4th of June

 YO! It's Jolie's day.

What else?

Short Term 12

I am taken. 

Looking forward to see it.

Thrilling

I already gasped a few times, I can't imagine the whole film.

I'm so glad someone finally decided to showcase this matter in a possibly bigger scale. It is so obvious and it's been happening for so many years, so again, people just have been resuming to their usual and immediate response, to ignore. To divert their eyes and not look. When it's been around them all along. It happened in the fifties or sixties, it happened in the nineties and it happened a few years ago. Those trainers didn't had to die. But it will happen again.

I'm looking forward to watch this documentary but also to see what will be the people's response. What's going to happen next. Probably not much.

Filming...

...has started in Nice for L'homme que l'on aimait trop.

That's Catherine with Canet and below Téchiné gives instructions, I guess.

Now waiting for Adèle...

Here's a video of her talking about the project in Cannes.

Upstream Color

Written and Directed by Shane Carruth.

It stays with you…but then I forgot.

I knew exactly what I was in for and yet I tried, I put all my energy into it. I believe there are good moments, accomplished sequences. I believe there are other moments when it isn’t as accomplishing what he’s trying to say, especially the part where the protagonists are mixing each other’s past. When it was over I had a mixed feeling between the idea that I got some of it, I understood especially what’s, to me, in the surface, my ordinary point of view of a woman’s life being wracked by a marginal stealing people’s money and then later, out of seemingly no connections, another man enters the same life and takes it over and how it takes yet other people’s genuine care, even if they might be as broken, to enlighten a possible recovery into a more bearable living, or, as I’m sure, something deeper lies ahead. It is often difficult to reach these people’s world, it’s hard to connect, finding a sentiment, or rather understand where they came from. There are other moments, sometimes only a brief moment, when you reach that connection, it feels like you’re sharing.

At the end, there’s this quite exceptional take by an author looking to express his ideas and talents. The balance between image and sound is great, like he’s trying to say something only for the sake of these lines alone, sometimes the image is like a beautiful commercial but then you get used to it. The woman of this film, played by Amy Seimetz, helps tremendously I guess, not only representing the fragileness but bringing the palpable humanity, the man, played by Shane Carruth, helps to increase the film’s intangible atmosphere. No doubt this is an exceptional experience. And I’m glad I did it.

Behind the Candelabra

 An HBO production by Soderbergh.

If I was up for a charming romantic film I had to choose a different road. This is one of the most unromantic romances I’ve seen lately. Certainly not charming and warming but rather obnoxious and repugnant. But that’s also the true essence of the relationship. And if I was up for an amusing film too, I should have taken a different road as I didn’t laugh once. That’s how I took this story and the film. Setting aside expectations, I thought over all this film would be something else.

I’m not a huge fan of Behind the Candelabra not because the romance wasn’t romantic but because it’s really difficult to have any kind of sympathy for the protagonists and because the story could have been something else, especially because there’s a good storyline going on, the strange relationships that could get all indescribable and messed up in a moment in time were gay relationships weren’t accepted and because of that it could have gotten to the point where an older man would adopt his younger lover.

When everything looks interesting around them, the set decoration and the costume design, all the glamour, literally and figuratively, the portrait of Candelabra’s surroundings, I don’t think the story was outstanding. Of course Michael Douglas puts himself out there with this charismatic character, he’s both repugnantly selfish and sometimes attentive, rarely and if not for his own interest, and so does Matt Damon, who tries to share or express some of what was inside that young man’s head, if there was anything there. This being said, I don’t really care about them, although they’re still an interesting case.

The Hunt

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, co-written with Tobias Lindholm.

Today is kid’s day. How about this film for a kid’s film? I think it’s appropriate.

This is quite a poignant story about a kid’s lie, a very inappropriate and controversial lie that could rack someone’s life forever. At the beginning of the film, this lie reminded me of The Children’s Hour, especially just how a kid’s lie can be taken so seriously and undoubtedly by adults. Like there’s not even a moment of second and third questioning. Obviously, the stories are very different, especially because the accusation isn’t about someone’s homosexuality but about someone’s child abuse. And because it’s twenty first century, the conflicts become greater and much more direct.

This story is a great study about not only a children’s imagination while growing up, the environment around her and how she uses it, but also about the adults’ way of dealing with these matters. It is especially interesting how someone is able to turn to the complete opposite side, how a parent and a family can be shattered by their children’s events. There are also good questions about the way we treat each other, how we are capable of marginalizing someone if a tight group of people, a community comes together and be devastatingly successful.

This is a subtle film, with its particular tone and consistent pace and vivid performances. It’s a really compelling film.