The 2020 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, March 5-15, 2020

[Chris Knipp]

SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE/DEUX MOI (Cédric Klapisch 2019)

An unhappy young man and woman with issues to resolve live side by side unknowingly in a cheaper part of Paris near the Gare du Nord. A cute but somewhat self-defeating premise is that Klapisch keeps them parallel but apart till the last few minutes when at last they meet cute. A lackluster Klapissh effort compared to such hits as L'Auberge Espagnole or Russian Dolls, but the actors have plenty of charm and Klapisch himself has a warm heart.

Available on-demand now via Metropolitan Virtual Theater and that's how I saw it, because the Rendez-Vous was shut down early for the pandemic before I got to see it.

[Chris Knipp]

FATIHA YOUSSOUF ABDILLAH (FAR RIGHT) IN MIGNONNES

CUTIES /MIGNONNES (Maimouna Doucouré 2020) - again

There's been a controversy over CUTIES, the French-Senegalese drama about 11-year-olds who get involved in an overly-sexualized performance in a dance competition. This happened once Netflix announced it with a provocative preview. Many who hadn't seen the film rose up to express outrage.

Now Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN has published a (3/5 star)review that analyzes the film from this point of view.
He says, "Maïmouna Doucouré’s film and its accusers are on the same side: attacking pornification and the false promise of liberation by sexualised display."

I think he's right, but I also still think that dramatizing behavior you disapprove of a liittle too appetizingly is obviously inadvisable, though I don't pretend to know the solution. One thing is clear, that people exploit controversies of this kind for their own devious ends, usually without having seen the "objectionable" work in question.