Romantics Anonymous

I must use the word "delightful" once again for the French movie Romantics Anonymous. If you like romantic comedies you will like this movie for both the story and its superior acting. Romantics Anonymous stars the most talented actress Isabelle Carré. This is the first time I have seen her but I hope it is not my last because I did not find any more of her movies on Amazon Prime. Maybe I should petition them to get more of her films. So what happens in this movie?

Angélique Delange (Carré) cannot relate to people. This is a problem because she is the top chocolatier in her class taught by M. Mercier (Claude Aufaure), and he wants her to be the chocolatier in his business. However, she is too shy to take credit for her award-winning chocolate. Thus to protect her identity, a story is made up that Mercier chocolate is made by unknown hermit. Unfortunately M. Mercier dies and she must apply for a job.  Angélique is terrified of interviewing so she joins a group therapy session called Romantics Anonymous where the group shares their flaws in relating to people.

Angélique interviews for a position in a candy business owned by Jean-René Van Den Hugde (Benoît Poelvoorde)--a man who is terrified of women.  To get over this fear Jean-Rene works with his therapist (Stéphan Wojtowicz). Angélique's interview goes well and she is hired on the spot - as a sales rep and not a chocolatier! 

You can predict what is going to happen after this. While Romantics Anonymous is predictable, it is a fun, entertaining film. I highly recommend seeing this movie.

Dead Man Down

After watching the trailer for Dead Man Down, I knew that it was going to be an excellent film and one that I wanted to see. Part of this due to the fact that I like revenge thrillers. Possibly this says something about me. I was also intrigued that this movie stars two of the best actors today, Colin Farrell, and Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). Dead Man Down is a really good film-noir with action, suspense, and an interesting love story.

Victor (Farrell) is a lonely guy who lives in a large apartment complex in New York. He spends his nights working as a henchman to the drug kingpin Alphonse (Terrence Howard), who has recently become more paranoid because he has been receiving death threats from an unknown person. These threats become more and more frequent, until eventually one of Alphonse's men is killed. Victor possibly knows who is orchestrating these death threats.

In the apartment building across from where Victor lives is Beatrice (Rapace), a beautiful yet damaged young woman who is struggling to recover from a severe car accident. She lives with her desperate mother, Valentine (Isabelle Huppert) and is fascinated by Victor. Beatrice watches him wallow in his lonely existence from her balcony, until one day when she decides to contact him and hopefully make some sort of connection. Can they mend each other’s loneliness despite the violence and unpredictable mayhem surrounding them?

That is all I will say about this excellent, well-done film. I highly recommend Dead Man Down.

The Women On the Sixth Floor (Les Femmes du 6ème étage) 

Last night I selected an absolutely delightful French film, The Women On the Sixth Floor. I am becoming very partial towards French and Korean films. It seems like the ones I select off of Amazon Prime are decent. The Women on the Sixth Floor stars Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Kiberlain, and Natalia Verbeke. I thought Natalia Verbeke was just great. She played her part perfectly.

The Women on the 6th Floor opens in Paris in 1962, in the flat of the Joubert family. Jean-Louis Joubert (Luchini), a stockbroker, was born in the fifth-floor flat of the building and expects to eventually die there. He will pass it on to his son, as did his father and grandfather before him. Jean-Louis’ elegant but chilly wife Suzanne (Kiberlain), is in the process of redecorating the apartment following the death of her mother-in-law, and the radical change causes the departure (it’s hard to say whether she quits or is fired) of the family’s longtime maid Germaine (Gleizer). Encouraged by her society friends that it’s no longer chic to hire French maids, Suzanne hires the recently arrived young Spaniard María (Verbeke) to cook and clean for them – something the Jouberts are woefully inadequate at handling on their own.

As soon as the beautiful, young maid arrives in the Joubert home, the viewer senses exactly where this story is heading: toward the classic upstairs/downstairs affair between the boss and the domestic help. That is all I will say because this is a movie that you should see.

The Housemaid (Hanyo)

It has been awhile since I have watched a Korean flick; thus, last night I selected the somewhat well-reviewed The Housemaid to watch. Wow, it was not exactly what I expected, and, the ending, is like no other. With that being said, it is a decent movie.

The Housemaid is Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yeon) who is invited by Byung-sik (Yun Yeo-Jong), another housemaid, to serve in an uber-rich household made up of three members - the master of the house Hoon (Lee Jung-jae), his very pregnant wife Haera (Seo Woo) expecting a pair of twins due anytime soon and hence the need for an extra help around the house, and their daughter Nami (Ahn Seo-hyeon) with whom Eun-yi forms a strong friendship with, since a child is non-judgemental on someone's background and social standing.

The Housemaid takes place almost entirely in the ultra-modern plush mansion. The story unfolds slowly, minimalistic and almost uneventful: Hoon's "taking" of Eun-yi, discovery of her pregnancy, the three women ganging up on her, master's unconcerned, callous reaction, and the dramatic, climatic finale is stunning, but not needed to have a satisfying ending.

You will have to be in the mood for such a movie to watch The Housemaid. I do recommend that you see this interesting film.

My Afternoons With Margueritte (La Tête En Friche)

I knew when I decided to watch the French film My Afternoons With Margueritte that I was selecting a superior movie. I was absolutely correct because this is an excellent heart-warming movie. I think I can put this movie on One-of-My-Favorite-Movies list. It stars  Gérard Depardieu, Gisèle Casadesus, and Maurane.

My Afternoons with Margueritte not only tells a beautiful story of the people who live in a small French provincial town filled with eccentric, lovable characters but also interweaves the literature of Camus and Romain Gary.

Gerard Depardieu stars as Germain, a giant hulking mass of man who is both likable and a bit of a target for barbs by his buddies at the café where they all hang out. Germain was mistreated as a child by his mother and teacher, and never developed any self-esteem or refined social skills.  Germain is the kind of guy who tends a garden of home grown veggies, and finishes his handyman work when the job is done, even if it means he gets cheated out of a few dollars.

One day Germain meets Margueritte (Gisele Casadesus) on a park bench where both like to feed the pigeons. The two of them fall in love, but it is not quite that simple. Margueritte is 95-years old and lives at a retirement center nearby. Her world consists mostly of reading books and counting pigeons until she meets Germain. Her wise, but failing eyes, recognize a wounded man with a giant and kind heart, who is a wonderful listener as she reads books aloud to Germain. Margueritte helps him find himself through the words she reads.

I highly recommend My Afternoons With Margueritte. You will not see many films better than this one.

Incendiary

I tried watching two movies before I decided on Incendiary. I guess I just could not find a movie that fit my mood at that time. Incendiary is entertaining but a very sad movie. It has excellent actors, Michelle Williams, Ewan McGregor, and Matthew Macfadyen. 

A young beautiful woman (Williams) is trapped in an empty marriage living in an ugly apartment block in North London. Her pride and joy is her 4-year-old son. One evening in a local pub she meets and seduces the handsome journalist Jasper (Ewan McGregor). During sex in her flat with Jasper, while her son and husband are watching a soccer match, suicide bombers destroy the stadium where the match is taking place. Her husband and son are killed. 

In the days that follow, she is forced to come to terms with a life alone and her own feelings of guilt and loss. Meanwhile, both the reporter and an anti-terrorist officer (Matthew McFadyen) both work at the twin goals of winning the young mother's heart...and finding out the identity of the bombers.

While this is not a great movie, it will keep your attention. If you do not like sad movies, then do watch this movie.

Enchanted April

I was looking for something "light" to watch last night, and I decided on a BBC film called Enchanted April. One of the reasons I picked this movie is that part of the movie took place in Italy. I made a good selection because I enjoyed Enchanted April starring Miranda Richardson, Alfred Molina, and Joan Plowright.

Enchanted April is the story of four dissimilar women in post-World War I England who go on a holiday for a month to a secluded castle in Italy. The plot is relatively straightforward, functioning mainly as a device for character interaction and levity. The acting is excellent. Miranda Richardson can do more with her facial expressions than many actresses can do with both body and voice. Joan Plowright, Laurence Olivier's widow, is hilarioius as a pompous woman with all sorts of well-placed friends and associates.

As the spell of the villa permeates their spirits, each grows in her own way and is uplifted in her outlook. This also changes the people in their lives who have visited them. As they leave you know the magic of the villa will remain with them.

I recommend this movie.

Summer Hours (L'heure d'été)

It appears that I rarely select a poor French movie. Last night I watched Summer Hours which stars Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, and Jérémie Renier. If you are looking for an action flick, this is not a movie for you. Summer Hours is a movie that can be seen at different levels. 

Summer Hours' central character is Helene Berthier, an elderly woman whose children and grandchildren have gathered at her home in rural France. Helene was once romantically linked to a character called Paul, a now dead artist who was renowned for his paintings. Helene's home is filled with both Paul's work (a vast collection of priceless art) and other personal items that have tremendous sentimental value. 

Summer Hours tells the story of her family through the eyes of these objects. The film opens with Helene's large family gathering in her old house located in the French countryside. Her three children and their children are introduced at this time. During this gathering she has a talk with the elder brother, Frédéric, about her wishes when she dies. A year later, she dies and the children have to decide about the fate of the house and the artwork within.

Frédéric, a professor of economy, who lives in France wants to preserve the house, he wants to stick to his roots, to family memories but his brother and sister want to follow their careers in China and US. Hence, they want to sell the house and it contents. The resulting monies will allow them to enhance their lives. You can see this causes problems among the siblings.

That is all I will say. However, Summer Hours has multiple themes. This movie looks at how we "treasure" changes as we age, how art and objects tie people to the past, the relationship between art, globalization and commerce, the seemingly arbitrary and shifting value of objects, and the question of what defines art.

I recommend this good film.

Prozac Nation 

I remember when Prozac Nation was released, the book but not the movie. Actually I do not remember that it was made into a movie. Prozac Nation is based on the best-selling memoir of depression by Elizabeth Wurtzel. I found this movie to be interesting because I have seen many people like Elizabeth in my life.

Prozac Nation follows Elizabeth (Lizzie) Wurtzel (Christina Ricci), a teenager accepted to Harvard with a scholarship in journalism. She had been raised by her divorced mother since she was two years old, but she misses her father, causing her to feel needy and depressed. When Lizzie enters Harvard University, she lives with a roommate, Ruby, and has her sexual initiation with her boyfriend, Noah. At Harvard she becomes obsessed with writing articles on concerts that she attends. Her article on a Lou Reed concert in The Harvard Crimson newspaper wins a Rolling Stone award. After receiving this award she starts abusing sex and drugs which lead her to existential crisis and deep depression. What follows is expensive psychiatric treatment, and, you guessed it, drug therapy. 

Prozac Nation is a good but not a great movie. It does show the depths to which depressive can fall. I recommend Prozac Nation.

Safe

Last night I was a little tired, and did not want to watch a movie that required any thought or reading subtitles. I was in the mood for a mindless movie. I found one, Safe, a Jason Statham movie.  Do I have say any more because all of his movies are exactly the same with different characters and locations. Nonetheless, I will tell you about Safe.

Luke Wright (Statham) is an underground cage fighter, trying to make ends meet by getting pummeled and paid to lose.  After one night of putting an up-and-coming fighter in a coma, Wright upsets the wrong people and the Russian mob kill his family and give him an ultimatum.  They won’t kill him, only every single person he ever gets close to.  He can end it all by killing himself.  

Wright eventually becomes a swaggering, alcoholic wino, stumbling the streets of New York City, descending into a pit of suicidal desperation until he spots Mei (Catherine Chen), a Chinese prodigal 11-year-old girl, in a train station on the run from the same Russian mob that killed Wright’s family.   Wright saves Mei in a realization that she represents a second chance for him, and in turn uncovers an all out war between the Russian mob, the Chinese mob, and a group of dirty cops, out to get Wright for a previous time that he screwed them over…when he was a cop.

I think you get the idea. If you want to see Jason Statham kill lots of people with guns and his hands, then watch this film.