This film was definitely an Autueristic film. It was written and directed by Oliver Assayas a French autuer who has directed several films without becoming too "hollywood" or "big budget." And it casts Kristen Stewart who the French love.
The film is rather short, checking in at an hour and 40 mintues or so. And a lot of the action takes place in the last half hour. Otherwise it is about the life of a shopper for the stars. It tells a very personal story of someone who doesn't get much press or appreciation. I found it rather boring. Kristen Stewart rides around on her moped doing errands for her employer who is some kind of celebrity. Stewart's character is a rather parasitic person. She doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities. I guess that's why the film has the subplot of Stewart's character trying to contact her brother from beyond death. The film switches from the celebrity slave plot to the making contact with her brother throughout the film. It is only in the final scene of the film that both plot lines are resolved.
The film is not without merit though. The satirical look at how celebrities function provides some interesting scenes. And when the film finally reaches it's end, I thought it resembled the best of a thriller. I even compared it to Edgar Allen Poe and some of his dark tails of humanity like Murders in the Rue Morgue. The build up to gruesome murder scene was a masterful exposition of detail. Every text message was keeping me more and more on the edge of my seat wondering who it was that was texting her? When would it be revealed? The murder scene hit me unexpectedly. But the revelation that it was the bitter ex-petite ami was a little bit too obvious.
Like Elle it was a white male with a good tailor. I find that all too often it is an over aggresive White male that takes the fall in French film. I don't know if there is any evidence that it's true that White males in France are more inclined toward murder then other groups. But in film it seems so.
This film is like Elle, but is more in your face. It shows the glamour of celebrity and the groveling character of Stewart who finds nothing better to do in life then shop for a mean celebrity. Are the fancy clothes and jewelry that she doesn't get to keep really worth it? I thought of her character as rather pathetic. Doing the bidding of an obnoxious celebrity and trying to contact her dead brother? Not the kind character I like in film. At least she's unique.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Thoughts about Land of Mine by Zandvliet
This film screened at my local Art House movie theater. The "Art Mission" has two screens and the chairs for the audience are somewhat askance to the movie screen. It's not too big of a deal. it's just that you have to turn a little in your chair to see the screen. I lead an Indie Movie Night at the theater, so I usually go there every Tuesday night. Last week's film was Land of Mine which is an extremely tense film set in Denmark immediately after WWII.
The premise is rather simple; the Nazis have laid thousands of land mines on the coast of Denmark and German POWs must remove them. By hand. With rudimentary tools. The POWs are the focus of the film. They are young boys ranging from teenager to young twenties. The Sargent in charge of the operation is the most compelling character in the film and one of the most compelling characters I have seen in film so far this year. He begins the film full of hate for the German POWs. Gradually he realizes what a bad lot they have drawn. They are not given any food. Only meager accomodations. And their chances for survival are next to none. By the end of the film only four of the boys are left alive. In film filled with redemption and forgiveness the Sargent tracks down the remaining boys and frees them to return to Germany.
Before that the tension is escalated to a breaking point. Each cut reveals the large coastline of Denmark. And each shot of the beach reminds the viewer of the horrible task the boys must accomplish. In one nerve splitting explosion after another, the POWs are killed off. In one final, unexpected explosion several of the POWs are killed.
Far from MASH or other similar programs that poke fun at war, Land of Mine is a serious film about the anguish the Danes felt towards Germans at the end of the war. I suppose the situation was similar to that of France. In France there have been several films and books about the Nazi occupation and the Vichy government. I don't know if there is any literature about the Nazi occupation of Denmark. I'm assuming that Nazis being Nazis the terms of occupation were similarly brutal. This film certainly alludes to the brutality of the Nazis.
This film is an incredible study of how to take an event and have it be expected, but unknown at the same time. There are many films that use timed devices to accelerate tension in the audience. Land of Mine does it exceedingly better than other films who do the same thing. In every scene that the POWs are removing mines from the beach, I was thinking about when one would go off. Who would be next? Would they survive at all? I was at a loss for predicting the outcome of the story. I thought that the Sargent would become sympathetic. But I didn't see the big explosion coming. And the continued hatred from the Sargent's superior reinforced the brutality of the Nazis and how the Danes wanted revenge.
The story made for an excellent film full of turns and emotion that made me feel sympathetic towards the young POWs. I really felt like the Sargent by the end of the film. I was asking myself, couldn't there be a better way of removing the mines? An excellent movie.
The premise is rather simple; the Nazis have laid thousands of land mines on the coast of Denmark and German POWs must remove them. By hand. With rudimentary tools. The POWs are the focus of the film. They are young boys ranging from teenager to young twenties. The Sargent in charge of the operation is the most compelling character in the film and one of the most compelling characters I have seen in film so far this year. He begins the film full of hate for the German POWs. Gradually he realizes what a bad lot they have drawn. They are not given any food. Only meager accomodations. And their chances for survival are next to none. By the end of the film only four of the boys are left alive. In film filled with redemption and forgiveness the Sargent tracks down the remaining boys and frees them to return to Germany.
Before that the tension is escalated to a breaking point. Each cut reveals the large coastline of Denmark. And each shot of the beach reminds the viewer of the horrible task the boys must accomplish. In one nerve splitting explosion after another, the POWs are killed off. In one final, unexpected explosion several of the POWs are killed.
Far from MASH or other similar programs that poke fun at war, Land of Mine is a serious film about the anguish the Danes felt towards Germans at the end of the war. I suppose the situation was similar to that of France. In France there have been several films and books about the Nazi occupation and the Vichy government. I don't know if there is any literature about the Nazi occupation of Denmark. I'm assuming that Nazis being Nazis the terms of occupation were similarly brutal. This film certainly alludes to the brutality of the Nazis.
This film is an incredible study of how to take an event and have it be expected, but unknown at the same time. There are many films that use timed devices to accelerate tension in the audience. Land of Mine does it exceedingly better than other films who do the same thing. In every scene that the POWs are removing mines from the beach, I was thinking about when one would go off. Who would be next? Would they survive at all? I was at a loss for predicting the outcome of the story. I thought that the Sargent would become sympathetic. But I didn't see the big explosion coming. And the continued hatred from the Sargent's superior reinforced the brutality of the Nazis and how the Danes wanted revenge.
The story made for an excellent film full of turns and emotion that made me feel sympathetic towards the young POWs. I really felt like the Sargent by the end of the film. I was asking myself, couldn't there be a better way of removing the mines? An excellent movie.
Thoughts about Frantz by Francois Ozon
I saw Frantz two weeks ago at Cinemapolis in Ithaca, NY. It only ran for a few weeks so I couldn't watch it more then once. I live in Binghamton which is about one hour from Ithaca. Not too long of a drive but long enough to prohibit multiple viewings.
The director drew me to the film. France has quite a few directors working the Art House circuit. Ozon gained prominence over the last ten years. About a month ago I watched his film Swimming Pool which was a good genre film about an older Englishwoman who goes to France to write her next novel. So I decided to check out his latest feature.
It didn't disappoint. The film might turn off people who don't like foreign films or who don't like to read subtitles. Neither of these things turned me off. Yet the continual back and forth was a little hard to follow and I imagine that some of the translation wasn't as good as it should have been Even though, it was still an intriguing film.
It starts out in Germany and ends in France. It is sometime between the First World War and the Second. The main character is a German woman who lost her fiance in WWI. She is grieve stricken and mourns her fiance by going to the cemetery every day. While there she sees a mysterious man who is at the grave site of her dead fiance. Eventually the two meet and he reveals himself as a close friend of Frantz, the dead fiance. The woman and the mystery man become friends. He befriends Frantz's family too. We find out that Frantz was a Francophile at heart. He loved Paris and spent time there before the war. Even Frantz's father comes around to forgive and accept the mystery man.
Yet all is not what it seems. It a dramatic scene the mystery man reveals he is not a great friend of Frantz's but rather the man who killed him during the war. The film here goes into several flashbacks of battle between French and Germans in the trenches. They are well directed scenes that show the calamity of war. By this time in the film Frantz's ex-fiancee has fallen in love with the mysterious Frenchman; Adrien.
Adrien has left Germany in disgrace and has gone back to France. He writes a letter to Anna. Anna sets out to find Frantz to make sure he is steady psychologically. Eventually she finds her way to him only to find out he is engaged and living with his overbearing mother. In a fateful train scene Frantz and Anna are saying their goodbyes to one another. In the next scene she is the Lourve looking at a painting.
The film is flawless technically. It was shot in Black and White. And the drama is tense. It builds and builds to the big scene where Adrien confesses that he is not who he says he is. This revelation comes at about half way through the film. From there the rest is a journey by Anna to find Adrien and consecrate love between them.
I don't know of too many films that have dealt so in depth with the conflict between the French and the Germans. There is certainly a lot of material there. Two World Wars, the Occupation, the rivalry between the two countries. And Ozon's film is a great contribution to films that have dealt with WWI and it's aftermath. The film will get more attention in France and Germany than here in the states. I'm so glad it made it to a screen where I live. I would definitely pay it another viewing.
The director drew me to the film. France has quite a few directors working the Art House circuit. Ozon gained prominence over the last ten years. About a month ago I watched his film Swimming Pool which was a good genre film about an older Englishwoman who goes to France to write her next novel. So I decided to check out his latest feature.
It didn't disappoint. The film might turn off people who don't like foreign films or who don't like to read subtitles. Neither of these things turned me off. Yet the continual back and forth was a little hard to follow and I imagine that some of the translation wasn't as good as it should have been Even though, it was still an intriguing film.
It starts out in Germany and ends in France. It is sometime between the First World War and the Second. The main character is a German woman who lost her fiance in WWI. She is grieve stricken and mourns her fiance by going to the cemetery every day. While there she sees a mysterious man who is at the grave site of her dead fiance. Eventually the two meet and he reveals himself as a close friend of Frantz, the dead fiance. The woman and the mystery man become friends. He befriends Frantz's family too. We find out that Frantz was a Francophile at heart. He loved Paris and spent time there before the war. Even Frantz's father comes around to forgive and accept the mystery man.
Yet all is not what it seems. It a dramatic scene the mystery man reveals he is not a great friend of Frantz's but rather the man who killed him during the war. The film here goes into several flashbacks of battle between French and Germans in the trenches. They are well directed scenes that show the calamity of war. By this time in the film Frantz's ex-fiancee has fallen in love with the mysterious Frenchman; Adrien.
Adrien has left Germany in disgrace and has gone back to France. He writes a letter to Anna. Anna sets out to find Frantz to make sure he is steady psychologically. Eventually she finds her way to him only to find out he is engaged and living with his overbearing mother. In a fateful train scene Frantz and Anna are saying their goodbyes to one another. In the next scene she is the Lourve looking at a painting.
The film is flawless technically. It was shot in Black and White. And the drama is tense. It builds and builds to the big scene where Adrien confesses that he is not who he says he is. This revelation comes at about half way through the film. From there the rest is a journey by Anna to find Adrien and consecrate love between them.
I don't know of too many films that have dealt so in depth with the conflict between the French and the Germans. There is certainly a lot of material there. Two World Wars, the Occupation, the rivalry between the two countries. And Ozon's film is a great contribution to films that have dealt with WWI and it's aftermath. The film will get more attention in France and Germany than here in the states. I'm so glad it made it to a screen where I live. I would definitely pay it another viewing.
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