Film Review: Il Pleuvait des Oiseaux

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Friday, 03 January 2020 00:23

Written by Gilbert Seah

IL PLEUVAIT DES OISEAUX (AND THE BIRDS RAINED DOWN) (Canada 2019) ***1/2

Directed by Louise Archambault

Director Louise Archambault's elegiac and charming AND THE BIRDS RAINED DOWN based on the award winning novel by Jocelyne Saucier is a tale of lonely old people with a slow pace to match.  The film runs a little over two hours and requires some patience to watch though it comes wth a few rewards.  The film is shot in Quebec showcasing some magnificent landscapes and in French, thus its French title.  The film has been selected Canada’s Top 10 by the Toronto International Film Festival poll.

It takes a death to bring all the film’s characters together.  In fact two deaths, though it is a bit confusing at the start as it appears that the two deaths were the same person.  One death brings in the local hotelier Stephen (Éric Robidoux) with his aunt Gertrude (Andrée Lachapelle).

The other death is Ted, one of three hermits living in cabins in the Quebec countryside, miles from civilization. The hermits are Tom (Rémy Girard), Charlie (Gilbert Sicotte), and Ted (Kenneth Welsh) all of whom fled society years ago.  They grow pot and sell it to the closest locals with help from Stephen.

All four come together resulting in several interactions, one of these being a senior romance between Gertrude and Charlie.  Warning:  There are sex scenes that includes old people nudity.  To the director’s credit, these are taken slowly and executed in good taste.

The film is so called because of fires that often rage through the forested area.  One previous huge fire affected many of the characters including Tom who survived the fire but witnessed his entire family dying from it.  The heat and fumes were too much for the birds that just rained down, dropping on those below.

This is a lifestyle that is increasingly endangered by nature, infirmity, and age. Into the picture arrives photographer/ researcher Ange-Aimee (Eve Landry).  She threatens to disrupt their lives when she starts looking for survivors of this catastrophic blaze.

One thing noticeable about the film is the way more and more stories creep into the plot.  The final one involves yet another fire that once again threatens the existence of the hermits.  Cops arrive, clearing people from danger.

Each character has his or her own story, or baggage as better described.  Tom is the local guitarist/singer who appears stuck there perfuming his tunes, one of which belongs to Tom Waits’ famous collection - “Time” and another of which is Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire”.  Apparently, these two songs were performed live by Girard.  Charlie had been ill, near death but survived.  Gertrude had been institutionalized and had never found love, though have had no shortage of sex inner younger days.  All these stories make intriguing fodder, though they take their time to unfold.

As director Archambault’s film comes to a close, it becomes apparent that it is not the stories of the lives of the characters that make the movie but the surprises that these stories of life brings that makes the film worth watching.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kj_Wq8FfI8

Film Review: Varda Par Agnes

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Tuesday, 26 November 2019 21:29

Written by Gilbert Seah

VARDA PAR AGNES (France 2019) ****
Directed by Agnes Varda

Agnes Varda talks about film and about her films to an audience in a grand cinema auditorium.  This is the documentary -  a doc about film, life and inspirations.

Agnes Varda mentions the three words that are all-important to filming: inspiration, creation, and sharing.  Without inspiration, there is no film.  Varda, obviously gives examples from her past work, mentioning how she immediately wants to film her uncle Varda the second she met him.  She started visualizing colours, camera angles, shots and all.  The film the shows segments of that encounter.  Varda also mentions the difficult part of creation, getting the finance  needed to make a film.  She confesses that she often had to work with small budgets.  She came up with her film CLEO IN THE AFTERNOON filmed in real time of 90 minutes, to cut cost.  CLEO turns out to be one of her most successful ones.  The third element of sharing, she is currently doing, communicating to her audience in the auditorium.

Directors have their niche.  Some directors make action films, some comedies and some documentaries.  It is the latter category for Agnes Varda.  In her film, JANE B. PAR AGNES V., there is one exquisite scene she captures while Birkin is walking with her son on the beach.   A woman is lying flat on the beach with a Bible on her chest while two men stoop each by her side.  The boy questions the mother for the reason, and she replies that she does not know.  The film does not indicate any reason for the image either.  Varda sees images like these, captivating and occasionally without reason, but to Varda, this image needed to be captured.  It is these little intricacies that make Varda the artist that she is, as well as give this doc its great pleasures.  Varda’s segment on her potato exhibition is nothing short of extraordinary.

Though at the age of 90 at the time of filming this doc, Varda still emanates her characteristic vibrant energy. She offers a wide-ranging journey through her world: her filming process, her feminism, her fine-art photography, her long-time relationship with director Jacques Demy.  There are signature flourishes of animation, and formal detours into the dreams that form the integral basis of her reality.

Varda died only a month after Varda by Agnès premiered at Berlin, and with this in mind, it's hard not to see it as a eulogy. Yet, like all of Varda's work, it brims with life. And its takeaway is not a past-tense legacy, but a sense of how Varda lived through her films, of what she brought to the art form, and — the greatest gift — of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. "Nothing is banal if you film people with empathy and love," Varda once said. This is the inspiration she has left us with.  Many of her best films are on display here, from CLEO DE 5 A 7, SANS TOIT NI LOIT (English title VAGABOND), THE GLEANERS to VISAGES, VILLAGES, her last and BEST film in 2017.   Sandrine Bonnaire from SANS TOIT NI LOIT appears as a guest talking to Varda.

For those who grew up with Varda and her husband Jacques Demy, VARDA PAR AGNES is a pleasure. 

AGNES PAR VARDA is a true film on how life imitates art (in this case, film) and how art imitates life.  Varda passed away with this doc marking this film her swan song.  There are too many pleasures in the film to be mentioned, so best to see this film for oneself.

Trailer: http://www.filmswelike.com/films/varda-by-agnes

Film Review: Antigone

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Thursday, 05 December 2019 20:14

Written by Gilbert Seah

ANTIGONE (Canada 2019) ***1/2

Directed by Sophie Deraspe

Two French language films involving police brutality (in these films, police opening fire causing riots) make this year nomination entries for their country’s Best Foreign Language Film entries.  ANTIGONE is Canada’s entry for the Best Foreign Film.  LES MISERABLES is France’s entry.  Both films are quite different.  The short list has at the time of writing not yet been announced.

ANTIGONE is an ambitious film adapted from the classic Greek tragedy. 

ANTIGONE is the name of a Lebanese immigrant living in Montreal with her grandmother, sister and two brothers.  The film begins with a dinner scene where the audience is introduced to each family member.  Things look rosy for the new Canadian family.  Antigone has a romantic fling with a white Canadian boy whose father is running for politics office.

Things take a turn one day when cops show up unexpectedly at a playground.  One brother is shot and the other arrested.  Because the arrested brother has got a record, he likely will be deported.  Antigone having a clean record and not yet an adult figures she can pose as her brother and get him out of prison by pretending to be him.  This she does.  But nothing is what it seems.

By helping her brother escape from prison, Antigone confronts the authorities: the police, the judicial and penal system as well as the father of her friend Haemon. The brilliant teenage girl, on a spotless path so far, feels the noose tighten on her. But to man's law, she substitutes her own sense of justice, dictated by love and loyalty

Director Deraspe always has some new twist in the story, as the film progresses.  Antigone discovers that the brothers are not as innocent as they seem.  The arrested one is part of a local drug gang in which the shot brother held a high position.  Antigone is arced with a dilemma.  Family for citizenship?  The film stresses both the importance of family as well as the need to lookout for oneself and not be bogged down by family.  After all, it is one that is responsible for ones own life.  The decision Antigone takes is revealed in the film’s final shot.

ANTIGONE is a rough watch and is meant to be so.  It is a film that reveals the hardship of immigration in an extremely cruel world.  But director Deraspe shows that there is hope.  There is always good people out there.  The good people out there in this film turns out to be Antigone’s white boyfriend’s father who goes out of his way to do the right thing and earn back the respect of his son.

ANTIGONE is a film deserving of the distinguished honour of being selected as Canada’s entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.  But LES MISERABLES is the better picture as it is more spectacular and daring in its storytelling, taking more risk than ANTIGONE does.  Still ANTIGONE plays more with conflicting raw emotions.  ANTIGONE starts off slow, but it hits boiling level pretty fast.  Definitely worth a look, the film went on to win the prize of Best Canadian Feature at the last Toronto International Film Festival.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo5os3XbZC4

Cinefranco 2019

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Thursday, 21 November 2019 02:53

Written by Gilbert Seah

Cinefranco 2019

Cinefranco 2019 runs from November 22 to the 30th 2019.  Programmed and run by the tireless and ever-cheerful Marcelle Lean (who I am proud to say is a good acquaintance of mine) since the fete first started.

The Festival’s Main Program is the most important international francophone film festivals in English Canada.  It is comprised of up to 40 francophone films and brings together thousands of fans.  The films reflect the richness and diversity of filmmakers from Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Algeria, Morocco. Tunisia, Senegal and other countries.  The goal of this program is to showcase films rarely seen or not distributed in Toronto cinemas. Considering that fewer and fewer French films are being released (such a pity) in theatres, Cinéfranco provides an essential platform to foster the appreciation of francophone films. Therefore, Cinéfranco gives the unique opportunity for francophone film lovers to experience the films on a big screen, and for filmmakers to meet their audiences. Cinéfranco provides popular yet quality programming, from hilarious comedies to social dramas, through moving documentaries or captivating thrillers. The viewers get to vote for their favourite film which is awarded “The Audience Prize” at the end of the festival.

For complete information of the festival including descriptions of the films, please click the Link:

https://www.cinefranco.com/fall-festival

Capsule Reviews of Selected Films:

Un Amour Impossible (France 2018) ****

Directed by Catherine Corsini

Don’t let the title put you off.  This is no cheap riff-off of a ROMEO AND JULIET story.  UN AMOUR IMPOSSIBLE is an incredible emotional and intelligent romance so dark yet beautiful that will surely affect many couples for the fact that the story can be or might be more common than expected.  The story follows a couple very much into each other.  The girl, Rachel (Virginia Efira) is very much head over heals in love with utterly handsome Philippe (Neils Schneider).  The romance is shown from Rachel’s POV as love at first sight, perfect love, with a totally handsome beau with excellent sex.  Until he unloads the bomb on her, that he does not want to be wed.  Worst still, when she reveals her pregnancy, he travels to Italy.  The narrator of the story is the daughter of the couple.  Nothing more should be revealed of the story but this is one remarkable romantic drama that will affect both sexes and the daughter.  How often than not that we have (myself included) fallen in love with someone who is so attractive that he or she can attract anyone else at any time.  What can one do?  The most emotional part occurs in one scene where she stares at him: He is so abusive to her, but she is so much in love with him that she does nothing.  The film runs more than 2 hours, but every minute is worth its time.

Trailerhttps://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-dcola-005&hsimp=yhs-005&hspart=dcola&p=allocine+un+amour+impossible#id=51&vid=287300ffc47760d54dea41402d815079&action=view

LE MYSTERE HENRI PICK (The Mystery of Henri Pick) (France 2019) ***1/2
Directed by Remi Bezancon

A bold inventive comedy that is ripe for Hollywood to remake.  While conducting a television interview with the widow of pizza restaurateur Henri Pick, who is the posthumous author of a bestseller, talk show host Jean-Michel Rouche (Fabrice Luchini) attracts the wrath of his employer and the spectators by suggesting the book could be a sham. The same evening, his wife leaves him and he is fired from his job at the network. This double disgrace reinforces his desire to prove that he is right.  As Rouche acts not only like a know-it-all proud peacock but an asshole, the audience is only too glad to witness his downfall.  But Rouche is not without charm.

He is joined in his investigation by the late author’s bookworm daughter, Josephine (Camille Cottin), after convincing her the book couldn’t have been written by her father. Echoing Agatha Christie, false leads and literary fun abound in this charming French affair.  There is no romance here not even a little hint, but the story works as both a clever whodunit or rather whowroteit as well as a study of characters in a French literary setting.  Luchini exhibits charm as the disgraced host who eventually redeems himself. A mysterious pleasure of a film.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbyBzbTYw5s

PUPILLE (IN SAFE HANDS) (France 2019) *****Top 10
Directed by Jeanne Herry

Marcelle Lean picked a real winner for her Cinefranco 2019 with this film about France’s adoption process.  The adoption process is shown here in all its complications and complexity with a whole lot of people involved in finding an adopted baby a good home.  PUPILLE unfolds non-chronologically as fiction though one can be sure that director Herry has done lots of research.  The story follows Theo, abandoned by his biological mother (Leila Muse) as Social Service strives through many applicants to find him a suitable and loving home.  The film reveals the various emotional states of everyone involved in the process from the mother, to the accepted new adoptive mother (Elodie Bouchez), to the social workers (3 of them) to the man (Gilles Lellouche) who looks after Theo before delivered to his final home.  Director has created both a heart warming and heart wrenching drama that will tug at ones emotions.  So, bring lots of Kleenex.   A few of the film’s parts are out of place like the emotional drama between two of the workers.  But given the film’s content, good intentions and research, PUPILLE deserves full marks.  (It has also 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing.) PUPILLE is the term given to the ward while under the care of France’s Social Services.  The film returns ones faith in the human race. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bx3DnPLI6U (ver francais)

VENICE N’EST PAS EN ITALIE (France 2018) ***1/2

Directed by Ivan Calbérac

Based on the 2015 novel ‘Venice is not in Italy’ by Ivan Calbérac, VENICE N’EST PAS EN ITALIE (English title VENICE CALLING) follows the coming-of-age adventures of teen math geek Emile who lives with his struggling but over-loving parents in a caravan falls for ultra wealthy girl in his class.  When she invites him to her orchestra performance in Venice, he promises to attend, if his parents can afford it.  They agree to let him attend but decide to come along as well, together with caravan in tow and his elder cool brother who suddenly shows up.  VENICE has all the charm and nuance of a French comedy that is both funny and entertaining with a message to boot.  The film’s best part has the mother giving Emile a smack across the face for being ashamed of her.  The truth is almost every child is ashamed of their parents for some reason or other, for being not rich enough, for dressing odd, for showing affection in public etc.  At the same time, the boy grows up learning more about life (including sex, courtesy of his elder brother) and what counts in life.  The film is a total delight!

Trailer: http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19583589&cfilm=241649.html (ver Fr)