The last time I went to the movies was for Avatar but walking through yet another snowstorm in Montréal I decided I was up for a light and colourful movie, and didn't care much what the story was about. So Populaire was a pleasant surprise as the premise is fresh and interesting. It's the story of a young and pretty typist so fast on her typewriter that her boss challenges her to win a few typing competitions. So it's like every sports film with the bonus of a love story. The third act is a bit unnecessary and repetitive but the movie is quite adept at walking the fine line between stylish and kitsch. Plus, in it's subtle way, Populaire shows us what it was probably like to be a working girl in the late fifties. The movie works best when focusing on the relationship between the two leads. They are quite charming ( if I were a girl I would sure paint my nails the way she does !). Better than the poor box-office in France led me to believe.
Reviews
14 Reviews
Jarmush dreaming. Me sleeping.
21 December 2008
How come whenever I fall in love with a great new American director I always fall out of my bed ? Recently I've watched many Jarmusch films following my coup de foudre ( love at first sight ) with his Down by Law. With Ghost Dog the Jarmusch touch seems overstretched. He is ambitious alright, he is also multi-cultural and won't make a total lemon soon ( things I'll always cherish best when evaluating a director in the long term ) but watching Ghost Dog can be a hard endeavor. After the neo-psychedelic Dead Man teaching us about the shortcomings of the white men ( still with a few great short scenes the Ghost greatly lack ) here we are with yet another Blue Velvet bad guy, yet an other aging-mafia-guys movie. What's new : Jarmusch's Taxi Driver 's homage because of city horizons and street-wise lingo's... Dead Man was flawed but at least indirectly amiable. Ghost Dog is not so heart warming. I felt, the whole movie, Jarmusch's eagerness to make The Great American Movie maybe he's not supposed to make in the first place. He's much better at home in low-fi...A Clue : Jarmusch's seriousness is equally related to the number of fade-outs he uses. In the Coffee in Cigarettes films he is short and sweet but the two hours sniper rigmarole the Ghost Dog is is way too long even with the Samurai sub-text.
In Dead Man and Ghost Dog it's much more about the values of Jarmusch's than about his true vitaly as a filmmaker. I like him being ambitious but there's no excuse for the blandness of the little black girl scenes in Ghost Dog. In Down By Law the sheer quality of his writing was in synch with his newly found director skills and par with the excellence of Robby Mueller's cinematography. With the Ghost, Robby's still there in great industrial colors; the Americana loves multi-cultural is still there but the writing is not At times it even reminded me of the multi flash yet monochrome flavor Tarantino treats his love affairs with
In Dead Man and Ghost Dog it's much more about the values of Jarmusch's than about his true vitaly as a filmmaker. I like him being ambitious but there's no excuse for the blandness of the little black girl scenes in Ghost Dog. In Down By Law the sheer quality of his writing was in synch with his newly found director skills and par with the excellence of Robby Mueller's cinematography. With the Ghost, Robby's still there in great industrial colors; the Americana loves multi-cultural is still there but the writing is not At times it even reminded me of the multi flash yet monochrome flavor Tarantino treats his love affairs with
Starship Troopers
(1997)
The secret of happiness ?
9 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Starship troopers presents a bleak vision of the future. The State is a Federation, one where in order to become a citizen you essentially have to make the choice ( nobody's forcing you but I'd suggest studying your maths a bit harder
) to abandon your freedom of choice for 2 years in the Army. The whole movie is filled with this kind of irony. Some, or most, viewers, might be offended by the fact that all the characters we follow are happily growing in a society governed by this kind of totalitarian ideology. I'd say those viewers are forgetting an obvious mitigating factor : the bugs. Do you think a happy-go-lucky bohemian democracy could produce troops eager to kill those myriads of bugs ? No, you kill bugs you are happy. Simple. Yet, the movie can be a drag to watch. It's still a standard sci/fi-action affair regardless of your affections to Heinlein phylosophy and the fact the director treats the material with a sardonic smile ( most of the dialogs sounded intentionally corny to me ) don't help much. At many times I was wondering : Is Denise gonna show some skin ? No, she's too busy killing bugs...
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
(1985)
A Cartoon Cavalcade
9 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Boy that's an adventure you'll love with all your heart or hate for all it's hectic helter-skelter digressions. Until Pee-Wee got out of his house I was getting exasperated but then it got better, than it got fantastic. The twisted sense of humor of Tim Burton is in full blossom here and has many wonderful layers. I'm not the greatest fan of his work ( I very much like Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood but I'm not one of those many college students that goes epileptic when they talk about his grandiose palette of colors ) but I've got to say that Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is an astonishing debut. Pee-Wee Hermann gives a brilliant, unforgettable performance ( even if he sounds like the turtle in the Sly video games ! ). Danny Elfman wrote a flabbergasting score for this one ( if alive and well Tchaikovski would probably have adored it ). I'm sure the top executives at Warner Brothers scratched their heads wondering how to market this movie, and were it not for the subsequent success of Burton it probably would have been buried by now, so I'll suffer any Mars Attack ! they release and just watch Pee-Wee again to console me. My favorite part : she stop chewing that damn chewing gum and maniacally informs poor P.W. that there's no basement in the Alamo !
The Crime of Ovide Plouffe
(1984– )
The shaky bridge between two great movies
5 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Le Crime D'Ovide Plouffe is Arcand's film between his neglected masterpiece Gina and his international breakthrough Le Déclin de l'Empire Américain. His work has always showed a lot of ambition ( think about that you intellectuals who degrade him because you say he is only an intellectual movie-maker : a rape/ski-doo party in Gina, the best beer joke in le Déclin and a virgin statue that explodes killing all passengers in a plane crash in Plouffe !). Yet, Arcand, for all the kudos he deserves is often embarrassingly heavy-handed. Le Crime D'Ovide Plouffe proves that. In the first 2/3 of the movie you are enjoying his cynical take on society, his good eye on the flaws of men and women, the last third you are grinding your teeth at his attempt to make the whole movie a big Kafkaesque farce
I guess he just has the defaults inherent in his qualities whatever that means.
Anne Létourneau gives a naïve yet touching performance and brother Gabriel Arcand is chillingly at home in his role but the romance between him and the french girl boringly takes forever to unfold ( my guess is that since the movie was made with French money Arcand had to incorporate into the storyline as many french topics as he could ). He tries to negates that with the Dominique Michel scene but who's the fool ? Arcand, two years later, would make le Déclin, a truly biting satire. That time, in my opinion, he chose to make no concessions. Witness A : Yves Jacques, Québec's best excuse for a successful homeboy actor in France, plays an heterosexual swinger in Plouffe's ( bad casting ) but in le Déclin he plays a Mt Royal gay man craving the attention of his predators. Dead on.
Anne Létourneau gives a naïve yet touching performance and brother Gabriel Arcand is chillingly at home in his role but the romance between him and the french girl boringly takes forever to unfold ( my guess is that since the movie was made with French money Arcand had to incorporate into the storyline as many french topics as he could ). He tries to negates that with the Dominique Michel scene but who's the fool ? Arcand, two years later, would make le Déclin, a truly biting satire. That time, in my opinion, he chose to make no concessions. Witness A : Yves Jacques, Québec's best excuse for a successful homeboy actor in France, plays an heterosexual swinger in Plouffe's ( bad casting ) but in le Déclin he plays a Mt Royal gay man craving the attention of his predators. Dead on.
O.K. ... Laliberté
(1973)
When the Office Nationale du Film was producing worthy movies you had such movies
5 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
O.K
Laliberté is a good yet light-weight example of the expertise developed by the french connection of the 70's ONF. At times this movie verge on the whimsical but is always saved by the quality of the performances ( the chemistry between Godin and Guilbeault is great ). Also, there's no doubt in my mind that the meticulous work of veteran soundmand C. Hazanavicius is what really gives the movie a great realistic tone ( coz at times the dialogs that are scripted ( not the improv ones, of course ) felted a bit artificial to me ). But the main flaw of the movie comes at the end : when you've fully accepted that there won't be any action ( except skunk hunting maybe ! ), or any sort of climatic scene in this one and just enjoys it for the rightful depiction of everyday life the director than tries to compensate all that by going with something a little more risqué. It just basically feels false and a big misstep. Still, as a whole, the movie is enjoyable : the camping scenes are funny and touching ( Angele Coutu had a great rack ! ) and the party in the car makes you feel like you are right there with them ( Lapointe has great pot-smoking technique ! ). Sadly, as the movie don't come with English subtitles, that 1973 movie surely won't get any kind of revival outside Québec ( the whole point of reviewing this movie in the English language is just that ). And even here that kind of movie aren't made anymore. A bit shameful I think
WarGames
(1983)
Clever, exciting and expertly directed
11 October 2008
What a pleasant surprise this movie is ! It achieves many things : it captures accurately the essence of being a teen in the eighties; it is a cautionary tale about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the careless use of computer technology; it is a thriller filled with witty lines and great actors's chemistry. Need more ? Well, with this movie, you kids borned after the eighties get a chance to see the monstrosities that were the first floppy disks !
Badham's abilities as a director are here fully revealed. The camera movements are expressive without being flashy and you really get the feeling that he loved working with the two teen actors ( Matthew Broderick is lovable here, not the annoying wise-ass ( still to great effect ! ) he is in Ferris Buellers's Day Off ). The pacing sags a bit in the middle part but it is compensated by the evident dedication displayed by every one involved in the project. Maybe the only problem with War Games is that it tries to be more than one movie in the same one but as it succeeds on almost every front it's not that much of a problem. Oh and don't expect a movie filled with video games action : you get one arcade scene ( ah Galaga ), some chess and tic-tac-toe But you also get the ultimate war game !
Badham's abilities as a director are here fully revealed. The camera movements are expressive without being flashy and you really get the feeling that he loved working with the two teen actors ( Matthew Broderick is lovable here, not the annoying wise-ass ( still to great effect ! ) he is in Ferris Buellers's Day Off ). The pacing sags a bit in the middle part but it is compensated by the evident dedication displayed by every one involved in the project. Maybe the only problem with War Games is that it tries to be more than one movie in the same one but as it succeeds on almost every front it's not that much of a problem. Oh and don't expect a movie filled with video games action : you get one arcade scene ( ah Galaga ), some chess and tic-tac-toe But you also get the ultimate war game !
The Young Racers
(1963)
A free tour of Europe but that's about it
4 October 2008
In this Roger Corman's movie we follow the tribulations and various romantic entanglements of Joe Machin ( you see, at first, he is cold-hearted , like a Machine ) but really the whole story is just an excuse to take the viewer through a nice tour of Europe ( or for the production team to take a vacation
). When the characters are not driving their F1s they do the cheapest thing a director can fill a movie with : talk, talk and talk some more. I guess Corman wanted The Young Racers to be classified as a full length movie so he had to fill it with something but I guarantee you that as soon as the 80 minutes are done with you will forget all the blah blah in a few heartbeats. In the first part of the film you can see a nice selection of vintage 60's bikinis. That's a plus ! And you can witness some typical 60's drinking and driving
with champagne no less ! Also, I think our friend Roger didn't want to bother with a boom operator in the busy streets of Europe so I guess the sound man FF Coppola hadn't much to do in the actual shooting of the film but what a nice goatee on his young face !
The Ninth Gate
(1999)
Lamentable
4 October 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I guess I can start with the only redeeming quality of the movie : Johnny Deep's performance. I'm not a great fan of him but I think that here he gives one of his best effort. Oh but are those efforts wasted ! Emanuelle Seigner is so beautiful it's almost distracting. But I guess distraction is what we are craving for watching this sluggish borefest. Even simple actions scenes are weakly filmed with bad editing and laughable dialogs ( like when Seigner is impressed by Deep smashing of a guy's head : I didn't know you had it in you... ). Polanski co-wrote the script but there's not one ounce of originality in this contrived piece. Some scenes are also inexplicably long like when Deep crash his car in a river and takes forever just to find a gun. And I don't know if Polanski tries to demonstrate something by his overuse of blue screens but it gives the whole movie a tacky feel that doesn't help us enjoy it more. I guess with The Ninth Gate he tried to regain his former glory by delving in the genre that made him famous with his masterpiece Rosemary's Baby ( judging by the camera work it's clear that he attempts to create something powerful and engrossing )
Well he failed and you would do well to avoid it. Unless you are the slightly masochist completist that I am.
History of the World: Part I
(1981)
Lame, lame, lame
3 June 2008
Sharing a similarity in structure to Monty Python's Meaning of life and sharing, I presume, the same type of public at the time we can fully " appreciate " the near-disaster that is Brooks effort : just compare the Monthy 's Sperm is Sacred part to the Spanish Inquisition of this one( which must have still used a good chunk of the movie's 11 million dollars budget )
About 5 good jokes( some of them actually being after the movie in a preview to a part 2 which was never made ).
My favorite joke : the one about Oedipus, it last about 2 seconds.
Pathetic jeux de mots and what was fresh and new in movies like Airplane ! are frankly embarrassing when Mel Brooks tries to be as witty only a year later.
The french revolution is perhaps the best segment but it comes at the end of a dreadful trip.
Bland performances throughout but then again maybe even Belushi as a decadent Cesear would not have done much with such a bad script.
About 5 good jokes( some of them actually being after the movie in a preview to a part 2 which was never made ).
My favorite joke : the one about Oedipus, it last about 2 seconds.
Pathetic jeux de mots and what was fresh and new in movies like Airplane ! are frankly embarrassing when Mel Brooks tries to be as witty only a year later.
The french revolution is perhaps the best segment but it comes at the end of a dreadful trip.
Bland performances throughout but then again maybe even Belushi as a decadent Cesear would not have done much with such a bad script.
Harold and Maude
(1971)
Cool but a bit dated
11 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I've seen Harold and Maude, finally ! Not that I really wanted to see it. For me Harold and Maude was one of those movie you always notice on the video store's shelves but never want to rent. You rent The Abyss instead or something like that.. I knew it had a good reputation but I always had the feeling that a movie with Harold and Maude as a title could only be boring. Why rent that when you can go with Predator? And for some reason I always got confused between Harold and Maude and Miss Daisy and her driver. Maybe because they both have old people in them. Well this week-end, around a campfire, my parents said that when they were going out, in the seventies, they saw Harold and Maude and thought it was great. Great for the time or great in general they did not know. So I rented it to find out.
So ? So even if I don't think Harold and Maude is a masterpiece it clearly has the charm of the best films of that period of greatness in American cinema : the early seventies. I always thought that the main strength of movies like Scarecrow, Panic in needle park, The Graduate and, now, Harold and Maude was the blend of vitality and melancholy we can see in the wonderful way those movies are shot. The story of Harold and Maude is quite simple : a young man and an old lady fall in love and they share the best moments of their lives in a celebration of life. Of course the characters and situations are, for the most, original but I would not think it is as groundbreaking as some people might say. In my opinion, the similarities with The Graduate are too many to be purely coincidential. I like Cats Stevens when I hear him on the radio but I don't necessarily want to listen to his best-of while watching a movie. Maybe the production team of Harold and Maude took their influence in the use of Paul Simon's songs in The Graduate but in that movie we didn't have to listen to the Sound of Silence every other scene.
The acting in Harold and Maude is top notch : I especially liked the actress playing Harold's mother. She's something of a caricature but we believe it anyway. In fact I think the movie succeed the most in the fake-suicide scenes. That's where the movie is the most cynical and funny. When Harold rediscover life, tough, I think the director is a bit clumsy (when Harold is blowing bubbles for instance). Sometimes it's a bit embarrassing really... As for the last sequence I think it sums up the message of the movie : that Youth will prevails even in Death... or fake-death ! 7.5/10.
So ? So even if I don't think Harold and Maude is a masterpiece it clearly has the charm of the best films of that period of greatness in American cinema : the early seventies. I always thought that the main strength of movies like Scarecrow, Panic in needle park, The Graduate and, now, Harold and Maude was the blend of vitality and melancholy we can see in the wonderful way those movies are shot. The story of Harold and Maude is quite simple : a young man and an old lady fall in love and they share the best moments of their lives in a celebration of life. Of course the characters and situations are, for the most, original but I would not think it is as groundbreaking as some people might say. In my opinion, the similarities with The Graduate are too many to be purely coincidential. I like Cats Stevens when I hear him on the radio but I don't necessarily want to listen to his best-of while watching a movie. Maybe the production team of Harold and Maude took their influence in the use of Paul Simon's songs in The Graduate but in that movie we didn't have to listen to the Sound of Silence every other scene.
The acting in Harold and Maude is top notch : I especially liked the actress playing Harold's mother. She's something of a caricature but we believe it anyway. In fact I think the movie succeed the most in the fake-suicide scenes. That's where the movie is the most cynical and funny. When Harold rediscover life, tough, I think the director is a bit clumsy (when Harold is blowing bubbles for instance). Sometimes it's a bit embarrassing really... As for the last sequence I think it sums up the message of the movie : that Youth will prevails even in Death... or fake-death ! 7.5/10.
Great stuff !
10 September 2005
While the first two Harry Potter movies were fun and entertaining The Prisonner of Azkaban gives you something more substantial. Watching the movie really gives you the feeling of being immersed in the magical world created by J.K.Rowling. I've read the book a couple of years ago and it was a true pleasure to see the people, monsters and artifacts of Hogwarts (all of which I had already almost forgot).
The script of The Prisoner of Azkaban is tight and does a good job of bringing together the best elements of the novel. Sure the director has taken a few liberties ( notably with the dialogs ) but unless you are a Potter maniac chances are it won't bother you. As a result the movie is well balanced ( this time, thankfully, we don't have to go through an over-long Quidditch match...). The rhythm of the movie is flawless : after a long enough first part which lets you appreciate the depth of Rowling's imagination, the action gets rolling and don't let go. The special effects are mostly of great quality, my favorite being the talking paintings and the Marauder's map. The animation in the sequence where Hermione gets molested by a tree is way too blurry, though.
A weakness of the movie, in my opinion, is that the Harry Potter character, seems a bit flat. With all the wonders around him I didn't care much what happened to him. Maybe it's also got to do with the somewhat flat acting of Radcliff. And the girl playing Hermione gives a poor performance : the only time I liked her acting was when she was running.. But Ron is great so it evens out !
So The Prisoner of Azkaban is a great adventure movie in the same way Indiana Jones 2 and The Goonies were more than a decade ago (Ah those glorious movies of my youth !). They are thrilling and exotic teen movies and that's a nice combination. When the 7 Potter movies are complete I'm sure the third one will stand out. 8/10.
The script of The Prisoner of Azkaban is tight and does a good job of bringing together the best elements of the novel. Sure the director has taken a few liberties ( notably with the dialogs ) but unless you are a Potter maniac chances are it won't bother you. As a result the movie is well balanced ( this time, thankfully, we don't have to go through an over-long Quidditch match...). The rhythm of the movie is flawless : after a long enough first part which lets you appreciate the depth of Rowling's imagination, the action gets rolling and don't let go. The special effects are mostly of great quality, my favorite being the talking paintings and the Marauder's map. The animation in the sequence where Hermione gets molested by a tree is way too blurry, though.
A weakness of the movie, in my opinion, is that the Harry Potter character, seems a bit flat. With all the wonders around him I didn't care much what happened to him. Maybe it's also got to do with the somewhat flat acting of Radcliff. And the girl playing Hermione gives a poor performance : the only time I liked her acting was when she was running.. But Ron is great so it evens out !
So The Prisoner of Azkaban is a great adventure movie in the same way Indiana Jones 2 and The Goonies were more than a decade ago (Ah those glorious movies of my youth !). They are thrilling and exotic teen movies and that's a nice combination. When the 7 Potter movies are complete I'm sure the third one will stand out. 8/10.
Le dernier tunnel
(2004)
One of Quebec's worst movie in recent memory
31 March 2005
When le Dernier Tunnel failed to get important nominations at le Gala des Jutra ( Quebec's own Oscars ) Éric Canuel, director of Le Dernier Tunnel, said that the genre movies ( horror, thriller, etc. ) were not appreciated as more serious movies like The Barbarian Invasions. Well maybe so, but what Canuel is forgetting to mention is that his movie, genre movie or not, is one of the most uninspired thriller in years. I'm from Quebec so I already know all the actors in Le Dernier Tunnel and they are usually among the best ( like Michel Côté ) but Canuel's movie manages to make them look pretty stupid and artificial. Besides that the omni-present music is absolutely annoying, the camera work tries to be cool but only look clumsy and, worst of all, the ultra-conventional script and pretends-to-be-tough dialogues. So unless you've seen less than 10 movies in your life or if you are a teacher who wants to show an example of a bad bad movie stay away from Le Dernier Tunnel. One more thing: Quebec's critics rarely say bad things of Quebec's own movies because of the small market and that they want to protect themselves but even Le Dernier Tunnel got bad reviews so believe me when I say it's worst than bad !
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
(2004)
And down he goes...
31 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is a good example of a director who can't seem to find his way. Kill Bill Vol.2 is a mess. From Sergio Leone to B-movie kung-fu movies bad imitations, Tarantatino tries to show his talent but only proves that he has no originality. This movie has no stylistic unity. At times, the dialogs are a torture ( i.e. the first time The Bride and Bill talks , in the opening chapter ). Usually in that type of movie the fighting scenes can make it at least fun to watch but the fighting sequences in Kill Bill Vol.2 are uninspired and boring. The only good thing in this movie is the soundtrack. At least Jackie Brown had some interesting characters and really good acting ( I prefer Bridget Fonda getting ... by Robert DeNiro than Uma Thurman caught in a wooden box for half an hour)...
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