So
far, A & O film critics Nancy Snipper and Samuel Burd
have seen the following films. Here are their ratings and
comments, always out of 4, reserving 2.5 or more for a noteworthy
film, 3.5 for an exceptional film, 4 for a classic.
________________________
3.2 --
MY
PIECE OF THE PIE
(MA
PART DU GATEAU),
Cedric Klapisch
[reviewed
by Samuel Burd]
A small-town factory closes, crippling the local working
class and sending a single mother of four outside the
city limits for employment. Through a co-worker she
locates a service that trains immigrants as housemaids
and miraculously finds a job cleaning the apartment
of the ambitious, egomaniacal trader whose market antics
closed her factory in the first place. Slowly the two
acclimate to each other and, after the introduction
of the trader’s young son, form a kind of unstable surrogate
family. As films about male-female, upper-lower class,
employer-employee relationships go, “Pie” is refreshingly
free of “Pretty Woman’s” degrading, condescending attitude
towards its female character, even while it shares that
film’s infatuation with money and relative disinterest
in the lower class to which she belongs. But the spectacle
of privilege also gives the film its greatest strength,
which is the pleasure of watching two attractive people
flirt in attractive settings, and to experience the
tease of them testing the limits of their social roles.
“Pie” falters when it tries to transcend this flirtation
and explore the big meanings of class difference, banking
on absurd scenarios like a long-lost love and a kidnapping
to unmask the stubborn class ties beneath its fairytale
partnership. Its portrait of upper-class guilt and confusion
grows more complex and individuated as its portrait
of lower-class frustration snowballs into a clumsy demonstration
of worker solidarity, transforming the mother into a
symbol and the banker into a tragic, complicated human
being. "Pie’s" overinvestment in the spectacle of wealth
and underinvestment in everything else humanizes the
corporate and generalizes the serf, and dangles the
patient flirtation of its two leads against the gathering,
palpable need for collective action. It's failure to
cohere these two elements has already made it in an
odd relic of pre-Occupy frustration, where love and
social protest don't yet figure in the same story.
3.6
-- NIGHT
CLERK (AVANT
L'AUBE)
, Dominique
Besnehard
[reviewed
by Samuel Burd]
A powerful sense of place pervades “The Night Clerk,”
blanketing its white landscape, encasing its characters
in frigid, protective layers. A juvenile offender working
the night shift at a secluded winter hotel observes
the aftermath and cover-up of a car wreck involving
the hotel owner’s son and a stranded motorist. Soon
the owner takes the clerk under his wing, promoting
him through the hotel ranks and adopting him as a surrogate
for his own alienated progeny. Against the advice of
his girlfriend, the clerk attaches himself to the owner
and begins to enjoy the attention denied him by his
orphan past; meanwhile, the owner keeps the clerk close,
ostensibly as insurance, against his son’s wishes. Everything
points to a set-up, but the plot’s more predictable
points are just surface through which the complex allegiances
of family members, owners and employees, and the mix
of ambitions and frustrations driving them, play out.
These frustrations and ambitions accrue on each character
like falling snow, further shielding us from them, and
they from each other, the more we ostensibly know. “Clerk”
injects this respect for the mysteries of character
and motivation into the frame of a half-hour television
mystery or a short detective fiction, letting the complexities
of the former rub against the latter’s drive toward
disclosure and tidiness. One bridge between the two
is a young, superficially bumbling female detective,
a Marple-Holmes mixture whose bemused intelligence,
a holdover from the detectives of yore, is given particular
sharpness by her youth and working-class affiliations.
She is an enigma playing a cliché, comfortably familiar
and, like everything in “The Night Clerk,” permanently
strange beneath her blanket of snow.
3.4
-- SECOND
CHANCE, Nicolas Cuche
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] A delicous comedy in the French tradition that is fetching, plot
possible and engaging. Julien is an affable marriage counselor
who uses unorthodox techniques to bring couples together.
Most of his strategy involves getting couples to insult
each other, which is very funny, especially because it brings
reconciliation in the meetings. When Julien meets Joanna,
the gal of his dreams at a party, the lonely therapist reveals
to the camera that he is a man cursed -- that every girl
friend he has had has ended up close to death or involved
in accidents whenever he's around. He takes us through a
visual history of these girls starting from the time he
was about 6, and it is hilarious. Julien and Joanna get
together, but bad things keep on happening to her. When
she gets her dream job to design a new car for Dupont, Joanna
begins to believe Julien really is cursed; things go really
wrong in a series of laugh-out-loud calamities; her future
is jinxed with the company and with Julien. But is it really?
Everything turns around for her. Julien -- now self-exiled
in a monastery where he works as a relationship arbitrator
for monks who have their tiffs -- finds out Joanna really
loves him, and all's well that ends well despite the bad
start. Each character is magnificently cast to create natural
ensemble chemistry. No one person steals the show. This
film is a refreshing break from the serious Cinemania offerings
that focus on social and political issues. Bring on more
of these comedies, please! A film will never be a flop if
it makes you laugh, and "Second Chance" did just
that without relying on superfluous French fluff. This piece
is a believable belly-laugh hit.
2.9
--
ALL OUR DESIRES
, Philippe Lioret
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] A tad too long at the end and somewhat far fetched, nonetheless,
the film is worth seeing as it presents two compelling themes.
Can the little guy fight big company creditors and can one
survive brain cancer in time to do it? Claire, suffering
from an inoperable brain tumour, quickly befriends Celine,
a mother whose two children play with hers. The woman owes
an incredible amount of money and can't pay off the loans.
As it happens, Claire, a judge, unexpectedly meets Celine
in court as she is the appointed judge to render a decision
during a hearing. Claire rules in favour of Celine but the
big companies are fighting it. Claire hires the expertise
of Stephane, also a judge, and together they plot out a
way to put into question the legality and validity of big
loan company contracts that defeat the borrower at every
turn. Furthermore, their contracts contain legalese in the
smallest of print that no one can read. Plus are these credit
companies threatening others, thereby creating a situation
in the EU based on unfair market competition. As Claire's
condition deteriorates and everyone is kept in the dark
about it, the clock is racing against time for her and for
Celine. She and Stephane find loopholes and ways to bring
it to the highest court, bypassing the Court of Appeals
that would never rule in favour of Celine. Claire has Celine
come and live with the family; she needs help, but won't
admit it. She also begins to hoist Celine into her own role
as mother to the now four kids int the house, and begins
to groom her for the role of future wife to her husband.
In the end. everyone finds out Claire is dying. The charismatic
Vincent Lindon as Phillipe adds excitement and integrity
to events as they unfold. There is a passion and wonder
in his acting. Still, "All Our Desires" left little desire
in me, other than the desire to meet Vincent Lindon in person.
3.0
-- FREE
HANDS, Brigitte Sy
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] A true happening that reveals the story behind making this film.
Barbara is making a film about inmates in prison, and while
doing so she and inmate Michel, who is in for drugs and
robbery, fall in love. The film shows us how each of the
five inmates she is filming reflect on their lives. She
incorporates their exact lines in the script. But the real
movie we see is about her relationship with Michel. Barbara
does him a favour and delivers some money to him that has
been wired to her friend. She gets caught in a web that
lands her in jail. The law believes she is in cahoots with
Michel and she is denied access to Michel and further filming
for a year. After a year they actually get married on the
prison premises. Tragically, only one year out of jail to
enjoy his marriage, he is killed in a motorcycle accident.
We never see them together after the marriage vows taken
in jail. The real director of this remarkable story wanted
to film the most authentic reality there is in an authentic
way, and that is why she chose a jail. So this low key film
is really a film within a film. I think Brigitte Sy is a
very brave woman to do this film and to risk all in order
to be with her love, Michel. The film is well made and all
the more powerful when you ponder the fact that all this
really happened to Sy. She wanted to make a film about her
experience in this Parisian prison. You never know under
what strange circumstances love hits you. This film is the
oddest yet most moving perhaps in the Cinemania repertoire.
The casting of Israeli actress Ronit Elkabets as Barbara
and pairing her with actor Carlo Brandt in the role of Michel
makes the film strong. Simple in style, and unpredictable,
the film speaks quietly. A truly rare love story that transforms
into a movie miracle without contrivance nor pretension.
Sy's story affects us.
2.3
-- UNFORGIVEABLE,
André Téchiné
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] An interesting film made fine to watch because of the enigmatic Carole
Bouquet who plays Judith. She is a real estate agent in
Venice who, as the movie progresses embarks on a very odd
love life. She settles into a relationship with Francis,
a best selling author who has hired her to find a house
to rent away from the maddening crowd. He rents a house
on the island of Saint Erasmo. She takes up his offer to
move in with him from the start, but when Francis's daughter
arrives, things disappear, including the daughter, trust
and love. Judith gets spied upon by an young man out of
prison whom Francis has hired. Things take an about face
turn when she becomes intimate with the young, violent fellow.
She is a woman who never seems to bond with anyone long
term. This is an unusual film that is intriguing for its
acting and characters as relationships form and dissolve.
We want to stay and watch where each person's journey takes
him/her. Everyone is connected in the story. After all Venice
is not a big place to get lost in, yet these characters
do. In the end, each finds their out of this watery city's
maze. Sexual ambiguity gives the film its movement and mystery.
Still, you have to like films that are propelled by characters,
not plot; otherwise, you may not last the full 111 minutes,
despite the lovely setting and beautiful face of Bouquet
that could surely launch a thousand Venetian canal boats
at the wink of an eye.
3.8
-- THE
PREY, Éric Valette
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Wow! What a fantastic film! Suspense, great chase scenes, and a hero
on the run who has been framed for killing many young women.
The intriguing element to the original track-em-down scenario
is the fact that the bad guy is the cell mate of Franck.
His name is Maurel; he committed the murders, but it is
Franck who is accused of these killings. Maurel is a soft
spoken psychopath, who through masterful manipulation gets
himself freed and cleared for any wrongdoing. Maurel was
accused of rape. Once out, he begins his diabolical plan
to frame Franck for the murders and get the money he knows
Franck has hidden in his father's grave site. Franck finds
a fabulous way to escape and track down Maurel, while he
himself is being chased by the cops. One particular savvy
female cop called called Claire (Alice Taglioni) feels something
is amiss -- that Franck is not responsible for the killings.
Without her astute observation and her courage to follow
her gut instinct, Franck would have ended up as dead meat,
just like his wife did. Maurel saw to that. The money has
disappeared from the grave site; Franck's daughter is missing,
and as for his stunning wife, she's lying dead atop the
coffin of Franck's dead dad. It's all too much to take for
Franck who makes a mighty muscular fugitive, matched by
his cunning and courage. He sure does a lot of running and
hiding. Éric Valette is a great filmmaker; he excels in creating clear taut
plot twists while the sound and lighting inject the film
with ominous layers. Moreover, the totally plausible performance
of Albert Dupontel, as Franck, just makes the viewing experience
well worth the violence we witness. After all, the prison
scenes of being beaten up do take up a good part of the
film. The beginning of the plot is so original that we are
hooked from the get-go. A Cinemania stand-out worthy of
a 4.0 rating save for the fact that some moments in plot
were rather quickly treated, and we were left wondering
how this person knew that fact and how that fact became
evident. Your mind has to work as fast as Franck's feet
do. He never stops running for his life and for that of
his daughter's.
2.1
-- THE MINISTER,
Pierre
Schoeller
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Let's hope the government of France is not run the way this movie
would have us think. Chaos, mutilation and madness masked
under the collective guise of civility characterize the
modus operandi of ministers and other politicians trying
to save their own careers and not their own country. Transport
minister Bertrand Saint-Jean does not wish to see the privatization
of trains, but that is what the higher ups want in order
to salvage part of the country's debt. The movie begins
with a fatal bus crash, and then inserts a fatal car crash
towards the end, and basically has everyone heading for
a massive transportation disaster where several heads get
lopped off. (The good guys always end up on a bad ride of
no return). The movie was difficult to keep up with, as
the cast of characters never stopped growing. To show the
'what-the heck-is-going-on feeling' of this film one need
only ask why a recently hired chauffeur whom few knew was
deserving of a near-state funeral when he is killed in a
car crash; the minister in that car survives. Here's where
the movie cemented the uneasy feeling that most of the events
in the film were highly implausible. It is too bad we lost
the chauffeur, as he was the only real guy around, and was
indeed loved for his humility and discretion -- a fine foil
to the politicoes who keep the wheels of the government
turning as they fatten their accounts. There were some good
scenes, but the lack of focus and the silliness of so many
edpisodes (a nude woman putting her body inside the mouth
of a crocodile to be eaten) basically means there is no
hope for France (or maybe for French cinema for that matter)
and that rancour and hopelessness are the food French people
are crashing out on. In the leading role, Olivier Gourmet
(note his last name-no pun intended) offered food for thought
in the film; his acting served up a big portion of the movie,
but the best I could manage after it was all over was a
big yawn. After all, we usually do that after we've eaten
junk food.
2.3
-- POLISS,
Maiwenn
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Intensity, laughter and lots of yelling centering around a fragmented
plot fraught with child abuse and pornography, plus the
star -- a taut team of investigative cops -- all this cannot
save this film from hyperactive performances that are not
only over the top, but over anyone's decibel level of tolerance.
A photographer is hired to follow the team throughout the
day as they deal with all the perverts and dangerous situations
and people thrown their way. CSI on TV does a better job
than this movie, though it features well-known actors including
the director herself (she plays the photographer). I found
the vulgar language used by the cops to be all part of the
shock value that runs throught the film. However, the biggest
shock is the suicide ending, and the sad thing is, we don't
even care. We are left wondering why a tough team member
couldn't take a few personal insults hurdled her way. She
was not the main character, but the film left us thinking
more about her than the events in the movie. Therefore,
the subject matter of the film had little audience impact.
A frenetic, noisy movie that lacked deep focus and feeling
for such an important issue.
3.8
-- A BETTER
LIFE, Cedric Kahn
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Now this is a film worth staying for. Two deep, highly charged hours
go by, leaving a fine movie memory. Yann, an immature, impulsive
fellow has a flare for cooking and forging out deals. But
one deal involves his decision to buy a lakeside cabin in
need of much repair. He hires a workman, but asks him to
cut sub-standard corners when it comes to the kitchen. Inspectors
arrive, and reach the conculsion that he has to redo it.
But there is no more money left. He has already maxed out
his various loans. His girlfriend, Nadia, leaves him to
go to Montreal, and Yann is stuck taking care of her little
boy, Slimane. This is really where the movie develops into
a story about a relationship between a firey, angry man
(Yann), and an adorable boy (Slimane). Yann sinks into depression,
is forced to sell the cabin and deal with living in a slum
apartment whose owner is as shady as the extreme lack of
light in the entire building. Yann mistreats the boy, but
as time goes by, he begins to enjoy the youngster, even
bond with him. Yann doesn't hear from the mother, and so
he must provide for the boy. He is flat broke, but finds
a way to get money to travel from France to Montreal to
track down the mother. They find her, but she is in some
sort of prison, having been set up to take drugs across
the border. The movie elegantly develops the transformation
of Yann from a frighteningly abusive man to a tender hero
intent on doing the right thing. Guillaume Canet stars as
Yann, and he plays him masterfully. He is so credible, you
forget he is an actor. You feel what he is thinking; you
hate, fear and loathe him, and then you begin to forgive
him for his terribly belligerent behaviour. Respect, admiration
and attraction sneak slowly into your mind and your emotions
willfully embrace him. An incredibly nuanced film in all
respects, far better than the movie's moniker woudl suggest.
Finally, a Cinemania hit on its hands!
2.3
-- FREE
MEN, Ismael Ferroukhi
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] What most holds the eyes and ears of the viewer in this slice of
history film is the singer/actor Alain-Michel. The Arabic
singing which happens in many scenes features his talent
in the role of Salim. His wondrous voice and stellar looks
are a plus for this otherwise low-key film. Based on historical
truth, the story creates heros out of Algerians who lived
in France and joined the resistance in a highly clandestine
way to fight off the Germans. The premise was that Algerians
would be honoured as such, and given full freedom in their
own country. The year is 1942. Even the head of the Mosque
hid Jews. It is interesting that Salim was actually a Jew
who kept his identity hidden. But some friends and foes
found out. Still he was able to survive. Younes, an unscrupulous
Algerian businessman captured for selling goods on the black
market turns spy for the German police. He really is cornered
and chooses to save his own skin. This role was artfully
played by Tahar Rahim. Still, what could have been a suspenseful
film offered only a monotonous reenactment of a page yellowing
in a history book. Surely, these brave fighters deserve
more than a quietly polite, politically-inspired film.
1.9
-- THE
SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, Robert
Guédiguian.
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Michel has lost his job at the port of Marseille, despite being a
union man trying to save his and other workers' jobs. His
wife, Marie-Claire, is also left-wing. They feel a tad guilty
about living a bourgeois life, but they are middle-aged
and have worked hard to get what they want. There is a celebration
for their 30th anniversary, and a ticket to Africa is in
the surprise gifts (arranged by her husband), along with
lots of money given to them by friends. It is presented
in a little treasure box during the party.This couple is
in love, but a rather violent robbery during a card game
with their best firends turns their world upside down. The
thief is tracked down. He was one of the workers who lost
his job. The couple finds a way to help the young brothers
of the thief now on his way to prison. The idea of giving
your money over to the siblings of one who has attacked
and robbed you, insulted you, never shown remorse, and will
rob again, is far-fetched. Left-wingers may have huge hearts,
but they have a keen sense of justice for all victims, including
themselves. The plot is implausible and the acting flat.
The only good part was when the robbery happens out of nowhere
and the manner in which Michel finds the thief. I won't
give that away, in the event there are fans out there of
Jean-Pierre Darroussin who played Michel. He certainly isn't
tops in my list of French actors.
1.1
-- THE FAIRY,
Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abeil
& Bruno Romy Bezancon
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] What is going on with the Cinemania Festival this year? The choice
of films is bordering on the ridiculous, save for a scant
few. This film is really a total incredulous adventure into
the absurd, the silly and the moronic without being funny.
It is, in other words, a total flop. Claims that this childish
comedy is akin to a Jacques Tati triumph is utterly exaggerated.
The plot plunges the protagonists into a world of unreality
and thus, humour has no basis to work from; nothing is out
of line as reality is irrelevant in this film. Attempts
to make us laugh fall flat. A hotel clerk trying to enjoy
his sandwich keeps getting interrupted by clients wanting
a room. Enter Fiona, a fairy who grants the clerk three
wishes. They fall in love and despite committing harmless
illegal acts that land one in jail and the other in a mental
hospital, they find freedom and bliss in their love which
produces a baby. The only original scene was when they were
on a motorcycle chasing their baby who was left on the trunk
of a car which is speeding along a treacherous mountain
highway. The scenery was nice. But perhaps the movie should
have had everyone crashing over the mountain into the sea
below, except for the baby. At least, it would have provided
a welcome end without forcing us to watch a movie trying
to be funny. Both a actors are incredibly homely people
whose faces are not funny to watch at all. Interestingly,
Gordon and and Abeil are a real-life couple. Guess their
home is a pile of laughs.
2.3
-- A HAPPY
EVENT (UN HEUREUX EVENEMENT),
Rémi Bezançon
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] This couple is in love. Then she gets pregnant and then she gets terribly
horny and then she loses interest in everything, and then
the baby is born and then the baby keeps them up and then
she turns her love to the baby in an uber-maternal manner,
and then he feels alone, and then they split and then they
meet at a cafe and then the camera pans out and they are
talking, but we do not hear anything, and then the movie
ends. The finely honed film is redeeming by virtue of the
superb acting of all the characters and the accurate portrayal
of becoming a mother. The movie is mainly light-hearted
with a few serious moments. Louise Bourgoin and Pio Marmia
make a fine acting duo as the couple in love as they try
to cope with the great and not so great moments of having
a baby come into their lives.
3.8
-- LE
HAVRE, Aki
Kaurismaki
[reviewed
by Samuel Burd]
In the port city of Le Havre, an elderly and hard-drinking
shoe-shiner hides a young immigrant boy in his home, searches
for members of the boy’s family and plots with the townspeople
to get him out of the country. Meanwhile he visits the
local grocer and bar, immigration bears down, a local
cop offers help and his wife falls ill, everything proceeding
with a comically inexplicable inertia that would be farcical
if the film wasn’t so matter-of-factly subdued. “Havre”
forgoes the sober realism of most “socially-conscious”
cinema and opts instead for an artificiality of setting
and gesture, investing its characters’ mundane kindnesses
with a sense of the miraculous. But if its setting is
fantastical, its heart is in the real world, where death
in the form of disease or riot-geared repression lurks
outside every door. “Havre” understands that the only
response to this reality is community, and its exaggerated
portrait of small-town French life shows how each person
is animated by a responsibility to another.
This feeling for community substitutes for the usual character
psychology and makes “Le Havre,” in the most basic sense,
a very “communist” film, open and automatic in its regard
for other people. It transposes its characters outside
immigration's obfuscating rhetoric into its own artificial
world, where their mutual caring and vulnerability are
made visible. Its clear-eyed morality sees people deposited
at each other’s feet, demanding help before being washed
away.
1.0
-- LE HAVRE,
Aki Kaurismaki
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] It held the promise of suspense, intrigue and bravery, but this film
fell flat in plot, character and pace. It was about an illegal
immigrant boy from Gabon who arrives in a clandestine manner.
He knows no one and needsd help as he is chased down by
the police. He finds a friend in an older man whose wife
is ill. She ends up in the hospital, but is miraculously
cured -- and rather suddenly at the end of the film. The
boy ends up on a boat heading for Calais to reunite with
his mother whom we never meet. It's all thanks to the man
who raised enough money for the boy to make the trip. How
many places can an immigrant hide and how slow and monotonous
can we make a movie? That would have been an appropriate
title for this flick that should have been dumped overboard
from the get-go. It failed miserably to move us, make us
feel for the boy, the man and their relationship. This is
bad news, considering stellar actors André Wilms
and Jean-Pierre Darroussin took on the leading roles. I
will never visit Le Havre again after seeing such a dismal
movie which draws its moniker from the port. Swim, swim
far away from "Le Havre!"
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