Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it might not belong to their famous movies, it was still probably one of their most ambitious productions. However, even if I really did admire the work done, I have to admit that I had an incredibly hard time to connect with the damned thing though. In fact, it wasn’t the first movie adaptation of an opera I have seen. Indeed, I have also seen ‘The Magic Flute’ which was directed by Kenneth Branagh, even if it was a seriously obscure movie which was never even released in the US. Anyway, basically, I have never been a huge fan of musicals in general and operas are basically musicals, except that the performers are singing constantly very loudly and the stories are borderline impossible to follow. Sure, I have to admit that this description might be slightly too reductive, especially if you really love the genre, but, I’m really sorry, with all respect, this genre is borderline unwatchable for me. Seriously, for most of the duration, I was wondering what the hell it was really about. As a result, it seems that Powell and Pressburger delivered here their most baroque and super-charged feature ever. At least, it was definitely a feast for the eyes and, on top of that, the ballet dancing and singing were all top-notch (it’s interesting to note that, except for Robert Rounseville and Ann Ayars, all the actors were actually dubbed by some opera singers). Anyway, to conclude, even if I never really worked for me, it was still an interesting watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the damned thing. Sure, there was nothing really original about the story and the outcome was quite predictable. Still, I think that dementia is a really fascinating subject and, as far as I’m concerned, it must be one of the most terrifying things in the world. Eventually, I can’t imagine anything more dreadful than to be aware that your mind is slowly drifting away and eventually even disappearing. On the other hand, as displayed in this movie, it might be even more terrifying for the people that love you, especially your romantic partner. In this movie, they tackled also the topic of euthanasia and you get both sides of this debate. Indeed, should you stay forever together whatever happens or should you be able to quit this life on your own terms? So, these concepts and ideas were nothing really new but they were fairly well developed here. However, the greatest pleasure with this movie was to see such fine actors like Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci at the top of their games. Sure, you might argue that none of them is actually gay but I thought that they were both really convincing and they had such great chemistry together. Indeed, I really believed that these two men had spent all these years together and it was just heartbreaking that they were not allowed to spend another 20 more years together. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still a solid drama with some top performances and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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. First of all, it is a such a cool title, especially in French, but it didn’t turn out to be an easy watch though. Indeed, the whole thing was pretty weird, unsettling and often rather sordid. The beginning scenes were also rather bewildering. Indeed, you don’t really get to know this family and, instead, you see them rushing to the train station but you don’t know what this trip was about, why they were rushing like this and why they were all acting so weird. However, the behavior of the main character, Henri, was even stranger though. Seriously, what was the deal with this guy? The fact that we never saw him before in another context probably didn’t help. Still, there is no denying that Jean-Hugues Anglade, in his 2^nd part, gave such an intense and flawless performance. Indeed, I always believed in what Anglade was doing which was even more remarkable since the character himself didn’t make much sense. Facing him, Vittorio Mezzogiorno was also really good, even though I was confused by the fact that he did really sound like Gérard Depardieu which actually made sense because Depardieu did dub him. Even though this movie seemed to be forgotten nowadays, it was actually a critical success when it was released but I wonder how the gay community might feel about it. Indeed, even though the feelings displayed by these young men were incredibly intense and quite mesmerizing to behold, this underground gay world seemed terribly unhealthy and toxic, physically and mentally. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely work for me, it was still a strangely interesting movie with some top performances and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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. A couple of weeks ago, I already saw ‘Détective’ from the same director and I thought it was incredibly indecipherable but this movie turned out to be even more challenging though. At some point, it seemed that God took over Gérard Depardieu’s character’s body over but how everything else was connected with this? Was there actually any connection at all? Another detail that stroke me was the fact that, pretty much like in ‘Détective’, there were so many young girls involved but, when you think about it, the fact that I focused so much on such a detail might be actually more revealing about me than about Godard himself. Anyway, as usual with Godard, even though his approach to reject the standard cinematic narrative conventions can be so frustrating and hardly entertaining at all, it is still pretty bold with each one of his movies. On top of that, in this case, I have to admit that the end-result was actually quite poetic and it reminded me of the work of Terrence Malick and Andrei Tarkovsky. Of course, if you would compare it to Malicks movies, it was visually not so ambitious and, yet, there were something appealing about Godard’s static shots. Concerning Gérard Depardieu, I think it was the first (and only?) time he would be working with this director and it was quite satisfying to see this French actor tackling such challenging material instead of chasing another paycheck gig. Anyway, to conclude, even if this movie was really difficult to read, it was still an interesting watch and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre or 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 there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. As usual, I didn’t know anything about this movie before watching it but I think it made the whole thing slightly more enjoyable this way. Anyway, it turned out to be an endless shoot-out, seriously, it took about 2/3 of the running time and, as a result, it is apparently the longest gunfight ever filmed. Basically, you get to see a bunch of shady figures gathering in some random warehouse and they start to shoot at each other for some random reason until the very end. Sure, you could argue that's what John Wick has been doing for already 4 movies but the difference here was that it was taking place only at a single location, a location which wasn’t really fascinating, to be honest. By the way, I wonder if it was such a great idea to bring so many people to a weapon deal. I counted them, they were 10 people, without the couple of snipers, which is kind of ridiculous but I get that, without this number of people involved, how could they sustain such an extensive shoot-out? Anyway, even though I did like the mood and even though I do think that Ben Wheatley made the most of this material, it was still pretty damned repetitive. Eventually, it’s pretty obvious that Wheatley got inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s work, especially ‘Reservoir Dogs’ but in Tarantino’s classic, the characters were very well developed and the flashbacks were crucial. Wheatley’s commitment to show only what happened in this warehouse was commendable but, as a result, you learned pretty much nothing about the characters, except that most of them were apparently some lousy shot. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, due to some personal issues, I have to admit that had some trouble to really focus on this movie. Eventually, it was probably a good thing that we didn’t see ‘Beau is Afraid’ (a movie I was more eager to watch), because it was lasting a whopping 3 hrs and I was already struggling to not fall asleep with this movie which did last around only 90 mins. Anyway, even if everyone else in my film club seemed to have really enjoyed it, as far as I was concerned, the story was just too simplistic and predictable. In the same fashion, all the characters involved were all rather one-note with not much depth whatsoever. It's interesting that, from a personal experience, I actually know that, if a child went through some tough situations during their childhood, to put them within the nicest environment possible might not result in a such a seemingly perfect outcome. Still, I have to admit that this movie was well made and very often quite beautiful to look at. On top of that, Catherine Clinch who played the lead character was just so charismatic and was quite pitch-perfect for her very first performance. Eventually, the whole thing only grabbed me when this poor little girl had to leave this very nice couple to go back to her dreadful family. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t focus at all through the whole duration, as a result, I didn’t get that her moving to live with this couple was something only temporary and it really broke my heart when this seemingly perfect family unit had to be broken down. Anyway, to conclude, if  I had watched it under some better circumstances, maybe I would have been more able to really enjoy it but, even so, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.