ieaun Reviews

Shadow Play (1996)

Paul and Ada and Lise and Paris

[6/10 · 18 March 2000]

Episodic film dealing with the lives and loves of a group of young professional Parisians. Helena Bonham-Carter in her first French film is good and speaks the language like a native. Romane Bohringer is very sexy as usual, and Elsa Zylberstein and Marie Trintignant are very amusing. The male characters are less interesting and rather two-dimensional, with the exception of screenwriter Paul (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey). The film concentrates mainly on the on-off relationship between Ada and Paul and the effect that the young Lise has on both their personal relationship and Ada's professional career. The film is an improvement on Dugowson's previous "Mina Tannenbaum", but the large number of characters makes it difficult to get emotionally involved with, and care what happens to, any of them.

The Reader (1988)

Reading between the sheets

[8/10 · 18 March 2000]

One evening in bed a young woman (Miou-Miou) begins to read a book called "La Lectrice" to her husband. It tells the story of Marie (Miou-Miou again), who decides to place an advert in her local newspaper offering her services as a reader. This results in her being hired by a wide range of the town's inhabitants, often with unexpected results. A teenage boy in a wheelchair (Regis Royer) asks her to read Maupassant and Baudelaire; the Hungarian widow of a general (Maria Cazares) selects her favourite passages from the works of Marx and Lenin; a businessman (Patrick Chesnais) with no time to read seems to be more interested in Marie than in the book she is reading; a young girl (Charlotte Farran) whose mother is too busy to read to her requests Alice In Wonderland. The town's authorities are constantly suspicious of Marie's new profession and the strange effect it seems to be having on some of her clients.

The complex structure of the film is a delight, constantly switching between scenes involving Marie and her clients and those from the books she is reading. Strong sensual overtones emerge as some of the clients confuse the services Marie is offering with those they imagine she is offering.

Miou-Miou is excellent in the role of Marie, the southern town of Arles in winter looks magnificent, and the whole thing is driven along by the music of Beethoven. The overall effect is to heighten the viewer's interest in books and reading and make them want to seek out some of the books included in the film. Highly recommended for bibliophiles everywhere.

The Good Time Girls (1960)

A weekend in the lives of four Parisian shop girls

[8/10 · 3 March 2000]

The film shows a weekend in the lives of four Parisian shop girls, from their Friday night out in the nightclubs of Paris through to a Sunday outing into the countryside. All four dream of escaping their humdrum existence: Ginette (Stephane Audran) is trying to start an alternative career as a music hall singer, Rita (Lucile Saint-Simon) is engaged to a shop owner, Jane (Bernadette Lafont) is wined and dined by two married businessmen, and Jacqueline (Clothilde Joano) falls in love with a biker who is stalking her. The monotony of the girls' lives is shown as they spend Saturday in the shop just waiting for the moment when they can go home. At the same time Chabrol shows a fascinating portrait of the city at work and at play. The storyline holds the viewer's interest, the acting is excellent (especially Lafont, and despite some terrible overacting from the girl's boss), and the director hints at some of the gruesome shocks of his later films.

Roselyne and the Lions (1988)

life with the lions

[6/10 · 8 January 2000]

A failure at school, Thierry (Gerard Sandoz) does odd jobs at the local zoo in exchange for lessons from the lion tamer Frazier (Gabriel Monnet). He meets another trainee Roselyne (Isabelle Pasco) and they fall in love. Frazier dismisses Thierry for disobedience and Roselyne leaves with him. With the help of Thierry's English teacher Bracquard (Philippe Clevenot) they travel across France looking for work. They join a circus but are not allowed to work with the lions. Finally they join Koenig's circus in Munich. Roselyne is employed as the performer with Thierry as the trainer. Here they meet the tiger trainer Klint (Gunter Meisner).

Disappointing performances by Isabelle Pasco and Gerard Sandoz, but Gunter Meisner is good as the tiger trainer who has lost his nerve. All the elements which made the director's previous films "Diva" and "Betty Blue" so enjoyable seem to be missing here: a strong storyline, fine acting by the leads, even a good musical score. Instead Beineix relies too much on his talent for good visuals and the excitement generated between the performers and the lions.

The Hatter's Ghost (1982)

mad as a hatter

[6/10 · 8 January 2000]

A hatter in a provincial town (Michel Serrault) leads the life of a respectable citizen but is in fact a serial murderer. The only person to suspect this is his neighbour the tailor (Charles Asnavour). It is difficult to believe that this film was made in the eighties as not only is the film set in the fifties but it has a totally fifties style production. It seems to be exactly the kind of film that Chabrol and the other members of the nouvelle vague were rebelling against. The story is very straightforward, the characters are stereotypes, the female characters are two dimensional and treated as objects. "Le Boucher" made years earlier is far more modern and superior in every way. The story is well told if you suspend your disbelief and the acting on the whole is good. The town in which it is set is very photogenic, with narrow cobbled streets and no traffic. Not only does it compare badly to other Chabrol films but also to other Simenon adaptations. "Monsieur Hire" has a similarly paced and straightforward story line but is more adventurous in visual style and tells a more modern story with two more believable characters. "Le Horloger de Saint-Paul" has almost a documentary style and requires a lot of thought as the development is to do with the main character rather than the storyline, and is far superior.

The Clockmaker (1974)

Lyons is the star of the film

[8/10 · 11 December 1999]

The star of this film is the city of Lyons, which looks absolutely magnificent. The problem with the film is that it rambles along until the son is finally captured and tried, and is reconciled with his father. The father doesn't seem to know what's going on at the start or how he feels about his son, before eventually deciding that he wants him to escape. But the film just seems to drift from one encounter to another, with the policeman, with his friend, with the press, with his son's girlfriend's workmates, with the woman who helped bring his son up. Perhaps the director is trying to show what it's like to be waiting for news in such a situation and the sense of not being able to do anything about it. Philippe Noiret and Jean Rochefort are both excellent in portraying sympathetic characters. The son and girlfriend are also portrayed as sympathetic - although we are never explicitly told why they committed the murder, their victim is shown to have been a nasty piece of work. The almost documentary style is in contrast to the cinematic style of other Simenon adaptations such as "Monsieur Hire" and "The Hatter's Ghost". No intrusive music as in "Monsieur Hire" for example.

Love Without Pity (1989)

Entertaining film not to be taken too seriously

[6/10 · 20 November 1999]

The film shows the relationship between an unemployed young man (Hippolyte Girardot) and a university student (Mireille Perrier). The story is told from the point of view of Hippo, who has chosen not to get a job but to live off the proceeds of his younger brother's drug dealing. Despite this questionable approach to life the director treats him as a sympathetic character and is aided in this by Girardot playing him as a cool individual. This is contrasted with the character of Nathalie who is regarded as working too hard rather than enjoying her youth. The film has the feel of a romantic comedy, although what comedy there is is at the expense of the female characters and any figures of authority that cross the brothers' path. Ivan Attal gives good support as Hippo's best friend. Overall I found it an entertaining 90 minutes not to be taken too seriously.

Suzanne's Career (1963)

Early example of Rohmer's style

[7/10 · 20 November 1999]

This film by Eric Rohmer shows that the style for which he has become famous was developed at an early stage - a concentration on the relationships between young people performed by unknown actors in an almost documentary style. As usual with Rohmer the performances of the actors are variable and not much happens in terms of plot. Instead the film concentrates on the emotional development of its young subjects, with the central character a little wiser by the end. The scenes on central Paris in the early sixties mean that part of the film's appeal is as an historical document in the same way as Chabrol's "Les Bonnes Femmes" and Varda's "Cleo De 5 a 7".

Danton (1983)

Wajda's French masterpiece

[9/10 · 9 November 1999]

Set in the 1794, the second year of the French republic formed after the execution of Louis XVI, this film portrays the power struggle between the revolutionary leaders Danton (Gerard Depardieu, at his finest) and Robespierre (a commanding performance by the Polish actor Wojciech Pszoniak). The moderate revolutionary Danton has returned to Paris from his country seat where he has been since being deposed as leader of the Committee of Public Safety in the previous year by Robespierre. He is opposed to "The Reign Of Terror" which has resulted in the executions of thousands of citizens, mainly by guillotine, who are thought to be opposed to the Revolution. Danton is confident of the support of the ordinary people and tries to persuade Robespierre to curb the bloodletting. But Robespierre and the Committee are afraid that the popularity of Danton will lead to them being overthrown, and put Danton and his supporters on trial for being traitors. This was the first French language film made by Andrzej Wajda after he had arrived in France from Poland. His Polish film company was closed down by the government due to his support for the Solidarity trade union, which had opposed the Polish government in the late seventies and early eighties. His previous film "Man Of Iron" (1981) had dealt with the Solidarity union and its leader Lech Walesa, and it is easy to draw comparisons between the relationship of Walesa and the Polish leader General Jaruselski, and that between Danton and Robespierre. Danton/Walesa are the voice of reason opposed to Robespierre/Jaruselski who continue dictatorial rule despite having lost the support of the people they claim to represent. The film is based on the Polish play "The Danton Affair" written by Stanislawa Przybyszewska in the 1930s, and on its release the film was criticised by some for being static and theatrical. But what the film does is to concentrate on the behind-the-scenes meetings of the Committees and the scenes in the National Assembly and the courtroom rather than the activities on the streets of Paris.

Something Fishy (1994)

Enjoyable film about female private detective

[6/10 · 24 October 1999]

A female private detective investigating the death of a colleague discovers that he has been murdered whilst investigating a property company which is buying property in the centre of Paris. Then working on another job she meets her seventeen year old son whom she has not seen for fifteen years.

An enjoyable film. Anemone is funny and acts well, and is certainly different to the usual French female stars. The only time she dresses up she looks like a man in drag. Plenty of different storylines keep the plot interesting but they all tie up too neatly at the end.

Wild Target (1993)

Black comedy with French style

[7/10 · 24 October 1999]

Victor Meynard (Jean Rochefort) is a professional assassin. Leaving the scene of his latest hit he bumps into delivery boy Antoine (Guillaume Depardieu) and decides to take him on as his apprentice. Meanwhile art thief Renee (Marie Trintignant) has sold a fake to a Corsican gangster for 900,000 francs. Maynard is employed to kill her, but he falls in love with her and ends up protecting her from the Corsican's henchmen. They hide out at Meynard's home, where Antoine and Renee disrupt the older man's eccentrically well-ordered life.

Despite the predictability of the storyline, this fast-moving black comedy keeps the viewer entertained throughout. Jean Rochefort (seen previously in "The Hairdresser's Husband") is hilarious as the anally-retentive assassin whose world is turned upside down, and is ably supported by the kleptomaniac Trintignant and the incompetent apprentice Depardieu. Also, at 88 minutes the film doesn't outstay its welcome.

L'homme de ma vie (1992)

Sophisticated romantic comedy

[6/10 · 12 October 1999]

Well worth tracking down if you like any of the following: French films, romantic comedies, a good story, fine acting, beautiful scenery (Versailles and St Cloud). Shame about the music. Those of you who only know Maria De Madeirios from her small part in "Pulp Fiction" will be surprised how good she is in the leading role, very well supported by some lesser known French actors. Hollywood was famous for films like this in the thirties, but not any longer more's the pity.