Results 1 to 15 of 22

Thread: PARIS MOVIE REPORT October 2013

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840

    PARIS MOVIE REPORT October 2013

    PARIS MOVIE REPORT Oct. 2013



    As usual I don't know how many films I'll cover or at what length during this brief sojourn but I hope to brig you up to date on things not available stateside and give links to them at the top here.

    Possible films of interest and Allociné press rating:

    9 MOIS FERME /9 MONTHS STRETCH (Albert Dupontel) 4.0
    ALABAMA MONROE (Felix Van Groeningen) 3.7
    AS I LAY DYING (James Franco) 2.7
    AU BONEURS DES OGRES/THE SCAPEGOAT (Nicolas Bary) 2.4
    BATAILLE DE SOLFÉRINO, LE/THE BATTLE OF SOLFERINO (Justine Triet) 3.8
    ELLE S'EN VA/ON MY WAY (Emmanuelle Bercot) [Catherine Deneuve vehicle] 4.0
    MA VIE AVEC LIBERACE/BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (Steven Spielbergh) 4.0
    MY CHILDHOOD (Bill Douglas, 1972) [at MK2 Beaubourg]
    NORVEST/NORTHWEST (Michael Noer) 3.8
    SHÉRIF JACKSON/SWEETWATER (Logan Miller) 3.0
    SUR LES CHEMINS DE L'ÉCOLE (Pascal Plisson) 3.8
    TIP TOP (Serge Bozon) 3.1
    THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVETT (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) 3.1

    INDEX TO REVIEWS.
    9 MONTH STRETCH/9 MOIS FERME (Albert Dupontel 2013)
    AS I LAY DYING (James Franco 2013)
    BEHIND THE CANDELABRA/MA VIE AVEC LIBERACE (Stephen Soderbergh 2013)
    BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN, THE/ALABAMA MONROE (Felix van Groeningan 2013)
    DANCE OF LIFE, THE (Alejandro Jodorowsky 2013)
    FAMILY, THE/MALAVITA (Luc Besson 2013)
    MEDEA/MÉDÉE (Pier Paolo Pasolini 1969)
    NORVEST/NORTHWEST (Michael Noer 2012)
    ROOM 514 (Sharon Bar-Ziv 2012)
    TIP TOP (Serge Bozon 2013)
    TONIGHT OUR HEROS DIE/NOS HÉROS SON MORTS CE SOIR (David Perrault 2013)
    SWEETWATER/SHÉRIF JACKSON (Logan Miller 2013)

    ________________

    EARLIER PARIS REPORTS:
    MAY 2011
    OCTOBER 2011
    MAY 2012


    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 08-04-2015 at 03:41 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    PARIS MOVIE REPORT (OCTOBER 2013)

    Michael Noer: NORTHWEST (2012)


    GUSTAV DYEKJAER GIESE IN NORTHWEST

    Criminal ambition tears up a family

    Danish director Michael Noer's second feature is a hard knocks criminal coming of age involving two brothers​, tall, pale, chiseled nordic types who seem like slightly edgier and less educationally advantaged versions of the great Norwegian director Joachim Trier's star Anders Danielsen Lie. They're like two peas in a pod, but inside maybe there's a key difference. They live with their mom (Lene Marie Christensen) and little sister Freya (Annemieke Bredahl Peppink) in the tough multi-ethnic Copenhagen district designated in the film's title and Casper (Gustav Dyekjaer Giese), 18, steals rich people's high level home electronics (and designer lamps) with a sidekick and sells them off to Jamal (Dulfi Al-Jaburi). Andy (Oscar Dyekjaer Giese, Gustav's actual brother), 17, is interested, and when organized crime moves into Norvest and Casper gains the confidence of midlevel gangster Bjorn (Roland Moller) Casper brings in Andy (desite his promise to mom to protect him) and drops his relationship with Jamal. Jamal will have none of this. Eventually the conflict proves lethal for Casper, who has more of a sense of responsibility than Andy and lacks his daredevil foolishness. Things come to a breaking point when Bjorn assigns Casper the job of offing Jamal, now that the conflict has turned into a turf war.

    Energized by the handheld camera of Magnus Nordenhof Jonck of A Hijacking and the commitment and naturalness of newcomers Gustav and Oscar Giese, as well as thei edge created by using a lot of improvisation within scenes, this film achieves a nervous immediacy that can really grab you as things get dicier and dicier for the brothers and the heightened danger tears the whole family apart. The scenes in themselves seem conventional, particularly the coke-and-babes partying of Bjorn et al. and the coming of age rituals. Attention is given to showing how close Casper is to his little sister (a birthday party, a painful goodbye) and to Andy, though a split occurs between the two boys when the younger one turns out to be perhaps the bigger risk-taker. There is a lean muscularity about this film that will endear it to film noir fans even as they may lament the loss of the rituals and elegance of the genre in better days. The way the camera and POV stay nearly always on the shoulders of Casper contributes to unity and realism. There are of course underlying themes of the class and ethnic systems of crime and the devastating effect of crime and financial ambition on the stability of the family.

    Noer collaborated with Tobias Lindholm (director of A Hijacking) in 2010 on a claustrophobic prison drama, R. His screenwriting collaborator here was Rasmus Heisterberg, who scripted Royal Affair and the first two films in the Millennium trilogy.

    Northwiest/Nordvest, in Danish and English, 91 mins., debuted at Cannes in 2011. It has received good notices in France (Allociné press rating 3.8) following its 9 Oct. 2013 theatrical release. Screened for this review at MK2 Hautefeuille, Odén, Paris.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 10-18-2013 at 03:46 PM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Ottawa Canada
    Posts
    5,656
    Paris should be nice in October.....:)
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    It's not springtime in Paris but yes, I think so. I hope to find some interesting movies. I've seen better choices (in September and May) but there is always some good stuff not found in the States.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 10-17-2013 at 03:24 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    15,840
    Saw the very violent and mythical, Cormac McCarthy-like (lite?) SHÉRIF JACKSON (French title) or SWEETWATER today and will write a review of it later.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Ottawa Canada
    Posts
    5,656
    Is the documentary WATERMARK on your radar?
    Looks very good to me.
    Dazzling imagery....
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •