Blame it on Fidel

The bureau chief really likes this 2006 French film (La faute à Fidel) by Julie Gavras. When we first meet our nine-year-old heroine, Anna, she's not a very likable child. The influence of her Cuban refugee nanny and her conservative Catholic grand parents have turned her into a miniature right-wing snob. She's at a family wedding and is browbeating the other children into eating their oranges with a knife and fork, like proper people. Her political and social stances are particularly ironic since her parents, Parisian professionals, are moving further and further to the left. This is the early 1970s and her father has become a strong supporter of the Allende government in Chile, while her mother is working for abortion rights in France.

Anna has a will of steel but, like all children, has no autonomy and is forced to be pragmatic when the things around her start to change. The whole cast is excellent and Nina Kervel-Bey is wonderful as Anna.

Julie Gavras knows about growing up with leftist parents since her father is Costa-Gavras. She has made a film with a perfect balance of comedy and drama. I recommend it.

Love Crime

S.F. Chronicle film reviewer Mick LaSalle gave Alain Corneau's "Love Crime" an excellent review when it opened here but didn't write the one thing that would have made me see the film  immediately, instead of several months later on DVD. The film has a "perfect murder" plot. The bureau chief is a sucker for perfect crime plots, although it's rare that things work out truly perfectly for those involved. I don't rate the film quite as highly as M. LaSalle but definitely recommend it. It's got two excellent and attractive actresses, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier, and a perfect murder plot. What else do you need?

La Nostalgie de la Boue

Leos Carax’s film, “The Lovers on the Bridge”, (“Les Amants du Pont-Neuf”) is so permeated with the romance of degradation that Baudelaire could have written the screenplay. Speaking of its Cannes premier in 1991, Roger Ebert said “…some were stunned by its greatness and more were simply stunned”. It stars the incomparable Juliette Binoche, wearing diseased-eyes prosthetics and a patch, as an artist who is going blind, and a really odd looking actor named Denis Lavant as an insomniac, alcoholic, fire-breathing performer. They are homeless people living on the Pont-Neuf, which is closed for renovation. They become lovers. If I told you the plot I would not only be a bad Bureau Chief but might induce a terminal attack of giggles.

Having said that, the film has visions of Hell in a drunk tank and motor boating on the Seine during a fireworks extravaganza, along with many other interesting things, and, depending on how much wine one had with dinner or what one just smoked, one might find considerable enjoyment in the completely over-the-top spectacle that it provides.

Further on Olivier Dahan

In my post on “Le Petit Poucet”, I identified Olivier Dahan as the director of “La Vie en Rose” because that movie was released here and received two Oscars. I should clarify that I don’t think it’s a particularly good film although Marion Clotillard gave an astounding performance as Piaf. She deserved an Oscar, although so did Julie Christie for “Away from Her”.

Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald also deserved the Makeup Oscar. Too bad they didn’t do the Ogre’s makeup since, when Edith Piaf dies at 47 looking 107, she has become a monster.