Toronto International Film Festival 2018 Capsule Reviews of French Films

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Tuesday, 04 September 2018 20:43

Written by Gilbert Seah

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2018 Capsule Reviews of French Films

The Toronto International Film Festival 2018 version runs from Thursday6th September for 11 days till the 16th with the whole list of Gala Presentations and smaller films to whet very moviegoer’s appetite.  Stars will line the red carpet following their films.  So expect Bradley Cooper and Lady gaga to be seen with their film A STAR IS BORN as other stars and directs who are only too pleased to do a Q & A with the audience.

Ticket pricing is getting more complicated with a different tier in prices depending on whether a screening is evening or day or rush or for a regular or e capsule reviewed.premium feature.  Best to check the website at:

tiff.net

Below are capsule reviews of selected Frenchfilms that are screened at this year’s TIFF.  This article will be updated daily as new films are capsule reviewed.

French films are those shot wholly or paryially in French or films with France listed with a co-production credit.  For a more complete set of capsule reviews inclduing non-Frecnh films, please chck our sister website at:

https://afrotoronto.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1793&catid=67

CAPSULE REVIEWS:

CLIMAX (France 2018) ****
Directed by Gaspar Noe

Gaspar Noe (CARNE, SEUL CONTRE TOUS, ENTER THE VOID) shows what genius can be done with a troupe of dancers obsessed with their art.  The film begins with interviews of individual members followed by an incredibly executed dance in synch to the amazement of the audience.  Third segment has the camera following the dancers as they interact with each other, speaking about their aims, fears or just plain flirtation.  This is followed once again by dance, this time with the camera placed permanent,y overhead of the dancers as they now individually dance into the frame, showing their prowess.  The dancers now drink the sangria which is spiked with LSD.  They never find out the culprit though the suspected get violently attacked.  They last segment leading to the film’s CLIMAX has them indulging in sex and violent acts.  The film’s dance sequences alone are more than worth the price of admission but the film delves more deeply into man’s tortured soul including the concept of death.  CLIMAX is not a film for everyone but is nothing one has seen before for those who can take it.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi69nL_VrTE

DOGMAN (France/Italy 2018) ***1/2

Directed by Matteo Garrone

Director Matteo Garrone’s (GOMORRA) latest film DOGMAN begins with an angry dog growling his teeth in closeup, a very appropriate beginning of a very angry film that tells a tale of vengeance by a mild-mannered DOGMAN pushed to the limit.  The dogman is Marcello who owns a dog care shop.  He knows and loves his dogs, just as he loves his daughter who he occasionally sees.  The film does not delve into his family affairs and the audience assumes Marcello is separated from his wife.  He snorts coke and hangs around a big hulk and uncontrollable bully, Simone.  The neighbourhood wants to bring Simone down as he is nothing but trouble but ends up leaving him alone  When Simone fucks Marcello up in a series of events, Marcello eventually gives the bully in comeuppance,  Garrone’s film is attain a difficult watch.  He is a good storyteller that connects the audience to his characters.  He even makes the bully sympathetic, loving his helpless mother and not being too bright. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eum93mpzpE0

GIRL (Belgium 2018) ***
Directed by Lukas Dhont

(in French and German)

GIRL tells the story of a boy/girl (Victor Polster) born a girl in a boys’s body undergoing a sex change to become girl.  As if the body is not under sufficient strain, GIRL is pushing her body to the limit as she suffers in her daily training to become a ballerina.  She has a supportive father and loving younger brother.   GIRL is Dhont’s first film as he goes for realism at the expense of narrative.  His camerawork is nothing short of suburb as one can see the camera focus changing as he tracks his camera.  Often, the audience can tell what is happening by the camerawork from a closeup or camera shift, before being told verbally by the dialogue as to what has transpired.  Dhont also effectively captures the emotions of her characters.  GIRL is arguable the most emotional film screened at the festival.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdzu26tnUTc

HER JOB (Greece/France/Serbia2018) ***1/2

Directed by Nikos Labot

Direct from current times as heard on the Greek radio about the country’s dire unemployment woes, a husband has been put out of work for far too long.  The wife, as a result takes employment as a cleaner at the newly opened shopping mall.  They have two children, the elder daughter being spoilt and uncontrollable.  Panayiota (Marisha Triantafyllidou) works hard but has a hard time at work, especially driving the new vacuum cleaner as well as a hard time at home, having to cook and have the family complain when she is not around to do chores for them.  Things look as if it is reaching boiling point but director Labot takes his film to a higher level.  Things improve.  After taking driving lessons, Panayiota masters the vacuum.  Her supervisor and colleagues appreciate her hard work and dedication.  Her daughter starts cooking for her and husband cleaning for her.  Director takes his film even one step further.  To reveal more would spoil the film’s twist and enjoyment.  The film works wonders, thanks to actress Triantafyllidou’s performance and the director’s frequent use of closeups that show every expression of joy and regret of her face.  Marvellous too, is the way Labot connects the audiences to the protagonist, family and story.

Trailer: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/her-job-trailer-1137998

L’HOMME FIDELE (A FAITHFUL MAN) (France 2018) ****
Directed by Louis Garrel

Louis Garrel is the son of Philip Garrel who broke into fame as an actor in Bertolucci’s THE DREAMERS and the recent GODARD MON A’MOUR.  Louis proves his directing chops in this light hearted romantic comedy in the adventures of as the title implies, of one faithful man played by Garrel himself..  He loves Marianne who leaves him for his best friend who after passing away moves in with her.  But her son with Tom breaks up the romance and has him now live with Eve who has always longed for him.  The voiceovers change between him, Eve and Marianne.  The film reminds one immediately of Truffaut’s heavier LES DEUX ANGLAISES ET LE CONTINENT where voiceover rules the layered menage-a-trios love story.  Thought not as elegant, Garrel’s film is still smart, insightful while still maintaining its playfulness.  The film bursts in youth and romance.  Thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining and yes, funny!

Trailer: (unavailable)

MARIA BY CALLAS (France 2018) ***
Directed by Tom Volf 

Tom Volf ’s MARIA BY CALLAS offers fresh insights into one of the great talents of the 20th century via recently rediscovered writings and interviews with the Greek-American soprano.  Maria Callas has been praised by many as the greatest singer of the century.  Callas was born and bred in New York City though many think she is of Italian or European origin.  The film is comprised of beautifully restored archival footage with her own words from her letters and writings as narrated by American opera singer Joyce DiDonato.   The Greek-American soprano rose to fame after World War II and became a star attraction in all the major opera houses. This film offers fresh insights into her public and private lives, especially her long-time romance with Aristotle Onassis, the affair that made headlines as both were still married at the time.  Callas's music is obviously paramount in the film.  The film’s real treat is Callas’ complete performances of the arias from the operas Norma, La Traviata, Carmen, and Tosca.  Also insightful and funny is the footage of the David Frost interview with Callas telling Frost, "If someone really tries to listen to me, he will find all myself there.”  The doc feels longer than its running time and could have been edited to a tighter 90 minutes.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdxBhU46TGM

MAYA (France 2018) ***
Directed by Mia Hansen-Love

It’s been frequently on the news about war journalists in Syria being kidnapped with the threat of being decapitated on live televsion.  MAYA, Mia Hansen-Love’s (LE PERE DE MES ENFANTS, EDEN) latest film has one such French journalist recently freed who travels to India on vacation to recuperate.  He meets MAYA, an Indian girl who opens his eyes back to life, though she is too young for him to start a love affair.  The best segment of the film is his re-meeting of his mother  who is working with foreign children, though detached from her own son. This the only serious musings on life by the director.  Lighter fare. otherwise  from Hansen-Love with lots of beautiful scenery of poverty stricken India.  The film does not really go anywhere as deep as her previous films but MAYA is still worth a look.

Trailer: (unavailable)

THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE (Belgium/France 2018) ***
Directed by Joël Karekezi

The jungle is tough to survive in but the land with the political unrest is almost impossible to live in.  As the Rwanda prisoners proclaim: “The soldiers have raped the wives and stolen the land.”  Set in 1998 at the outset of the Second Congo War, Rwandan director Joël Karekezi’s second feature is a propulsive odyssey about a pair of Rwandan soldiers navigating both wilderness and personal existential crises while lost behind enemy lines.  The two soldiers navigate Kivu, the borderland with its dense forests and hills where the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda meet.  The film is shot mainly with little light during the night, with just enough (light) to see the faces of the protagonists.  Director Karekezi shows that war is hell, made even worse for the sergeant when he falls ill with malaria.  The only saving grace is a group of sympathetic villagers who help him.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/286503684

NON-FICTION (DOUBLES VIES) (France 2018) ***
Directed by Olivier Assayas

Assayas proves once agin his ‘auteur’ status with this playful yet literary and contemporary take on art imitating life.  Two couples are under examination as each member  having an affair with the opposite sex of the other couple, all still remaining friends.  Set in Paris.   The film begins with a publisher (Guillaume Canet) turning down the work of his friend (Vincent Macaigbe) who is having an affair with his successful actress wife (Juliette Binoche).  There is debate on the decline of publishing revenue compared to the likes of audio books and e-books.  This is a very talky film the most talky of all the Assayas films and shows the director’s intelligence on what is current in the world today - besides showing him a respected director.  Assayas fans will not be disappointed.  Also quite funny especially with the actress referring to Juliette Binoche at the end of the film, again art imitating life.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qMeIhQ5An4

LES SALOPES or the Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin (Canada 2018) ***
Directed by Renée Beaulieu

Soft porn, art movie or soft porn art in the guise of an art movie?  Marie-Claire (Brigitte Poupart), in her mid-40’s is a professor of dermatology, embarking on a study of how skin cells are affected by desire.  Director Beaulieu also puts in her two cents worth about the sex theory.  Meanwhile, promising student Sofia (Charlotte Aubin) hopes to find tangible proof of love on the cellular level.  Director Beaulieu gives Marie-Claire a loving family, a sexy and loving husband (who still have sex with her) and two children.  Things get to a boil when they find out what mummy is up to.  Beaulieu’s film is more intriguing than it sounds as her subject faces different situations resting fro her sexual promiscuity.  As expected, there are lots of erotic and sex scenes.  Brigitte Poupart is winning as the film’s subject.

Trailer: (unavailable)

SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN (Germany/France 2018) ****
Directed by Margareth Von Trotta

German director Magareth von Trotta pays tribute to Swedish director Ingmar Bergman

in honour of the centennial of his birth. Margarethe von Trotta presents a detailed account of his life and his impact on filmmaking through excerpts of his work and interviews with family and contemporaries (Olivier Assyas, Mia Hansen-Love, Ruben Ostlund).  Her film begins with a segment of THE SEVENTH SEAL with actor Max Von Sydow and explanation of each shot in detail.  Many of his other films are also displayed  and put into perspective by actresses like Liv Ulmann who speak fondly of the man.  His thoughts and inability to love his own children are also revealed.  The film whets the appetite for watching Bergman films, a retrospective of the Master’s work that will be presented by TIFF Cinematheque this fall.  Extremely insightful and a  treasure for cineastes!  Von Trotta’s own film THE GERMAN SISTERS was selected by Bergman as one of his favourite films.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGeHGcKh1KM

LES TOMBEAUX SANS NOMS (Graves Without a Name) (Cambodia/France 2018) ***

Directed by Rithy Panh

 (embargoed)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnUZsJLY558

Film Review: "Maison du Bonheur"

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Saturday, 18 August 2018 18:15

Written by Gilbert Seah

"MAISON DU BONHEUR" (Canada/France 2016) ***1/2
Directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz

Subjects of documentaries are often famous people, but only a handful have been about ordinary everyday unimportant folk.  MAISON DU BONHEUR (translated in English to House of Happiness), an occasionally brilliant film is one of the latter.

It was not that long ago in 1975 that Belgian director Chantal Akerman stunned audiences and critics around the world with her 3-hour long art house epic on the daily chores of a housewife.   The film was called 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.  Though a fictional film that ended with the female protagonist committing suicide as did the director herself  recently, the film repeatedly showed the protagonist eating and cooking not once but repeatedly.  Similarly, in MAISON DU BONHEUR, this one an hour long documentary, Torontonian director Sofia Bohdanowicz shows that the daily chores and thoughts of an ordinary person can be just as interesting as a celebrity.

The doc’s subject is Juliane Sellam is a 77-year-old Parisian astrologer who has lived in the same pre-war apartment in Montmartre for half a century.   In this vibrant documentary, Toronto director Sofia Bohdanowicz focuses on Sellam’s daily life over 30 beautifully shot segments, which are narrated by both Sellam and Bohdanowicz. 

When the film opens, Bohdanowicz (she is revealed as a very young filmmaker) is leaving Toronto to stay in Paris with a person she has never met - Juliane Sellam.  Thus she begins filming Sellam’s life, thoughts and musings.

The matriarch’s life and rich inner world crystallize through her daily rituals of making coffee, applying makeup, and caring for her geraniums. 

Bohdanowicz devotes 10 minutes or so on each ritual.  Sellam describes desiring coffee as a young girl.  Her aunt denies her a taste saying that young girls do not drink coffee.  Her grandmother gives her a taste which she loves, just because she was initially not allowed to have any.  Up to the present, Sallen says she has loved coffee.  Bohdanowicz brilliantly shows, on cue, the slow pouring of steaming coffee into a cup.   Sellam puts on make-up daily, even to just take out the rubbish.  She confesses that she wants to look the best for everyone and that no one needs to see an ugly person in the morning  She goes again to the origin of her love for make up.  Her uncle used to be a nail polish salesman and he lets her try his wide array of samples.  The shot of the samples with dozens of painted false nails on  a platter is something I and not seen for 30 years.  Her ritual with gernaniums is just as interesting.  She waters them either late at night or very early in the morning so that people below her flat will not get wet from the water above.  Bohdanowicz never fails to impress her audience with Sellam and her chores.  And her doc goes on…..

The film has a special engagement run at the TIFF Bell Lightbox with the director present for a Q & A on the films opening day.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bInvPokMFH4

Film Review: Ma Vie Avec James Dean

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Friday, 31 August 2018 00:52

Written by Gilbert Seah

MA VIE AVEC JAMES DEAN (My Life With James Dean) (France 2017) ***
Directed by Dominique Choisy

The first thing to note about MY LIFE ABOUT JAMES DEAN is that there is no James Dean in this movie.  He does no appear in the film (except in a poster and a cut up figure in a dream sequence) or is this an American film.  MA VIE AVEC JAMES DEAN is the title of the fictitious French film that the director brings to a small town in picturesque Normandy.

When soft-spoken film director Géraud Champreux (Johnny Rasse) arrives on France’s Normandy coast for screenings of his latest art-house movie, there’s nobody there to greet him.  But he somehow manages to attract a motley crew of locals who bring their own drama along on his little tour.

There is the cinema projectionist (Mickaël Pelissier) who falls besides coming out for 

Géraud.  Nathalie Richard plays a lovelorn cineaste who is supped to organize the event but falls apart when her fame lover god with a man instead.

The film contains some quirky insights common to French films.  “Love is a burden, I hate being in love,” says the woman who organizes the film event.  But that makes life exciting, is Géraud’s retort.  She likens love to getting gum stuck on the sole of ones shoe and continues that there are hundred of gums on the street.  One scene later on shows a woman walking along the street trying to get the gum off her shoe.

Choisy’s film is also typical of the old gay films that teases with promising gay love or gay sex.  The audience gets a first glimpse of Géraud without his shirt on - displaying a nice chiseled upper body.  Later when he is drunk, the female hotel receptionist and male projectionist take off his clothes to let him sleep (as he is dead drunk) in his underwear.  Thee is also a nice shot of the projectionist and Géraud in one frame as they watch his film through the projectionist’s window, a gay film where two naked men indulge in the act of sex.

Choisy plays his film with Kafka-ish touches.   Géraud asks a resident where the Hotel de Calais is, right outside the hotel.  The hotel receptionist tells him that there is no working telephone in room 5 in which he is put in.  She then gives him the hotel telephone from under the counter.  A resident Géraud first meets when he enters a bar speaks with fish metaphors.

Choisy’s film is a small production, very much like the film Géraud has brought to Normandy.  It is well made and well-though through and immensely entertaining in its own odd way.  It still shows the freshness of first love and coming-out.

One segment that occurs out of nowhere has a band in the night outdoors performing a song with spectators all sporting sunglasses.  The scene is reminiscent of Aki Kaurismaki’s films where bands often perform and his characters often wear shades.  One wonders if Choisy is paying a bit of homage to Kaurismaki considering that quite a bit of the humour is deadpan.  The film could also be considered a nod to the Woody Allen classic PLAY IT AGAIN SAM  where Humphrey Bogart nudges Allen’s character towards romance, in which case it is James Dean 

nudging the projectionist on with his love or Géraud.

MA VIE AVEC JAMES DEAN is an entertaining sweet little quirky gay comedy with likeable characters with sufficient inventiveness to make it a good watch.  Availanle on VOD and DVD August 28th

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7zun7Ft6I

Film Review: Belle de Jour

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Tuesday, 31 July 2018 03:14

Written by Gilbert Seah

"BELLE DE JOUR" (France 1968) ****

Directed by Luis Bunuel

"BELLE DE JOUR" begins innocently with a open horse carriage moving leisurely in the countryside driven by two horsemen.  The camera reveals a couple (Jean Sorel and Catherine Deneuve) seated at the back exchanging love talk.  “I love you so much,” and the retort, “I love you more.”  But when he kisses her, he finds her very cold.  The carriage is stopped and he drags her to a tree and strings her up to be whipped by the two horsemen.  Why this sudden brutality?

It is a disturbing sequence that turns out to be a nightmare as the girl wakes up in bed with her apparent husband.

The film returns to the main life of the couple, Severine and her husband Pierre, a surgeon.  It turns out that she is frigid in their sexual relationship though she is turned on sexually by other things.  The film hints that the problem could have arisen from sexual abuse when she was a child.  Severin is accosted by her husband’s friend, Husson (Michel Piccoli) who is described as rich and idle, his two weaknesses.  Severine spurns his advances.

Two things make BELLE DE JOUR intriguing.  One is the mystery element.  Director Bunuel plays on the audience’s curiosity, or sexual curiosity, which is even more powerful.  Severine learns of a girl Henriette who sells herself as a whore at a nearby house, which eventually prompts her to become the BELLE DE JOUR, a woman of the day as she sells her services during the day instead of the night.  The other element is Bunuel’s expertise at surrealism.  Bunuel famous for his surreal films like L’AGE DOR, THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE and THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY plays this film where reality seems a fantasy and vice versa.  The sexual favours desired by Belle de Jour’s clients are not always involving intercourse.  One sequence has the client get off with his face being stepped on by his girl.  The very idea of a very bored housewife (Deneuve) serving clients every afternoon is in itself quite surreal.

There is much to fascinate besides the film’s sexual content.  One is the study of the characters, why each behave the way they do.  The other is the period piece, set in the past when one assumes sex is more controlled.  Which is not the case.

Deneuve looks totally glamorous as her wardrobe was designed by none other than Yves Saint Laurent.

BELLE DE JOUR shot many of its actors to fame, not to mention Catherine Deneuve.  Pierre Clementi won recognition as the extremely jealous gangster client, Marcel and went on to work after this film with the world’s best directors.  He is unforgettable in Bertolucci’s THE CONFORMIST.  Michel Piccoli again plays the role of another weirdo.

Not to give away any spoilers, the tim has many twists in the story including a happy fantasy-type ending that should please audiences. 

BELLE DE JOUR would have likely been seen already by many a cinephile.  But it is still interesting a watch a second time around as one-to-one can not be expected to remember everything about the film.  BELLE DE JOUR is re-released in a 4K restoration print for a special  engagement run beginning this week at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5oqTzcpfZw