I have my favorite movie of the year now, and I expect that The Artist will be at the top of a lot of other reviewers’ lists, too. I’ve been told I gush about it. And I do not gush often. Considering that it is in black & white and is a silent film, you might wonder why.

I will admit to being a lover of older movies, particularly those from the 30s. And so, obviously, is the writer/director of The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius. In the same way Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris is a love letter to Paris, The Artist is an adoring ode to classic Hollywood. It is brimming with visual references to the great movies and movie stars from the early days of cinema, and the gloriously shot black & white imagery harkens back to an era when movie sets were works of art. Being a silent film, the soundtrack is in itself a character and I cannot imagine a better choice of period music along with several bits of whimsy. There is even a little dog with a big personality that would make Asta green with envy.

But what makes this movie really shine is the performance of the artist himself, Jean Dujardin, playing the central character George Valentin. You cannot help but absolutely love this man. What a face! Valentin is a huge silent film star as the movie begins. But it is 1927 and the talkie has come to town, and he is trying desperately to remain on top, while refusing to bow to the new technology.

Enter Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a pretty young starlet on the rise, and you have the makings of a wonderful, sweet, sad, funny, surprising, and unbelievably affecting story. Yes, even without (or maybe because of the lack of) dialogue, you are captivated from beginning to end.

I remember in film school they taught us that the essence of filmmaking is telling a story in pictures. And boy, has Michel Hazanavicius done it here! It is really hard to describe, but you must go and see for yourself. Dujardin won the Best Actor prize at Cannes, and the film got a 20-minute standing ovation. I am not surprised in the least. I saw it at a festival and it is opening in limited release later this month. It is a French film, shot in Hollywood, so I have no idea if it will be eligible for The Oscar or has to make do winning the Best Foreign language category, but The Artist will undoubtedly be one of the films everyone is talking about. Genius!

Also starring John Goodman, James Cromwell, Malcolm McDowell, Penelope Ann Miller and a slew of other great modern Hollywood stars.

Pity the forgotten ones living in the shadows of the famous, the siblings who are mere footnotes in history. Who knew Mozart had a sister?  Her name was Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart, and she was five years older than Wolfie. When he was a baby she was the prodigy, but he soon stole the limelight.  Nannerl, as she was affectionately known, was probably an accomplished composer in her own right and by all accounts an incredible performer, but she was damned by virtue of being born female. Mozart’s Sister takes this kernel of a true story and builds a period drama around it.

In the fictionalized version, the Mozart family is on the road, wowing all the crowned heads in Europe. Wolfgang is the star, but Nannerl is an important part of the act. A broken axle forces them to stop at a convent, where almost 15-year-old Nannerl meets several French princesses, one of whom becomes her BFF.  And when the Mozarts arrive in Paris, Nan agrees to deliver a love letter to the princess’s beau. But as an unknown woman she cannot meet up with him because the beau is hanging out with the recently widowed Dauphin (Crown Prince), and so the intrigue begins.  Nannerl dresses as a boy, delivers the letter, and strikes up a friendship with the Dauphin.

Meanwhile, she wants to be a composer like Wolfie, but Dad tells her she has no talent and anyway, she’s a girl and girls don’t do that. He won’t even let her continue to play the violin because it is not ladylike and she is fast approaching marriageable age. But BFF Dauphin thinks she has talent and asks her/him to write him something, giving her the praise she craves, (and there is a bit of a romantic subplot with the two of them.)

Mozart’s Sister is an interesting if not terribly exciting period drama. I think Mainstream Chick would fall asleep, but much of the music is wonderful and the actors are all quite good. The girl who plays Nannerl (Marie Féret) is the director’s (René Féret) daughter. In the end though the message is sad and maddening — yet another talented artist was marginalized simply for having two X chromosomes.  You have to wonder what great things might have been written had her father and her time not worked against her. I don’t think you need to run out to see it in a theater, but when it comes to Netflix, it is definitely worth a look.

In French with Subtitles

(There have been several books about Nannerl in the past couple of years, but this is not an adaptation.)

The story begins as a pair of 30-something fraternal twins, Simon and Jeanne, visit a lawyer for the reading their mother’s will. Her last wishes include a couple of requests and surprises; she wants each of them to deliver a letter, one to their formerly presumed dead father, and one to a brother they never knew existed. Simon is not interested in his mother’s game, but daughter Jeanne immediately takes off from her job and heads to an unnamed Middle Eastern country to find her father. She does not really know anything about her mother’s early life there and the story alternates between flashbacks bringing the audience into the history of the mother Nawal Marwan and her daughter’s odyssey.

I suggest anyone who goes to see the film first do a bit of reading about the Lebanese civil war since that is what the film seems to be based around. In flashback we find that Nawal was a young woman from a Christian family who fell in love with a (Palestinian) refugee and brought shame on her family. She had his son but was forced to give him up and leave the village to go and study in the city. Once there she became passionately involved in the political upheaval. Warning: Parts of this war story are harrowing, giving the audience Nawal’s close-up view of atrocities and torture. As Jeanne learns more and more about the mother she never really knew, she comes closer and closer to uncovering the shocking secrets Nawal could never bring herself to share with her children. Eventually Simon joins Jeanne and together they find what they were sent to find.

The film is long (130 min.), but I was never bored. It is apparently based on a play that ran to 4+ hours. Incendies is a very personal anti-war howl. At its center is a woman who survives the unimaginable and even in death finds a way to teach her children about love. It is not a movie for everyone. But for people who appreciate great acting, a slowly peeled onion of a story and haunting cinematography of a desert land being torn apart by war, Incendies is worth a viewing. It is intense, but satisfying. And it will stick with you for days.

It is in theaters now, but also available on Netflix and for sale.

When we first meet Suzanne, she is taking her morning run, hair in curlers under a stylish scarf, decked out in a coordinated tracksuit. She pauses to jot a silly poem about some cute wildlife in her tiny notebook and then runs on home to her boring life as trophy wife to hubby Robert who clearly doesn’t think she has any real purpose except to take care of him. But when the workers go on strike because of the tyrannical way he runs the factory and they take him hostage, Suzanne not only negotiates his freedom, but after he comes home and has a heart attack, she takes over as boss – just until he is well enough to come back. Suzanne’s first order of business is to make peace with the workers and so she enlists the help of Maurice (Depardieu), a former union boss and now the town’s mayor, with whom she has a brief but steamy history, which neither has forgotten.

Once Suzanne has smoothed things out at the factory, she realizes that she likes the job; she has even hired her son and daughter and they have the place running better than ever. But her husband returns and wants back in, pitting her children against each other. The film deals with feminism, classism and the vagaries of modern relationships with a very light brush. Suzanne’s husband may be having a long running relationship with his secretary Nadège, but when it comes to allegiances, she stands with her sister Suzanne. And this being a comedy, Suzanne comes out on top.

This is not a laugh out loud funny movie, but just watching Denueve and Depardieu is worth the price of admission. Potiche is an updated adaptation of a 70s play and the attention to detail about the period is itself hilarious. (There is a corduroy covered telephone in one scene.) Throughout the movie there are silly musical numbers, ending with Deneuve herself singing a song with the chorus of “life is good.” It is a quirky film, but thoroughly entertaining. Deneuve has great comedic timing and the camera still loves her.

]]> http://chickflix.net/2011/05/potiche/feed/ 0 http://chickflix.net/2011/04/certified-copy/ http://chickflix.net/2011/04/certified-copy/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2011 01:44:29 +0000 Arty Chick http://chickflix.net/?p=6119 There are some movies that are nearly impossible to review because to tell the story is to give away (ruin) the experience of watching it. Certified Copy is one of those films. Directed by Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry) and starring the luminous Juliette Binoche who won the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her role in this film, it is about the most confusing 106 minutes I have spent in a long time. Not a bad confusion, but a well planned, edge of your seat waiting and wondering when it is all going to make sense confusion. The central question, which pops up about 20 minutes in, has you questioning what is true and what isn’t right up until the end. And in addition to the twisting plot, the film alternates between English, French and Italian.

Certified Copy takes place in hill towns of Tuscany mostly over the period of one day. The movie begins with Elle (Binoche) coming to a book-promoting lecture by a British author (William Shimell) on authenticity and fakery in art. Though she doesn’t stay, she leaves a note inviting him to meet her the next day at her antique shop. From there she takes him for a drive to another town where they spend the day wandering, discussing art and the nature of relationships, and sightseeing, though the way it is filmed, the viewer doesn’t really see a lot of the Tuscan town. The story is told mostly in medium shots, which makes you wonder what is just beyond the frame. This is of course part of the filmmaker’s design to make you just uncomfortable enough, to keep you slightly off kilter through the whole film.

Certified Copy is a hard film to recommend for most people, but if you like arty, intelligently written foreign films, this one will not be like anything you’ve seen and you’ll be thinking about it for days to come. If it is around where you are, take the chance. You’ll be glad you did.

Watch the trailer for a bit more of an idea about it.

At the center of the story is poor Bazil played by Dany Boon, whose father was killed by stepping on a landmine and who as an adult just happens to be in the wrong place and gets shot in the head. He awakens to find that the bullet is lodged there permanently and could kill him at any time, and on top of that he has neither a home nor a job. Wandering and panhandling, he meets a man on the streets of Paris who sees right away that Bazil is in need of “a family.” The man takes him to a junkyard heap where he introduces him to a quirky band of characters who live together in an ingenious underground home. This warm and wacky group includes a contortionist, a human calculator, a Guinness record-holder for Human Cannon Ball distance, a maker of fabulous animatronics machines and others all recycling the world’s garbage for art and profit.

When Bazil stumbles upon the people who made the landmine that killed his father and the bullet that changed his life, both arms dealers in offices just across the street from one another, he feels compelled to do something to stop them. His newfound family is all too happy to help. The ensuing schemes pit the arms dealers against one another and use all the skills these junk repurposers possess to a hilarious end.

Jeunet knows how to use visuals to move a story along like no one else. There are times it feels like the best of silent film; Dany Boon’s face is reminiscent of Harold Lloyd. But the script and wordplay are also pitch perfect. I laughed out loud more in this film than I have in a very long time. Just as in Amelie, the world Bazil and his friends inhabit is pure fantasy surrounded by a very real Paris.

I’d recommend this to anyone who needs to laugh and isn’t put off by subtitles or a cast of mainly unknown faces. It really is fabulous. And my mother liked it, too. (In its native France, Micmacs‘ full title is Micmacs à tire-larigot, which translates as “Nonstop Shenanigans.” )

All three felt excessively slow to me. Excellent performances seem wasted on scripts and pacing that will surely fail to spark – or keep – the interest of mainstream audiences. They will likely find an appreciative niche among festival-goers, arty Netflix queuesters, and curious industry insiders in aviation, poetry and fashion. But that’s about it.

Coco Before Chanel is a French film with English subtitles (so if you’re prone to close your eyes when the action gets slow, prepare to miss out on some dialogue!). It centers on the early, formative years of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel as she evolves from a young girl raised in an orphanage to a struggling bar/lounge singer and seamstress to a uniquely fashionable courtesan, hat designer, and icon-in-the-making.

Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code, Amélie) is charming as Chanel, bringing a range of wry wit, intelligence, romantic joy and despair, and a fashionable flare to the role. And her love interests in the film – Benoît Poelvoorde as French playboy Étienne Balsan and Allesandro Nivola as British businessman Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel make the most of their supportive roles (literally and figuratively speaking). But the movie just plods along at a uniformly lackluster pace. And by the time it ends, you’re ready for a nap…. in your less than fashionable pj’s.

In Coco Before Chanel, we do get a glimpse of what inspired Chanel to forego the stifling corsets of the early 20th Century in favor of trousers, jackets and the mainstay of every modern woman’s wardrobe – the little black dress. And while her liberating sense of style is certainly worthy of celebration – you’re probably better served honoring Chanel at the department store rather than the cineplex.

But just as the hotel is about to call the police and have Jean arrested, a rich older woman appears, takes him under her wing and Jean becomes a kept man. Of course, Irène returns to the hotel and once she sees that Jean is in the same boat as she is, she begins to give him tips on how to make it work to his advantage. They are two caged birds living in gilded adjacent penthouses working to keep their pampered heads above water, but inevitably they fall in love. And have to decide what matters most.

I cannot imagine this film about a gold digging woman and a gigolo being made in the US as a romantic comedy. There are no jokes about the older woman since older French women are considered sexy. There is no sense that Irène is trashy for doing what she is doing. Even Jean does not seem to have much problem falling into his role as boy toy. Audrey Tautou is wonderful as Irène and her ever-changing designer wardrobe is a visual treat. Gad Elmaleh as Jean makes a delightful suitor transforming from the sad bartender to the romantic lover that sweeps the jaded girl off her feet. This is a real chick flick. Perfect for a girls night in with a bottle or two of champagne or champagne cocktails if you can.

French Title Hors De Prix, released in 2006,

Apres Vous takes place in a lovely brasserie somewhere in Paris and just watching the food being served in the first scene made me ravenous. I could smell the butter and taste the baguettes. I am not sure that I would watch this if it were an American movie, because I can’t imagine this story being told in such a gentle fashion. We don’t do sweet little farces. Every time Hollywood remakes a French comedy, it doesn’t translate — think A Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe. I read that Wes Anderson is currently developing another Daniel Auteuil film Mon Meilleur Ami into an American remake. I have my fingers crossed; he might just have the temperament to do it. Apres Vous was released in 2003.