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alainb1889
Reviews
Richelieu (2023)
Moving and shocking social drama in Quebec
This movie could be a Canadian version of a Ken Loach film. It could be a documentary as well as it tells the story of a young woman employed as the 'translator' and coordinator between the director of a corn plant and workers coming over from Guatemala. She will go beyond her assignment in order to protect these workers from many abuses. Acting is excellent and everything in this movie is credible. Everything we're being told is probably not very far from reality. This is a deeply shocking but also moving film. I saw it at a screening during the French Film Festival in Namur (Belgium) in the presence of the very talented actress Ariane Castellanos and director Pier-Philippe Chevigny. I hope it will be widely released as it really deserved to be seen across the world. It takes place in Quebec but could be anywhere where foreign workers are coming to work.
The Tree of Life (2011)
Nice small independent film sandwiched between National Geographic documentaries
I love many of Terrence Malick's movies, although I must say that I was quite disappointed by his previous film 'The New World'. I went to see 'The Tree of Life' purely based on his name. The presence of well known actors like Brad Pitt or Sean Penn is always a bonus but doesn't guarantee quality. I have been puzzled by this movie from the very start and I like to be surprised when watching a movie but when the film changed to a kind of National Geographic documentary, I just asked myself where Malick wanted to go with it. How has the world been created? Is there truly a God up there? Some essential questions of course but unfortunately illustrated with exquisite colours and images but definitely many clichés (yes I was expecting to see that image of a leaf falling off the tree, the Tree of Life of course....). Then comes the story of this couple and their three sons. This is the most interesting part of the film. A 50's ambiance like in 'Revolutionary Road', good actors (Brad Pitt in a very unfriendly character, the eldest son well played), not too many words or actions but a sort of latent stress and subdued pressure which suddenly explodes in their son's head. Not a terrific story but about the quality of a good independent movie. Von Trier could have filmed that way and maybe Gus Van Sant as well. But for the last 20 minutes of the movie we go back to the character (or so to speak) played by Sean Penn (well not a lot he had to actually play here) and the last scene on the beach is just the most terrible one of the whole movie. The problem with this movie is that some people say it's highly ambitious. I would say that it's highly pretentious and very often pretension equals ridicule which is often the case here at least at the beginning and at the end. Also it's taking itself very seriously and some might say that I'm made of stone but I have not felt any emotion of any kind watching it. A serious disappointment.