L' Emploi du temps/ Time Out: Laurent Cantet ****
I had seen Vers le sud before by him and it was so well done primarily because of Charlotte Rampling who is brilliant but the story itself was complex and nuanced and treated the subject very well so I watched this and the strength of this one are the actors I suppose. I remember Leslie suggesting movies one day for us to watch. These were times when I was quite ignorant :/ and I completely missed the name of the director. He said, the story is something like what S would write. And I was both proud - without even knowing why- and flustered. Then I forgot to ask the name and I thought fine, I will ask tomorrow but the next day it seemed too odd. Anyway finally I was looking for something else when this popped up. And Leslie is probably right. It definitely is one of those delusional stories. Without giving anything away, I shall say that its the story of a man who loses his job but instead of looking for another one, convinces everyone around and eventually himself that he is employed. The actors are so well- cast! Esp the man's friends. There are certain types of people you meet, you know? Immediately warm and welcoming with a very open face? There is one guy who plays that role and oh so so well! I was also struck by how close the family is in the movie. The parents are so involved in everything including finances and they help out quite generously when asked. They are always coming over without even calling ahead. I know nothing about the french family system but I suppose it seemed more closer to home than I had expected. At least in this movie.
Story of a Love Affair: Michelangelo Antonioni ****
Very much a film noir made in 50's, grey and solemn both the movie settings and the story. A very rich business man decides to have his wife followed.
Paola is most definitely a social climber and the actor who played her was kind of the right pick but a bad actor! She clearly fit the role, very sociopathic, very much the enabler. Her lover, like in these case as it is usually, is one of those dull fellows. There is no chemistry between anyone, no love really, nothing at all. But people are all trying quite desperately for something nameless which I thoroughly enjoyed about the movie.
The Diary of a Chambermaid: Jean Renoir *** 1946
Actually I was looking for the other one without "The" in it but it wasn't available and this was and quite worth the watch. Celestine arrives as a chambermaid into a rural place at the Lanlaires. And she has vowed to herself to marry the "next man" to move up in life.
Her subsequent journey so to speak is comedy-fied and quite theatrical. She has dialogue on the lines of " No more love for Celestine! Oh I must write that down." And write it down she does in a big diary in slanting beautiful lettering. I found it on the whole amusing. All this happens of course in the backdrop of political shifts. The town itself is celebrating The Republic, the house is mourning, the maids and other help want to be allowed to go take part in the celebrations. The ruling class as to be expected is shown as cruel and contemptuous with a matriarch running everything and the men are depicted as either weak ( the son) or caricatures ( the father) which on the whole worked for the film but I wonder how true it was that society at that time.
Detropia : **** Heidi Ewing
As the title suggests it is a documentary about Detroit with word play of either utopia/ dystopia. The film opens with shots of a eerie ghostlike town where a house is being torn down. Foreclosures.
I actually liked this a lot. It has no narrative, no structure, it simply shows lives in Detroit from different angles. One from the leader of the trade union, a video blogger, an artist who moved there for the cheap living, a pub owner.
The movie follows as the leader takes us through the now shut plants and other facilities that have moved operations elsewhere, Mexico being one of them. The fact that the film doesn't make a point has kind of been criticized but what can possibly be said? The movie has a scene where the workers are being told the different wage cuts that they have to take. From 14.35 to 11 $ an hour. They react. They say they will take the fight till the end. But the end is already here or even gone past them. I wondered if the movie was making a point about unrealistic expectations and then cuts to a team of young men who raid buildings for scrap and sell it, apparently in their words, to "China so that they can build more crap with it and send it back to us."
Sometimes it did feel a little one sided, entirely made to elicit sympathy for the workers, but I wouldn't necessarily call that a weakness.
I did however find the artist duo disgusting. So parasitical somehow with their "avant-garde" street performances extremely annoying and in poor taste. But that's just me. Maybe some kind of larger picture if being conveyed but I didn't get it.
Walking With Monsters (Life Before Dinosaurs) : narrated by Kenneth Branagh ****
Is a 3 part documentary series and I totally geeked out on it.
It shows all the evolutionary magic, the arthropods, the amphibians and reptiles changing and adjusting as the surface of the planet changes. I think actually this would be great for kids just beginning to learn about earth and animals and stuff.
Shoeshine: Vittorio De Sica,1946
Just like the other one from him, The Bicycle Thief, this one is also set in post war Rome, scrounging for food and other necessities. This one however follows two boys who somehow end up in juvenile jail full of other petty criminals aka young boys. I was so struck by how much I loved all those little boys because I am really a little girl person. I read up a little about it and it turns out that the movie was inspired by a magazine photo of two shoeshine boys who were then interviewed but the director decided not to use them because they were "too ugly". I found this kind of amusing! So much for realism, huh? But all that not withstanding this is so wonderful and heart breaking. The boys are so quick and full of lines that made me laugh despite their predicaments.
OTHER CRAP:
Shop Girl: Steve Martin, Clarie Danes. Meh. Why Claire?Why?
What to Expect When You are Expecting: Oh Lord. SO STUPID. And calls itself a comedy? Did you see me laughing?
Pretty In Pink: :) Always pleasant to watch. I love 80's high school movies. Oh the hair, oh the clothes!
Girl In Progress: :/ Yeah all right, Eva Mendes, hot as always.
Star Trek: Hello Hollywood.
Zero Dark Thirty: I told the husband this is going to be so bad but of course he wouldn't listen and then he slept through most of it.
I had seen Vers le sud before by him and it was so well done primarily because of Charlotte Rampling who is brilliant but the story itself was complex and nuanced and treated the subject very well so I watched this and the strength of this one are the actors I suppose. I remember Leslie suggesting movies one day for us to watch. These were times when I was quite ignorant :/ and I completely missed the name of the director. He said, the story is something like what S would write. And I was both proud - without even knowing why- and flustered. Then I forgot to ask the name and I thought fine, I will ask tomorrow but the next day it seemed too odd. Anyway finally I was looking for something else when this popped up. And Leslie is probably right. It definitely is one of those delusional stories. Without giving anything away, I shall say that its the story of a man who loses his job but instead of looking for another one, convinces everyone around and eventually himself that he is employed. The actors are so well- cast! Esp the man's friends. There are certain types of people you meet, you know? Immediately warm and welcoming with a very open face? There is one guy who plays that role and oh so so well! I was also struck by how close the family is in the movie. The parents are so involved in everything including finances and they help out quite generously when asked. They are always coming over without even calling ahead. I know nothing about the french family system but I suppose it seemed more closer to home than I had expected. At least in this movie.
Story of a Love Affair: Michelangelo Antonioni ****
Very much a film noir made in 50's, grey and solemn both the movie settings and the story. A very rich business man decides to have his wife followed.
Paola is most definitely a social climber and the actor who played her was kind of the right pick but a bad actor! She clearly fit the role, very sociopathic, very much the enabler. Her lover, like in these case as it is usually, is one of those dull fellows. There is no chemistry between anyone, no love really, nothing at all. But people are all trying quite desperately for something nameless which I thoroughly enjoyed about the movie.
The Diary of a Chambermaid: Jean Renoir *** 1946
Actually I was looking for the other one without "The" in it but it wasn't available and this was and quite worth the watch. Celestine arrives as a chambermaid into a rural place at the Lanlaires. And she has vowed to herself to marry the "next man" to move up in life.
Her subsequent journey so to speak is comedy-fied and quite theatrical. She has dialogue on the lines of " No more love for Celestine! Oh I must write that down." And write it down she does in a big diary in slanting beautiful lettering. I found it on the whole amusing. All this happens of course in the backdrop of political shifts. The town itself is celebrating The Republic, the house is mourning, the maids and other help want to be allowed to go take part in the celebrations. The ruling class as to be expected is shown as cruel and contemptuous with a matriarch running everything and the men are depicted as either weak ( the son) or caricatures ( the father) which on the whole worked for the film but I wonder how true it was that society at that time.
Detropia : **** Heidi Ewing
As the title suggests it is a documentary about Detroit with word play of either utopia/ dystopia. The film opens with shots of a eerie ghostlike town where a house is being torn down. Foreclosures.
I actually liked this a lot. It has no narrative, no structure, it simply shows lives in Detroit from different angles. One from the leader of the trade union, a video blogger, an artist who moved there for the cheap living, a pub owner.
The movie follows as the leader takes us through the now shut plants and other facilities that have moved operations elsewhere, Mexico being one of them. The fact that the film doesn't make a point has kind of been criticized but what can possibly be said? The movie has a scene where the workers are being told the different wage cuts that they have to take. From 14.35 to 11 $ an hour. They react. They say they will take the fight till the end. But the end is already here or even gone past them. I wondered if the movie was making a point about unrealistic expectations and then cuts to a team of young men who raid buildings for scrap and sell it, apparently in their words, to "China so that they can build more crap with it and send it back to us."
Sometimes it did feel a little one sided, entirely made to elicit sympathy for the workers, but I wouldn't necessarily call that a weakness.
I did however find the artist duo disgusting. So parasitical somehow with their "avant-garde" street performances extremely annoying and in poor taste. But that's just me. Maybe some kind of larger picture if being conveyed but I didn't get it.
Walking With Monsters (Life Before Dinosaurs) : narrated by Kenneth Branagh ****
Is a 3 part documentary series and I totally geeked out on it.
It shows all the evolutionary magic, the arthropods, the amphibians and reptiles changing and adjusting as the surface of the planet changes. I think actually this would be great for kids just beginning to learn about earth and animals and stuff.
Shoeshine: Vittorio De Sica,1946
Just like the other one from him, The Bicycle Thief, this one is also set in post war Rome, scrounging for food and other necessities. This one however follows two boys who somehow end up in juvenile jail full of other petty criminals aka young boys. I was so struck by how much I loved all those little boys because I am really a little girl person. I read up a little about it and it turns out that the movie was inspired by a magazine photo of two shoeshine boys who were then interviewed but the director decided not to use them because they were "too ugly". I found this kind of amusing! So much for realism, huh? But all that not withstanding this is so wonderful and heart breaking. The boys are so quick and full of lines that made me laugh despite their predicaments.
OTHER CRAP:
Shop Girl: Steve Martin, Clarie Danes. Meh. Why Claire?Why?
What to Expect When You are Expecting: Oh Lord. SO STUPID. And calls itself a comedy? Did you see me laughing?
Pretty In Pink: :) Always pleasant to watch. I love 80's high school movies. Oh the hair, oh the clothes!
Girl In Progress: :/ Yeah all right, Eva Mendes, hot as always.
Star Trek: Hello Hollywood.
Zero Dark Thirty: I told the husband this is going to be so bad but of course he wouldn't listen and then he slept through most of it.
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