Les mans buides

One wonders how director Marc Recha's films make it to Cannes. Evidently someone thinks he must be the Enfant Terrible of Catalonian films, or something like that, at the expense of real talented directors that don't get the chance to go and make the scene in Cannes in May.

At any rate, this film makes no sense. It's as slow as the other film I saw by this "genius" before. This came as part of the yearly festival of Spanish Films at the Walter Reade. We are led to believe the cream of the crop is being shown, but after seeing this "masterpiece" about boredom and strange lives in a small town, we shall be more careful in selecting anything directed by this man in the near future.

The life in a Catalan (Southern France) village near the border may be quite boring. A young man who is escaping from his homeland is seeking for something and may find it in this weird place. You see the relationship between the people in the village, their dreams, their past and their perspectives in life. The foreigner is hosted there and is messed in the deep whereabouts of these people and tries somehow to fit in. This is such a great film. Nothing unexpected if you have seen the other movies from Marc Recha. He is one of a very few directors with personality nowadays. Great performance and originality. Been said it is boring, ain't real life boring?

In all fairness, honesty and 'reson datre', I must point out that i don't speak French at all (i don't even know what "reson datre" means) and maybe some of the "jokes" in the film (which nobody outside the screen seem to find amusing) were mistranslated to English.

Nevertheless, lack of plot and terrible pacing got nothing to do with translation and this film is probably the best example of "how not to make a movie" in every possible aspect.

The "plot" of the movie revolves around Yann, a mechanic who leads some twisted friendship with a disgruntled old woman called Madame Catherine. This friendship consists entirely of getting drunk and acting like idiots.

The friendship comes to an abrupt end when Catherine dies (of boredom, probably) halfway through the film and Yann hides that fact from neighbors of the village they live in for some reason (building suspense, maybe).

Basically, I try not to be too aggressive in my reviews (even for lousy flicks) not due to my kind and loving nature but because when I hate certain films I still try to make the distinction between bad films and good films I didn't like because they didn't appeal to me, personally (for example, I can't stand "Moulin rouge" but I acknowledge its pacing and setting traits).

Les maines vides doesn't belong to the latter kind because the plot which can't hold a 15 minute flick,is stretched across 130 tormenting minutes.

Thin plot isn't this movie's only flaw, it seems that the scenes were arranged in a completely random order since the transitions between them are awkward at best, the dialogue rarely exists and most of the time the characters don't converse at all but rather sit in a dilapidated house in rural france waiting for the plot to twist.

In the name of balance and fair criticism, i will note that the music is great (i might actually acquire the soundtrack if i'll ever come across it), also the acting is usually very credible and reserved so the movie is not all bad.

It's bad enough to avoid at all costs, though.

1 out of 10 in my FilmOmeter.