ulicknormanowen
Joined Dec 2019
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ulicknormanowen's rating
Robert Guédiguian has become the committed director of our times. Like his English peer ,Kenneth Loach,Robert Guédiguian depicts the other side of the mirror ; on the feel-good French scene ,his works are,more than ever ,pivotal ; because they are not exactly what they call 'feel-good" even though there are moments in his work which give the viewer more joy than the trendy hip flicks.his masterworks " La Ville Est Tranquille" " Les Neiges Du kilimandjaro" or the neglected "Une Histoire De Fous " are endearing tales that win you over :generous, brash, full of compassion .The wonderful Arianne Ascaride , Guédiguian's partner in life ,and the principal in most of his films had these lines in "et la fête continue" :"we should have two lives :one to take care of ourselves ,and one to take care of our fellow men ".
That's exactly what she does in "la pie voleuse" ; she is so devoted to her work that we forgive her her little thefts ; she has only one guilty pleasure: savoring oysters with lemon :and wait for Darroussin's last line! It goes straight to the heart .
That Guediguian can make numerous people live on the screen and use interwoven plots is one of his recurrent features , probably inspired by the great directors of yore ,particularly Julien Duvivier ,whose "la fete à Henriette' he almost remade as "à l'attaque ".
Although labeled "comedy", "la pie voleuse" is actually a sardonic one, often verging on drama ; his characters ,particularly the old ones ,find it hard to get by : wheelchair, fear in the night when alone ( the heroine goes as far as to go and keep company to an old lady,frightened by the thunderclaps), difficulties to make both ends meet ;even though the "love-at-first -sight " affair is the only weakness of the screenplay,it allows the director to show the young generation's selfishness, beautiful people whose consuming passion endangers their fellow men's fate .
I cannot think of another living actress whose face expresses compassion or true happiness as Miss Ascaride does. She 's a likeable sort, and her emotional relationship with the audience is extraordinary ,recalling Annie Girardot.
As for Darroussin ,he matches her every step of the way ; Guédiguian 's "Kilimandjaro" (2011) was based on Victor Hugo's poem "les pauvres gens" ; in "la pie voleuse " he has Darroussin recite the end of it ;if it does not make you cry,nothing will!
The score includes a lot of classical music,with the de rigueur Rossini 's "la gazza ladra" .And ,as usual , the director shows his love for his Marseille town.
That's exactly what she does in "la pie voleuse" ; she is so devoted to her work that we forgive her her little thefts ; she has only one guilty pleasure: savoring oysters with lemon :and wait for Darroussin's last line! It goes straight to the heart .
That Guediguian can make numerous people live on the screen and use interwoven plots is one of his recurrent features , probably inspired by the great directors of yore ,particularly Julien Duvivier ,whose "la fete à Henriette' he almost remade as "à l'attaque ".
Although labeled "comedy", "la pie voleuse" is actually a sardonic one, often verging on drama ; his characters ,particularly the old ones ,find it hard to get by : wheelchair, fear in the night when alone ( the heroine goes as far as to go and keep company to an old lady,frightened by the thunderclaps), difficulties to make both ends meet ;even though the "love-at-first -sight " affair is the only weakness of the screenplay,it allows the director to show the young generation's selfishness, beautiful people whose consuming passion endangers their fellow men's fate .
I cannot think of another living actress whose face expresses compassion or true happiness as Miss Ascaride does. She 's a likeable sort, and her emotional relationship with the audience is extraordinary ,recalling Annie Girardot.
As for Darroussin ,he matches her every step of the way ; Guédiguian 's "Kilimandjaro" (2011) was based on Victor Hugo's poem "les pauvres gens" ; in "la pie voleuse " he has Darroussin recite the end of it ;if it does not make you cry,nothing will!
The score includes a lot of classical music,with the de rigueur Rossini 's "la gazza ladra" .And ,as usual , the director shows his love for his Marseille town.
When his older brother Mokhi refuses to take him to the great buzkashi game in Kabul, in which he will participate to represent the province of Kataghan, young Rahim decides to go there on his own. Guided by the angel of death, Azrael, Rahim reaches Kabul with difficulty. Buzkashi is one of the most popular games in Afghanistan. Two teams of horsemen compete to place the corpse of a goat in a circle drawn on the ground.
First movie by Pierre Shoendoerffer, it's his most overlooked and certainly one of his best ;in 1958, although there were part-doc part-fiction films ("le voyage en ballon ", "le cerf -volant du bout du monde "),this one is the most demanding ; the entire story is told by Jean Negroni's voice over; on hears snatches of dialog in the Afghan language and that's it .
The use of wide screen and eastmancolor is grandiose ,filming breath-taking landscapes , lands with a glorious past of which time has often left ruins ; when a car appears ,it's almost anachronistic , heralding the capital ,Kabul ; here,the little boy is at once lost and fascinated by the souks and he can't resist stealing clogs.
We were warned from the very start ;in a place full of ancient history, a tragedy will happen ; the Angel of Death had told the boy: "you'll meet your brother":but it sounded ominous and ,scared , his little companion fled. But the Angel finds him again for the game ; here , the kid brother can't stand to see his hero humiliated by another rider, Ouroz, who defeated him in a local game, so he gnaws the girth of the latter's horse. The tragedy was bound to happen.
A wonderful movie, entirely filmed on location, with the strange oriental philosophy : time does not exist and man's fate is in Allah's hands .
Written by Joseph Kessel.
First movie by Pierre Shoendoerffer, it's his most overlooked and certainly one of his best ;in 1958, although there were part-doc part-fiction films ("le voyage en ballon ", "le cerf -volant du bout du monde "),this one is the most demanding ; the entire story is told by Jean Negroni's voice over; on hears snatches of dialog in the Afghan language and that's it .
The use of wide screen and eastmancolor is grandiose ,filming breath-taking landscapes , lands with a glorious past of which time has often left ruins ; when a car appears ,it's almost anachronistic , heralding the capital ,Kabul ; here,the little boy is at once lost and fascinated by the souks and he can't resist stealing clogs.
We were warned from the very start ;in a place full of ancient history, a tragedy will happen ; the Angel of Death had told the boy: "you'll meet your brother":but it sounded ominous and ,scared , his little companion fled. But the Angel finds him again for the game ; here , the kid brother can't stand to see his hero humiliated by another rider, Ouroz, who defeated him in a local game, so he gnaws the girth of the latter's horse. The tragedy was bound to happen.
A wonderful movie, entirely filmed on location, with the strange oriental philosophy : time does not exist and man's fate is in Allah's hands .
Written by Joseph Kessel.
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