Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Depardieu, Deneuve and Techiné.  A winning combination twenty years ago but now?

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A light Chilean film which turns out to be quite watchable despite being rather forced in some moments.  It tells the inside story of three couples and various others in Santiago who are dealing with the issue of sex in marriage (or not).  There is no doubt that the director has things to say and he does so with a comic touch that is at times really amusing as the audience identify with scenes and attitudes involved.  Maria Izquierdo and Patricio Contreras head the acting honours even if their caracters are a little overdrawn and the rest of the cast do their bit even if Sigrid Alegria is rather wet in the lead role and Alvaro Rudolphy gets to play an over-the-top mysoginist. 

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There is no doubt that class will out and as far as an acting duo goes Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett make this twisted tale of jealousy a real humdinger.  The story may not be the most original ever but in the hands of these two, it becomes a compelling tale of power and intrigue.  The script by Patrick Marber is a cracker especially for Dench who has some delightful lines and epitomises the term ‘a toxic friend’.  The rest of the cast headed by Bill Nighy do their stuff well, but the two stars and especially Dench outstrip them all.  The Philip Glass score adds to the whole effect – that of a satisfying film with other merits being the photography of Chris Menges and the direction of Richard Eyres.  Well worth the viewing even if at the end one hardly feels surprised.

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Wow!  Francois Ozon gives us a short almost vignette-like piece on a young man with a matter of months to live who tells no one but his grandmother (a glorious Jeanne Moreau) and sets about completely instinctively living his last months.  It is a strangely restrained piece but stirs emotions deep inside us.  Melvil Poupaud does an excellent job in the lead role as he revisits childhood memories and at the same time starts to notice things about life he had previously ignored.  His quest to make sense of all this and the way he treats the people around him is very honest and not always likeable, which is one of the strengths of the film.  There is no free maudlin sympathy here.  Even the sex scenes have a crude poignancy about them especially in the threesome with waitress Jany (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi again and beautifully restrained) as Romain, the lead character impregnates her so she can have a baby.  I found this a very touching film for all its lack of sentimentality and its final scene is quite haunting.  Most recommended.

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The oddest little film, this one.  On the one hand it is a sort of French bedroom farce from the sixties but with a greater liberty and plenty of gays.  On the other hand it has a style of filming with hand held cameras that is more like today.  To top it all off, we have two song and dance numbers that defy description – the worst type of Franch musical kitsch a la 60’s.  Despite all that and thanks to a large suspension of belief, the film is quite enjoyable.  At the centre is the luminous free spirit of Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi as mother, wife and lover  who doesn’t really care what people do as long as they worship at the altar of free love and feel good.  Gilbert Melki is the slightly uptight husband and then we have the long-haired typically French adolescent son, Charly who may or may not be gay, because Martin his best friend, is .... lots of misunderstandings with this.  Later along comes the plumber (Jean-Marc Barr) who is linked to one of the family in surprising ways.  There is a running gag to do with cold showers, lots of coming and going with cellphones .... everything you would expect from a farce.  It almost works as a nostalgia piece and does give you laughs and is watchable.  Bruni-Tedeschi and Barr lift the film whenevr they appear and the boys are quite acceptable in their scenes.

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A rather sweet tale of a man growing up in the shadow of his father and then marrying and having his own son and the issues it raises about the passing of the generations and the roles we take at different stages in our lives and how well we fill them.  Daniel Burman uses his favourite actor Daniel Hendler once again and again it works – as Ariel Perelman, Hendler is a cert.  The rest of the cast: Diaz, Goetz and Aizemberg  do a good job but in the end, what sinks the film a bit is the slow pace.  Those of us from BA can keep ourselves amused spotting local places and customs but for the rest I suspect that the lack of any great story and the slow revelation of the changes in the lead character’s perception only ends up being a little tiring.  OK with reservations.

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This film has its moments and is generally watchable as a movie.  It doesn´t exactly come together as a story though and as a platform for the various opinions on society’s view on artists and the motivation of artists to succeed, it can be rather forced.  Max Minghella does a good job as wannabe Jerome who goes to art school convinced he’s the best and discovers that things are not so straight forward.  There he meets his teacher (John Malkovich), cynical and short on talent, a potential girlfriend – the enchanting Sophia Myles, weirdo roommate and filmmaker played by Ethan Suplee, failed drunk artist (wonderfully played by Jim Broadbent), other teachers like the one played by Anjelica Huston and his rival Jonah (Matt Keeslar), really an undercover cop investigating a series of grisly crimes on campus.  There is a lot to think about and different points of view and in some ways we are not encouraged to take it all too seriously and yet, on the other hand, some of the plot developments and attitudes of characters don’t hang together.  Interesting all the same.

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More than anything else, this film is a tribute to the acting prowess of Helen Mirren who takes one of the most difficult living characters to portray, Queen Elizabeth, and gives us a real woman with all her limitations and experience.  The pretext of the movie – an exploration of the week between Diana’s death and funeral and the backlash against the monarchy could have been very dull indeed but Peter Morgan gives us a cracking script of how old establishment meet new Labour and new Britain and Elizabeth realizes that things must change whether she likes it or not. Her values of constance and dignity, which she believes the people seek in her, must give way to compassion and flexibility in order to meet the clamour from the public for a show of sympathy over her daughter-in-law’s death.  Stephen Frears creates a film which somehow embodies all of this – based on real events and makes it lively and interesting.  It is not, in my opinion, a world beater but a very sensitive and clever piece of film making.  Michael Sheen as Tony Blair is very good as is Helen McCrory as Cherie, although she and some of the minor characters come across as a little one-sided.  Philip, the Queen Mum and Charles do not get the best treatment but then perhaps they really are as limited as the movie suggests.  In the end though, the acting prize and all the subtlety go to Mirren and I daresay the real Queen should be honoured that she has been given such a detailed and respectful characterisation.

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