’s sat down in the wrong office – thinking that she’s seeing a new therapist, she’s unburdening the intimate details of her marriage.)
In the House’s cleverness is not surprising, because it is directed by Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women, Potiche). Always her best in French films, Kristin Scott Thomas is very good as the teacher’s wife.
In the House is a funny and slightly creepy exploration of the creative writing process – and altogether satisfying.
In the unsettling and suspenseful French Chaos (Désordres), a teacher moves to a rural area only to have his family stalked by one of his new students. It doesn’t take too long for us to figure out that the student Thibault is up to no good, but we can’t guess his plans or his motivation. Writer-director Etienne Faure has created a story that grips the audience as Thibault is revealed to be more and more twisted and dangerous.
In a performance reminiscent of Robert Walker’s Bruno in Strangers on a Train, Niels Schneider plays Thibault. The always reliable Isaach De Bankolé (Night on Earth, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, 24) plays the teacher who seeks his bliss but who underestimates the kid’s weirdness. Sonia Rolland (Josephine Baker in Midnight in Paris) plays the teacher’s wife; so beautiful that she can make your teeth hurt, Rolland is excellent as a woman who moves from aggrieved to reckless with breathtaking speed.
[BTW later this year Sonia Rolland joins Niels Arestrup (A Prophet, Sarah’s Key, War Horse) and Julie Gayet to star in 72-year-old director Bernard Travenier’s political dark comedy Quai d’Orsay, filmed at the real UN Security Council.]
The best movie that I’ve seen so far at Cinequest is the French thriller Lead Us Not Into Temptation. A middle-aged married man does a good deed for a beautiful young woman and finds himself the pawn in a dangerous game. Inventively constructed, we see the story from the perspective of the guy, then from the young woman’s point of view and finally through the prism of another character. Unlike in Rashomon, we don’t see different realities, but, as secrets are revealed, we finally understand the whole picture. It’s a brilliant screenplay by writer-director-producer Cheyenne Carron. In the young woman, Carron has created a character who is both predatory and damaged but who can act charming, vulnerable and sexy. The story hinges on actress Agnes Delachair’s ability to play that complex role – and she delivers a captivating performance. The trailer below is not subtitled. Lead Us Not Into Temptation plays again on March 1 and March 9.
I’ve updated my CINEQUEST 2013 page, which also includes comments on The Sapphires, In the Shadows, The Almost Man, Panahida, Aftermath and The Hunt.
If you’re lucky, you get old. When you get old, you eventually get infirm and then you die. I generally do not focus on this grim truth, but no one can argue it isn’t part of the human condition, and director Michael Haneke explores it with his film Amour.
We meet a delightful elderly couple played by French film icons Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. They live a comfortable and independent life, engaged in culture and current events, until she suffers a stroke. He steps up to become her sensible and compassionate caregiver. However, the decline of her health brings humiliating dependence is for her and frustration and weariness for him. It finally becomes unbearable for both of them (and for the audience).
Amour is heartbreaking, made so by its utter authenticity. I have been plunged by circumstance into the caregiving role at times, and I recognized every moment of fear, frustration, resentment and exhaustion that the husband experiences.
I tend to despise Haneke because he is a sadistic filmmaker. I hated his critically praised The White Ribbon because the audience has to sit through 144 minutes of child abuse for the underwhelming payoff that parents of Germany’s Nazi generation were mean to them. In Funny Games, where a gang of sadistic psychos invade a home, Haneke toys with the audience’s expectation that the victimized family will be rescued in a thriller or avenged – but they are simply slaughtered. However, he doesn’t manufacture cruelty in Amour, the cruelty is in the truth of the subject.
Haneke’s brilliant skill in framing a scene, his patience in letting a scene develop in real-time and his severe, unsparing style are well-suited to Amour’s story. He is able to explore his story of love, illness and death with complete authenticity. That, and the amazing performances by Trintignant and Riva, make the film worthwhile. That being said, it is a painful and not enjoyable viewing experience.
Amour is an undeniably excellent film. Whether you want to watch it is a different story.
The Intouchables is the second most popular movie of all time in France – and it’s easy to see why. It’s an odd couple comedy that’s a real crowd pleaser.
A very, very rich French aristocrat has become a quadriplegic due to a hang gliding accident and hires a Senegalese good-for-nothing street hood as his caregiver. The plot, really just a series of set pieces, mines familiar territory as the poor guy learns about living in a mansion (see Down and Out in Beverly Hills) and revitalizes the rich guy’s zest for living. But it’s really well done and very funny.
The rich guy is played by the great Francois Cluzet (Tell No One), who gives a tremendous performance using only his head and neck. Omar Sy plays the poor guy and actually edged out The Artist‘s Jean Dujardin for France’s top acting award last year; that’s hard to figure, but Sy is very funny in The Intouchables. Overall, it’s a very satisfying comedy.
Rust and Bone is an intelligent drama about a complicated woman and an uncomplicated man. She (Marion Cotillard) takes pride and enjoyment from her high profile job and lives with a boyfriend, but she is dissatisfied. A shocking and disabling accident turns her dissatisfaction into despair.
He (Matthias Schoenaerts of Bullhead) is amiable, carnal and matter-of-fact. He wouldn’t recognize a plan or a deep thought if it smacked him on the temple. For him, stress can lead to violent outbursts, which are especially scary because he is a downscale prizefighter.
The two people form a bond, and therein lies the drama. They engage each other in differing paces at different depths, often doing the same thing for separate reasons.
Director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) makes excellent choices throughout, especially with very effective moments of silence and near-silence, which work to emphasize dramatic events more effectively than would swelling strings.
There are also non-stock secondary characters. One is the boxer’s shady friend whose eyes never meet another’s gaze, yet dart about, never missing anything. Another is the boxer’s sister who stands for a French working class struggling with the increasingly multinational economy.
Key plot plots may sound corny in isolation, but everything in this movie works well together. It’s an intelligent, solid and worthwhile drama.
