Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Jean-Luc Godard and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. It was one of his earlier works but, back then, the guy was already taking his distance from traditional narrative filmmaking. Still, it was pretty cool to see the master of French New Wave delivering a war film and, well, it was pretty obvious that the guy was seriously anti-war. It’s interesting that, even though the scenes during which these two naïve farmers were recruited might seem ridiculous, I don’t think it was so far-fetched after all. Indeed, in France, I got lucky and the military conscription was cancelled just before I was supposed to be enrolled. Instead, you had to go to what they call the ‘Defence and Citizenship Day’ during which you basically spent the whole day watching some very boring videos about the French military forces. Well, at the end, they were some army recruiters who lured some young boys like me by talking about all the money they would make and the nice cars they could buy if they joined the French army and you wouldn’t believe the number of young boys who were actually attracted by this sales speech. Concerning the rest of the movie, to be honest, the scale was too small for me. Sure, Godard did try to add some war stock footage but it didn’t really fit the rest of the movie. Above all, with only a handful of characters involved, you never get the feeling that there was a major conflict going on. Still, all these texts randomly showing up were really spot on and the lovely Geneviève Galéa (who actually turned out to be Emmanuelle Béart’s mother) was some nice vintage version of Ana de Armas. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was pretty obscure, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Jean-Luc Godard’s work.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Patrice Chéreau and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, as usual with Chéreau, it turned out to be another intriguing directorial effort, that’s for sure. Indeed, even though he might not be one of the most famous French directors, I have always been impressed by his versatility. In this case, I was wondering if it was based on a play since it was mostly taking place on one location with mostly 2 characters involved. Well, in fact, it turned out to be adapted from a short story written by Joseph Conrad which made the whole thing even more interesting. On top of that, Pascal Greggory and Isabelle Huppert both gave some really solid performances. Still, eventually, the whole thing did feel a little bit dry. Furthermore, even though both characters seemed to have a rather high opinion of themselves, you might wonder which one of them was the most arrogant and I’m not sure if I really care for any of them. Still, with this voice-over telling you how perfect his life was, how well he (thought he) knew his wife and how happy they were together even if they not had been intimate for years (which should have been a red flag for the poor fellow) and, yet, it was rather priceless to find out that she couldn’t stand his guts after all. Seriously, how can you spend a decade with someone and have seriously no clue about what they really think or feel? That was also the issue with this kind of lifestyle. Sure, they had a half-dozen servants doing everything for them but how can you be together and develop a relationship when they are so many people around you? Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it turned out to be a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Patrice Chéreau’s work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, even though it apparently didn’t get much love when it was released, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. In fact, I just saw again ‘Les bronzés’ et ‘Les bronzés font du ski’ very recently and I have to admit that these movies were not as bas as I remembered, in fact, not at all. Unfortunately, even though it was a nice idea to bring back this group of characters almost 30 years later, the end-result turned out to be seriously disappointing though. Above all, even though this whole group of very famous French comedians was involved in the writing, the script was just terribly weak though. I mean, there were a couple of decent ideas but most of it didn’t really work and, on top of that, most of the jokes were more pathetic than really funny. To make things worse, all the characters involved were just so underwhelming this time around with the only exception of Jérôme played by Christian Clavier. Indeed, after all these years, Clavier still managed to find the right tone to play his character but, sadly, he was the only one of the bunch, I’m afraid. For example, it was a big mistake to have Gérard Jugnot’s character suffering some kind of stroke as it basically disabled this character for a good chunk of the running time which was not funny at all and felt like a waste. But, to be honest, what they did with the other characters was not much better either. Anyway, to conclude, even though I don’t think that it was such a bad idea to make another sequel after all the years, it was still pretty weak though and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Russell Crowe, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was surprised by how little I actually cared about this movie after all.  While watching the damned thing, I was thinking that it was some kind of mix of ‘Gladiator’ with ‘Falling Down’. Basically, it felt as if Maximus actually didn’t die, went to live in the suburbs, got divorced, became seriously depressed and even became pissed off at the whole world in the process. Sure, if you put it like this, it actually might sound more intriguing than it actually was but, eventually, the end-result was just nasty, unpleasant and even rather depressing to behold. I mean, I don’t blame Russell Crowe, it was actually pretty ballsy from him to play such a psychopath for once. Unfortunately, his character was not developed whatsoever. Seriously, they gave us an intro during which he killed someone who might have been his ex-wife and her lover but, that’s it, there was afterwards no more background information provided at all. Even more problematic was the fact that this character was just so one-note. At least, Caren Pistorius, who has always been an interesting actress above all because she is charismatic without looking like a top-model, was a perfect choice to play the main character. I also liked the fact that, during the 1^st confrontation with Russell Crowe’s character, she did act like a really disrespectful b*tch but, unfortunately, the makers really did nothing with this. To make things worse, her character was barely more developed than the crazy guy chasing her. Basically, she was a complete random innocent victim who was chased by some random psycho in the most random way possible which was hardly entertaining. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

If you are interested in film story, this movie is pretty much a must-see. Indeed, it’s usually considered as the very first animated feature and I have to admit that I was actually quite impressed by the damned thing. Sure, it might seem rather rudimentary with its black background and these simple stick figures drawn with some white lines but, in fact, I thought the animation was actually quite sophisticated, especially since it was such a precursor in this genre. The other really interesting aspect with this movie was how wild it was from a narrative point of view. Indeed, even though some viewers pointed out that there was some kind of plot, Émile Cohl, who probably made the whole thing himself on his own, certainly didn’t stick it to it. Instead, it goes from one random thing to another random thing every few seconds and the end-result was quite spellbinding to behold. Eventually, even though a running time of less than 2 mins might seem to be super short, it was actually perfect for this material and I don’t think it would really work if you would extend it. Anyway, it is really neat that, back in those days, they could come up with something so experimental and the damned thing is therefore definitely worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by David Lean and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. While watching this movie, it’s hard to imagine that David Lean would deliver ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’, his first great epic, only 3 years later, and, to be honest, I’m rather surprised that this movie turned out to be a box-office success when it was released in Great Britain. It’s not that it was bad, in fact, it was pretty neat to see such a great master like David Lean doing a comedy for the first time in his career, it’s just that I was never really impressed or dazzled by this movie. The main issue I had was that the whole thing felt rather disjointed. Indeed, who was actually the main character? The other thing that bothered me was the fact that they pushed their portrait of William Mossop too far my making him such a bumbling idiot. Sure, it was supposed to be funny, I get that, but, as far as I was concerned, it was rather odd that a bright and beautiful woman like Maggie Hobson would be interested in a guy who was almost retarded. At least, there is no doubt that I was once again seriously impressed by Charles Laughton who has definitely become one of my favorite actors, no less than that. Indeed, there was absolutely no redeeming qualities regarding this character and there was nothing really interesting about this guy either and, yet, Laughton managed to make him quite entertaining to behold, it was just quite masterful. Anyway, to conclude, even if I didn’t really care about this flick, I have to admit that it was still a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in David Lean’s work.