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Reviews
Madame Claude (2021)
The end is worth the wait
I watched Madame Claude by Sylvie Verheyde on Netflix, which just premiered a couple of days ago. It's the second French biopic about "Madame Claude," née Fernande Grudet, who operated the most illustrious brothel in Paris for fifteen years in the 1960's and 1970's--the first, also titled Madame Claude, by Just Jaekin, dates from 1977 and starred Francoise Fabian. I wasn't sure I would like the new version, since a few of the reviews panned it, but I decided to start watching it to see if I liked it. I watched it all. I saw it VOSTF--speaking French with French subtitles.
The best thing about this film is that it is directed by a woman, Sylvie Verheyde. This is important, although little discussed by the mostly male critics and commentators, but I doubt that any male director could have enjoyed the intimacy with the almost entirely female cast. There is only one principal male character, the voyou--gangster--Jo Attia, played by veteran actor Roschdy Zem, who occupies a minor role. Most of the film ostensibly takes place in Madame Claude's maisons closes at 18, rue de Marignan, near the Champs-Elysées, and 32, rue de Boulainvilliers, a discrete location in the 16th.
A crucial aspect of the film is mostly ignored by the American audience or even by French people who did not live in Paris in the 1960's and 1970's, as I did. A Yugoslav, Stevan Markovic, whose name is mispronounced by some of the characters, a Corsican, François Marcantoni, President George Pompidou, his wife, Claude, and the actor Alain Delon were all involved in a bombshell scandal that erupted in 1968 and is evoked a background to the film to suggest Madame Claude's connections with la pègre, the French underworld. According to the Wikipedia, the affair began when one of Delon's bodyguards, Markovic, was found dead. Both Delon and his longtime friend Marcantoni were questioned by the police. Marcantoni was originally charged with the murder, but after further questioning by the police, he was released. Markovic's murder is still unsolved.
Most of the sexy scenes are near the beginning of the film. There are a few violent moments, but most of the film revolves around the entrepreneurial Madame Claude's business and the "Claudettes" she recruited for her wealthy and powerful clients. The end is worth the wait.
There are several good articles online, some with cheesecake photos, about Madame Claude. Several books, including her 1994 autobiography, Madam, describe her life. She died in Nice in 2015 at the age of 92, keeping many of her secrets to her grave.
French actress Karole Rocher is excellent in the title role and will probably garner a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for her starring role as Madame Claude.
The young Garance Marillier, born in 1998, is excellent as Sidonie, the daughter of a diplomat. The enigmatic Sidonie puffs or pretends to puff a Virginia Slims most of the time. (I checked: the iconic cigarettes premiered in 1968, the time of the film.) Sidonie becomes Madame Claude's favorite Claudette and her confidante.
Because of some confusion in the script, I'd rate the film a B overall. It's worth watching, but not destined to become a classic. Netflix rates it "steamy" and "cerebral." Right, it probably is both.
Madame Claude (2021)
The end is worth the wait
I watched Madame Claude by Sylvie Verheyde on Netflix, which just premiered a couple of days ago. It's the second French biopic about "Madame Claude," née Fernande Grudet, who operated the most illustrious brothel in Paris for fifteen years in the 1960's and 1970's--the first, also titled Madame Claude, by Just Jaekin, dates from 1977 and starred Francoise Fabian. I wasn't sure I would like the new version, since a few of the reviews panned it, but I decided to start watching it to see if I liked it. I watched it all. I saw it VOSTF--speaking French with French subtitles.
The best thing about this film is that it is directed by a woman, Sylvie Verheyde. This is important, although little discussed by the mostly male critics and commentators, but I doubt that any male director could have enjoyed the intimacy with the almost entirely female cast. There is only one principal male character, the voyou--gangster--Jo Attia, played by veteran actor Roschdy Zem, who occupies a minor role. Most of the film ostensibly takes place in Madame Claude's maisons closes at 18, rue de Marignan, near the Champs-Elysées, and 32, rue de Boulainvilliers, a discrete location in the 16th.
A crucial aspect of the film is mostly ignored by the American audience or even by French people who did not live in Paris in the 1960's and 1970's, as I did. A Yugoslav, Stevan Markovic, whose name is mispronounced by some of the characters, a Corsican, François Marcantoni, President George Pompidou, his wife, Claude, and the actor Alain Delon were all involved in a bombshell scandal that erupted in 1968 and is evoked a background to the film to suggest Madame Claude's connections with la pègre, the French underworld. According to the Wikipedia, the affair began when one of Delon's bodyguards, Markovic, was found dead. Both Delon and his longtime friend Marcantoni were questioned by the police. Marcantoni was originally charged with the murder, but after further questioning by the police, he was released. Markovic's murder is still unsolved.
Most of the sexy scenes are near the beginning of the film. There are a few violent moments, but most of the film revolves around the entrepreneurial Madame Claude's business and the "Claudettes" she recruited for her wealthy and powerful clients. The end is worth the wait.
There are several good articles online, some with cheesecake photos, about Madame Claude. Several books, including her 1994 autobiography, Madam, describe her life. She died in Nice in 2015 at the age of 92, keeping many of her secrets to her grave.
French actress Karole Rocher is excellent in the title role and will probably garner a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for her starring role as Madame Claude.
The young Garance Marillier, born in 1998, is excellent as Sidonie, the daughter of a diplomat. The enigmatic Sidonie puffs or pretends to puff a Virginia Slims most of the time. (I checked: the iconic cigarettes premiered in 1968, the time of the film.) Sidonie becomes Madame Claude's favorite Claudette and her confidante.
Because of some confusion in the script, I'd rate the film a B overall. It's worth watching, but not destined to become a classic. Netflix rates it "steamy" and "cerebral." Right, it probably is both.
Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959)
Plot problem: the keys to Judith Nelson's apartment
The photographer, Delmas, steals the keys to Judith Nelson's apartment from her handbag after she has attempted suicide and uses those keys to break in to her apartment with Moreau. But how is she going to get back into her apartment after she leaves the hospital?
Aside from that, you can see that this film is a Frenchman's view of New York: Melville recreates New York through French eyes. The story itself is fundamentally French, with references to World War II and the French Resistance that have nothing to do with the plot itself.
Still, Melville is an interesting cinéaste who was obsessed with America. Born Jean-Pierre Grumbach, he adopted the nom de guerre "Melville" when he served in the French Resistance because of his fondness for Herman Melville and retained it afterwards.
Pike Slip was a lower Manhattan docking space. The Pike Slip Inn existed at least in 2015. The gifted French jazz pianist and composer Martial Solal plays the piano at the Pike Slip Inn in the film.
Mank (2020)
Di-sas-ter!
I struggled to stay awake to the end of Mank directed by David Fincher on Netflix. It's an unmitigated disaster, confused and turgid from beginning to end. For example, in one part, a guy, Shelly Metcalf--who?--commits suicide, but the next scene shows the funeral of another guy, Irving Thalberg! Duh? Wha? Half the time you can't figure out which woman is Mank's wife, Sara, and which is his British amanuensis, Rita.
The only good thing you can say about it is that Gary Oldman, an actor I've never heard of, will probably get at least an Oscar nomination for best actor because he's in every scene, most of the time playing a tousle-haired drunk. As if playing a tousle-haired drunk is original! Duh? Wha?
The best acting in the film was by Amanda Seyfried, who plays William Randolph Hearst's mistress, Marion Davies. But even she gets short shrift and lost in the shuffle. Orson Wells--Tom Burke--doesn't even show up in person until 14 minutes from the end. This is not a spoiler.
Bottom line: you are led to believe by the hype and publicity that this film is going to be about how the greatest American film ever made, Citizen Kane, was made. You would be wrong. Citizen Kane is not even mentioned once and there are only fleeting references to it.
Mank is, essentially, the biopic of a drunk who died of alcoholism at the age of 55.
Di-sas-ter!