Change Your Image
The_Pc
Reviews
Yesterday's Children (2000)
Nice
I particularly liked the scenes in Ireland the 30s and present day. The child actors were great and Jane Seymour did a nice job in portraying Mary in the 30s... I had a hard time however to grasp what she tried to portray as Jenny. Maybe she wanted to bring out the typical US overrated sentimentality of her US personage - overblown and with little depth (and far from 41). If that is the case it was spot on, just as the husband and son almost caricatural portrayals.
Pity this was not a UK movie instead of a US one, it might have been that little bit better and more believable. Everything just fitted too nicely in place, like a 4-piece puzzle. Rubbing off a big part of this high-gloss polish and the pseudo-intellectual yack-yack about reincarnation leaves a nice little story for a Sunday afternoon family viewing.
Elysium (2003)
Classic epos in a sci-fi wrapping
I tend not to like Mech anime and have had some surprises in the past with Korean anime, generally preferring the Japanses ones for story and design... hence my surprise when viewing this little gem.
OK, the story is a classic tale of good vs. evil but that is to be expected in sci-fi anime... aliens buried under the ice on the pole (evil aliens), chosen ones to be knight defenders (hmmm seen it all somewhere before didn't I?), comic robot sidekick, love story between enemies... The combination of all these elements however is quite well done, leading naturally from one part of the story to another.
The 3D animations are superb, keeping it just far enough from emulating reality to keep you rooted in this sci-fi world. OK, they did "borrow" some elements from elsewhere, the general seems to come straight from Moebius and that huge canon, last time I saw that one was in Alien. This does however not diminish the fact that this movie deserves quite a bit of praise.
The designers managed to package all these classic ingredients into an action packed bundle, with coherent storyline and great animation.
An animated Excalibur with mechanized sword-wielding knights, complete with uber-villain and an Arch. A classic in it's genre and recommended viewing.
Now if only they had kept that comic robot sidekick a bit under control!
Retour à la vie (1999)
Thriller french style
Louise is a deaf-born actress who just won a Cesar. She lives in a luxurious Parisian flat with Yann, her 20 year older husband. Each night she anxiously awaits his return. Yann is a very affectionate and tender husband but every so often his return turns into a real nightmare, both physically and psychologically, for Louise. She confides in her best friend Stephanie who also happens to be Yann's former girlfriend. Until one night everything just tilts over the edge...
A thriller with the additional twist of taking place in the world of a deaf protagonist. Not really an extremely original script but a good film thanks to its nice photography and solid acting. This is helped by the fact that the script stays quite close to reality and does not go over the top as is sometimes the case in similar Hollywood movies.
It might not win awards but it definitely will make for an enjoyable viewing, keeping you doubting about the outcome.
Les fleurs du miel (1976)
Caution, might make you drowsy!
"On the hill in Saint-Cloud, in a broad street bordered by residences, a delivery man is going through the back of his van. He prepares the delivery: wine, water, alcohol... After checking the order he routinely loads the crate on his shoulder and strides under his load through a small delivery gate in the wall of a garden, he rings and enters... All the action will take place in one night, a single night, in this bourgeois house in Saint-Cloud."
Action is a big word for whatever happens in this film, happenings might better describe this one and a half hour of overacting and tormented dialogue. I am not saying you need action to make a good movie, or even a movie for that matter, however this films lacks something interesting in every register.
The acting is mediocre to bad, Fossey manages to pull off the best "performance" of the lot, confirming her status as one of France's great actresses. For the rest there is basically not much to say other that it seems to be theatre-acting unsuitable for film.
The story is flimsy; a couple that's been together too long, grown apart, at the verge of a breakdown... so much to make out of it, so little made from it. Overblown, over the top, just over...
Unless you are a Fossey fan don't bother with this one.
Le papillon (2002)
They still make great movies!
This movie is just what movies are supposed to be about, about people, their interaction, the way they evolve as a result... life. Add to that great dialogue, good acting and a great photography and you got a movie that should be on the top 20 list of anyone looking for real movies.
The fact that the underlying storyline has already been brought several times to the big screen, with the same dexterity or not, does not detract from the fact that this film combines all its elements in a mix that positions it above the crowd. Serrault's movies might not all have been of this quality, but in recent years he has certainly managed to bring us several movies where the humane aspect of his characters prevail.
Do not start looking for logical explanations for certain elements of the movie, do not psychoanalyse it and try to find faults... this movie is just like life itself, sometimes logical, sometimes illogical, often random. Just watch, enjoy and get carried away by the witty dialogue. Despite all the adversities one might encounter, it's those little things - how insignificant they may be - that make it worthwhile and helps everyone become the unique individuals we are.
This is a sincere movie suitable for the whole family that manages to stay out of the tear-jerker or kiddy movie categories. Special mention also for the soundtrack! If you liked this you might also want to check out The Malabar Princess.
Un autre homme, une autre chance (1977)
Stunning
Rediscovering Lelouch on DVD, not having seen his films since they were aired on TV in the 70s and 80s, I enjoy them even more than expected.
This is not a western, not a love story, not a historical picture... it is all of it and none of it, it is about how lifes cross depending on random changes of fate. If you like mindless action, down-to-earth westerns or tear-jerkers pass your way as you will not have the patience or the "gusto" to watch (just rent any mindless Stallone or Schwarzenegger movie, that should do). If on the other hand you can be moved by the little things of life and you want a real story, with lots of content and brought with great skill, this is definitely for you. This is not an artsy movie, it's a great movie!
Lelouche has a knack of developing his characters over the duration of his movies, so you feel like you are part of the environment and not someone peeking in on what happens or a distant spectator. In "Un autre homme, une autre chance" he bridges the ocean to tell us about a french woman and an American man that could not be more different. The way they both evolve and finally come together through ups and downs, is made very special exactly by the fact it is so common... a reality show without the voyeuristic element that often leaves a bitter after-taste. It is told with such ease and with great performance of the actors.
Definitely one of Lelouche's best movies and a must-see.
Mondovino (2004)
The incorruptibles of the wine business
Business vs. personal conviction. Profit vs. art.
As with any documentary that pits the capitalist large corporations against the small producer, the viewer will invariably have to take the side of one or the other based on their own believes. This is as much a documentary of the new standardized way of doing things that globalization is bringing us, against the old traditional ways where character and the art of making things matters almost more than getting the product sold.
If you have to remember one thing from this movie, it is that the masses can no longer decide by themselves, they just follow the taste of one or a couple of critics that tend to equalize and standardize taste in the same way as MacDonalds used to do for the fast bite (something Parker himself admits to in the film against a backdrop of a Burger King sign). "It is all about image" against content as another interviewee says. That is the easy way, the standardized way. Easier than taking the time for a nice wine to mature, easier than to forge your own taste by trying and trying yet over again. Controlled branded taste is easier.
There is a glitter of hope when even some of our cousins across the ocean agree that a few people are "levelling" the taste of wines to maximize the profits and ensure a maximum of it gets sold to the "grey masses". Individuality and difference is sacrificed for the extra buck. It is nice to see that not everything or everyone is giving in to standardization, even across the ocean.
As in many other areas of today's world, dominance of a few and reduced freedom of choice impacts us all... let everyone make up their mind and decide what to go for. Too much standardization kills the mind and taste; difference brings innovation and healthy competition and will allow for choice - and not just vacuum-packed "more of the same". Standardization sells easily and a lot, and brings everyone to the same level - the lower one.
On this, I am going to open up a nice bottle and wish you a hearthy "sante".
Het beest (1982)
Seventies revisited
A top level manager starts losing it when his own company expropriates his mother and puts her in a hospital. He slowly sinks deeper and deeper in his madness. This movie is slightly reminiscent of Falling Down. Modern society and its greed changing permanently the values of the past. The only movie of Willem Ruis. A typical 70s Flemish/Dutch movie, with it's theatrical overacting and slightly amateuristic filming style. DVD I found was a straight copy of a damaged film original. Enjoyable but could have gotten more out of it. Little piece of Dutch/Belgian film history. Things have luckily moved on since then, check out De zaak Alzheimer.
Pas si grave (2003)
North meets South
A nice little picture full of sunshine and light hearted fun. Do not look for special effects or super heroes, this picture is about normal people, about being the same by being different.
Pablo sends his three adoptive sons on a mission to Spain: bring back the Madonna he remembers from his youth. Something that proves a bit trickier than expected once there. Their voyage is as much about getting to understand their father's past as it is getting to grips with their own (unknown) past and dealing with their present life. A quest that will bring together people from the past and present and forge new friendships and love.
A witty film with a story like they can still make them on the old continent, with a nice feel-good factor and funky soundtrack.
White Gold (2004)
They shoot bad actors don't they
I agree with Sergey, it's amazing they even let this one appear on DVD. I have seen worse but barely. Bad acting, crappy plot, not even worth half the 2 euros the DVD cost. Some of the Russian actors performed as well as an average A-team episode, but the amateurs portraying Americans should be sent to Siberia. Also include the sound guys to the Siberia express. You have to be a real expert to keep the microphone well on screen and still manage to get an unbalanced and crappy soundtrack. The stunt guys are the only ones keeping this one star disaster from reaching the bottom of the cinematographic ladder. The action looks more probable and real than similar US movies. As a CD promoting travel to Russia it might have more success than as an adventure movie. The advice is, steer clear of this DVD unless you want to use it as a coaster or offer it to your mother in law for Christmas.