Smoking Causes Coughing (2022) opens Friday and plays The Overlook Film Festival 2023, MAKE BELIEVE SEATTLE 2023, Boston Underground 2023

Quentin-Dupieuxis at it again with his wildly all over the place SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING, nominally a spoof of shows like Power Rangers and comics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The film has a group of superheroes being sent on a weeklong retreat to get their teamwork back after their latest battle against a mansized turtle takes longer than expected. As they camp they begin to tell ghost stories, with the result the superhero film morphs into Tales From The Crypt.

This is both one of Dupieux's best films and his least satisfying The best part comes via some of the most wickedly funny bits the director has ever put on film. The jokes and riffs here are pretty much all on target with the result you will be constantly laughing. The worst part is from the fact that ultimately most of this either doesn’t end or goes now where. Only one horror story about a helmet and the story told by the little girl end. Everything else, even the film itself just sort of stops (as the post credit sequence hammers home)

I really liked the bit here but I really wish there was an ending. This feels like --- had a whole closetful of ideas and just put them into a film because he could. Think THE BALLAD OF BISTER SCRUGGS from the Cohen Brothers.

It’s definitely worth a look because the ride is so good, but just be ready to be disappointed when the film flames out in the end.

Three Nights A Week (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

 

Photographer  Baptiste is in a mostly good relationship with Samia when he first meets drag queen Cookie Kunty. Intrigued and then smitten he begins to drift closer to Cookie and the young man under the drag, Quentin.

Absolutely lovely film about finding the one you love in unexpected places. This is a glorious film about lovely people that is largely devoid of the typical twists and turns that you see in most films.  This is a film where the characters act like adults and the drama comes from the interaction of real people rather than the pen of a writer. The result is a warm and charming film where we fall in love with the characters and we want to hang out with them just because they are so cool.

I smiled all through the film and when the final shots came I got misty.

What a lovely film.

I’m sure I could talk about deeper meaning, but I don’t care about that, I just care that I found a film full of characters I want to revisit.

Recommended.

Three Nights A Week plays at Rendezvous with French Cinema in NYC March 11 and 12

Brief thoughts on Winter Boy (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

This is going to be shorter than it should be because  WINTER BOY kicked up a lot of things that I still can not deal with after the death of my dad 3 years ago

This is the story of Lucas a 17 year old young man who is devastated by the death of his father in a car wreck. Uncertain if the death was an accident or suicide he goes into a downward spiral. Going off to stay with a friend in the city he begins a series of random sexual encounters as he works out who he is and how he feels.

Real and raw in a way that few films are WINTER BOY has the feeling of real life. It isn't surprising since it is based upon the director's own experiences. This is an often painful film  as Lucas and others will periodically talk directly to us as if they are explaining what they are feeling. It feels more like a documentary in those moments even though they are coming from the actors and actresses. Its a trope that hammers the emotions home as the walls between the audience and the characters on screen come down.

This was for me, someone who is still not processing the death of either of my parents, a gut punch. I from reading some reviews from earlier screenings that that the film laid out several people who saw in Lucas echoes of their own lives when they were coming of age and coming to terms with their sexuality.

My refusal to discuss the film aside this is a great film. It has one of the best casts you'll see all year and a connection to life that is like an electric high voltage line. 

Highly recommended.

Green Perfume (2022) Rendezvous WIth French Cinema 2023

During a performance one of the actors collapses. As his friend leans in to try and help the actor says that he was murdered adding cryptically "The Green Perfume". This sets the friend, and a lovely cartoonist he meets along the way,  on a mad chase to try and sort out what happened, why, and to discover what or who The Green Perfume is.

Charming throw back to the lighter Hitchcock films or the charming ones that he inspired (CHARADE) is the sort of film they don'e make any more. Or more to the point they don't make well any more. I say that because it's rare that we get a film  of this sort that doesn't over do everything ten times bigger than we need it to be. Here the focus is firmly on the the characters and we are better for it. Sure there is the quest for answers,  but that's just an excuse for a couple to meet and fall in love and get shot at.

What a deliriously grand time at the movies this is. I had a blast. Twenty minutes in I had to run out and get myself a big huge bowl of popcorn because this is that sort of a film- a popcorn munching joy machine.

Is this as great as the films it's modeled on? Great no. Good yes. This is the perfect film to go see and forget about the world for 100 minutes. It's so good that I want to add it to my collection.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants a smile producing escape.

Night of the 12th (2022) Rendezvous with French Cinema 2023

After a young woman is killed by being set on fire on the way home from a party the police are called in from the big city.

Echoing any number of other films where outsider detectives come in to a small town (say MEMORIES OF MURDER) NIGHT OF THE 12TH is very much near the top of the bunch. The film begins with a police retirement party. In a short hand method we get a sense of the cops and their sense of friendships. The film then shifts to the murder and then back to the cops, by which time we are hopelessly hooked.

This is just great filmmaking. It’s a film that we fall into because it feels like something we’ve seen before however at the same time director Dominick Moll uses that against us to up end our expectations. He’s not just telling the story of a murder investigation but deep diving into French society and examining the kind of thinking that would allow this sort of thing to happen. It’s a brilliant move that allows the film to have a real weight and as a result haunts you.  And in my case I wanted to dive back in and go through it again.

This is a great film.

Recommended

Worst Ones (2022) Rendezvous WIth French Cinema 2023

 

In THE WORST ONES reality collides with fiction as a filmmaker tries to get kids in a poor area act in his film about kids living in a poor area.  Things become complicated when the adults don’t want their neighborhood seen in a bad light.

An okay script is made more interesting by the hybrid nature of the telling. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't .

The kids in this film are really good. Actually if it wasn’t for the intrusion of a narrative this  could actually be mistaken for a documentary because the kids are wonderfully unselfaware and just seem to be themselves on screen. There are times when they broke my heart because I knew what I was seeing wasn’t a performance but real life bleeding out behind their eyes.

Worth a look

Gravity (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

As the universe races toward a mysterious alignment of the planets which is causing the sky to grow redder, two brothers have to figure out how to deal with an uncertain future, and the young hustlers who are looking to make their mark.

Heady mix of crime, social and science fiction dramas come together with uncertain results. While this is one of the best looking films playing this year's Rendezvous With French Cinema, it is in someways the most obtuse. It is trying to say a great deal about life when thrown out of balance (or is it into balance?) but it's juggling a few too many ideas for it's own good. 

While I admire what it's trying to do and I love the performances and the craft of the film, I' not certain it adds up to much.

On the other hand any film that refuses to go the way of any other is to be celebrated.

Worth a look for the curious.

Forever Young (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema

This is the story of a group of students at Les Amandiers, the prestigious theater school headed by Patrice Chéreau in the 1980's. We follow their lives over time in and outside of the classroom as life takes its toll.

Based on the experiences of director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, FOREVER YOUNG has moments that feel like they were filmed as a documentary. Watching the early scenes sequences play out as if we are watching life happening before our eyes, but with only a too perfect a camera angle as a give away that things are not real. I was jonesing on how fantastic the individual bits were and how great the acting was.

The problem is that somewhere along the way there is some attempt at a narrative and the film kind of doesn't really work. As we get a narrative thrust and characters and Louis Garrel shows up the film feels less special. We see gaps in narrative. Things happen and then time passes and other things happen without a clear link up. Its not bad but it isn't satisfying. I disconnected from the film just enough that this went from a great film to just a good one.

That said the film has moments that are among the best you'll see all year and as such FOREVER YOUNG is worth seeing.

Saturn Bowling (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

A police detective and his estranged homeless half brother collide in the wake of their father’s death. Wanting to give his brother a place to stay and a job the detective lets his brother take over the titled bowling alley. However things become complicated when bodies begin to appear.

Bleak, black crime thriller is not for the faint of heart. A neon soaked trip to hell this is the sort of neon noir film that French filmmakers have been making their own over the last few years.  It’s a violent film that had me gasping at the brutality of the scenes.

While the film doesn’t do anything new, the film is still going to have you sitting bolt up right in your chair and not looking away as bad things happen.

What a kick.

An absolute must see at Rendezvous for French Cinema

The Plough (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

 

I love Philippe Garrel‘s films there is a wonderful sense of humanity to his tales that always leave me feeling good. I’m always happy when I get to see a new one.

This time out Garrel tells the story of a family of puppeteers and what happens when the patriarch passes away unexpectedly. It’s a wonderful film about people being people and families being families.

I was delighted.

And that’s it. That’s all I have. This is just a delightful drama. I watched the film and I disappeared from the world and the festival crush and just enjoyed myself.

Any film that makes me forget about the world for a bit is a highly recommended

Five Devils (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

Young Vicky has a supernatural sense of smell. She can smell anything. She makes jars full of smalls that bring back memory. When her aunt returns to town it sets the already tense relationship between her parents on edge. Things become complicated when her aunt brings with her something that sends Vicky back in time to around the time all of the tension started.

Intriguing science fiction or magical realism tinged tale is mostly a kick in the pants. Setting up all sorts of intriguing plot threads we end up hooked early as we want to know what is going on and where this is going.  For most of its running time FIVE DEVILS is its own wonderful beast brough to life by a killer cast (Adèle Exarchopoulos, Moustapha Mbengue, Swala Emati and in a star making debut Sally Dramé) who make it all perfectly believable. More importantly while the films wrestles with the big themes of homophobia and racism, the film never loses sight of the human tale and the emotion between the complicated triangle of adults is never lost.

If the film has any real flaw it’s that it doesn’t quite stick the landing. It’s nothing terrible  but in a film largely unlike  anything else we’ve seen the film suddenly becomes a tad predictable. I would have loved a conclusion that wasn’t one that I had kind of eyed a few minutes from the end.

Quibbles about the ending aside this is a film you’ll want to see, especially for young Ms Drame.

Other People's Children (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

Other People’s Children is one of those very rare films where you see real life reflected back at you. Its an even rarer film in that it is a film about a step-mother where she isn’t evil or histrionic. It is a glorious blast of fresh air.

The plot of the film concerns Rachel. Married to a wonderful man she is the step mother to his five year old daughter who adores her. She has a near perfect life. Despite being a mother to her husband’s child she still would like one of her own. In formed by her doctor that he window to have a child is closing she has to come to terms with perhaps not being able to have the one thing she wants.

Quietly powerful, this film shines because of the performance of Virginie Efira. A beautifully modulated performance she manages to say so much with each look and movement. It’s a stunning performance that isn’t showy, but which kicks you in the heart. She clearly knows how luck she is to have what she wants but the need to have a child of her own haunts her. This is the sort of real life performance that the award bodies should be rewarding because it is so hard to pull off, but which they always overlook because it isn’t big and loud and screaming “look at me!”

As I said at the top this is the rare film that feels like we are watching life. Because I am so trained on waiting for a big turn, I was on edge waiting for some giant twist that never came.  Life just happened.  When the film was done I was pleasantly surprised and I waded into the film again to see it on it’s own terms, free of expectations.

More films should be like this.

Go see this at Rendezvous with French Cinema (March 3 and 12)

Revoir Paris (2022) Rendezvous WIth French CInema

Virginie Efira is  amazing in REVOIR PARIS. Between this and another Rendezvous with French Cinema film, OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN, she makes a strong claim for the next great actress that Hollywood is going to bring to these shores for Oscar gold.

The film has Efria's Mia taking refuge from the rain in a bistro on the way home. As she is making her way home for the evening a man with a gun bursts in and shoots of the place. Mia is left crawling through the carnage and promptly blocks out what happened.  As time passes she struggles to regain her memory and come to terms with what happened.

Don't go into REVOIR PARIS looking for answers about the whys and hows of what happened. This is not about the shooting but the process of the recovery. The film comes from writer director Alice Winocour's own experience talking to her brother via text who was in a Paris theater being shot up by gunmen. Winocour's interest is in what it takes to become some what whole.

Refusing to take the expected way the film draws us in and pulls us a long. While the flow of news coverage of actual events and the course of films before this make us think this will go one way, Winocour and Efria bring us another. The pair, working beautifully in tandem put us into Mia's shoes and make us feel what she is feeling. We are a survivor too going through life uncertain of our past.

The real reason the film works is Virginie Efira who is other worldly good. As I said above her work here is Oscar worthy. Its a performance where she's telling us everything not just by words, but by looks and gestures. All hail the new queen of cinema.

This is a great film and while Music Box has picked it up for release, you should make an effort to see it when it open this year's edition of Rendezvous with French Cinema.

Origin of Evil (2022) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

A woman decides to leave the factory where she is working and make amends with her billionaire father, not realizing she will have to contend with the family he has put together since she left.

Genre bending film is one part family drama, one part social commentary, one part thriller and one part black comedy. It's a film with a great deal on its mind. There are some knowing laughs mixed in with the poison which makes for a frequently fun ride.

If you haven't guessed, everyone in the family has an angle and what is going on and who is who seems to be changable depending upon the latest revelation. This fact makes it hard to really discuss what is going on lest bits be revealed too soon.

I liked the film a great deal, though to be honest seeing the film in the middle of all of the excellent thrillers playing Lincoln Center's Rendezvous With French Cinema has me scheduling a revist down the road where I can see it for itself.

Recommended

Harkis (2022) Rendezvous WIth French Cinema 2023

 

Harkis is the name of the locals who worked for the French in Algeria. They are part of the fighting force and they have joined up hoping that they will get the same rights as the French themselves.  They want to go to France for a better life.  As the  occupation is winding down it looks like there may be a snag.

In an age where countries like America are going into countries to keep the peace or fight a war, like Afghanistan or Iraq, the question of wat happens to those who help the occupying country is a tricky one. What are we to do for those who put their lives on the line for us.  The answer is we should take care of them but that isn’t always the case.

Harkis is the story of what happens from the guys in the trenches. It’s the story of the guys on the razor’s edge. They know there is a danger and a problem.  There is a scene where one soldier is talking to his father who hates the French but loves his son and despite wanting the French out he wants the possibility of a better life for his son that working for the French represents. It’s a small scene that echoes down the rest of the film.

I was moved.

This is a really good film that raises a lot of questions about how we treat the the countries we go into and what happens when we leave.

A must see at Rendezvous With French Cinema

Rendezvous With French Cinema Starts this week and it's all great

I’m going to cut to the chase, this year’s Rendezvous With French Cinema is the best one that I have covered in the last 12 years. I’ve seen fifteen of the films and there is only one I can’t recommend.

If that doesn’t get you to go out and buy tickets I don’t know what will.

The reality is that this annual survey of films from France has always been one of my favorite fests of the year.  Every year I see any number of films that end up on my end of the year best lists. The selections are just wonderful.

This year the selections are so good I’m not going to wax poetic  and ramble on about the series I’m just going to say go buy tickets. If you love thrillers this is especially the case since the thrillers they are running are incredible. Some may even curl your toes.

If I was to pick five must sees I’d say:

REVOIR PARIS about trying to recover from a mass shooting

GREEN PERFUME a romantic mystery thriller about murder and a secretive group

NIGHT OF THE 12th about a murder investigation in a small town

SATURN BOWLING about two estranged brothers and murder

HARKIS about the local soldiers who help the occupying force

I previous reviewed OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN and THREE NIGHTS A WEEK so if you read those reviews you’ll know  those are films are musts as well.

Coverage starts tomorrow.

I should also mention that between REVOIR PARIS and OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN maybe the launching pad for Virginie Efira into the American consciousness. Her performances in both films are Oscar worthy. You need to see both to see how good she is.

Again- go buy tickets. There is great stuff here and you need to see it.

Three Nights A Week (2022) SBIFF 2023 and Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

 

Photographer  Baptiste is in a mostly good relationship with Samia when he first meets drag queen Cookie Kunty. Intrigued and then smitten he begins to drift closer to Cookie and the young man under the drag, Quentin.

Absolutely lovely film about finding the one you love in unexpected places. This is a glorious film about lovely people that is largely devoid of the typical twists and turns that you see in most films.  This is a film where the characters act like adults and the drama comes from the interaction of real people rather than the pen of a writer. The result is a warm and charming film where we fall in love with the characters and we want to hang out with them just because they are so cool.

I smiled all through the film and when the final shots came I got misty.

What a lovely film.

I’m sure I could talk about deeper meaning, but I don’t care about that, I just care that I found a film full of characters I want tot revisit.

Recommended.

Three Nights A Week plays at SIBFF again today and Rendezvous with French Cinema in NYC March 11 and 12

Other People's Children (2022) SIBFF 2023 and Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

Other People’s Children is one of those very rare films where you see real life reflected back at you. Its an even rarer film in that it is a film about a step-mother where she isn’t evil or histrionic. It is a glorious blast of fresh air.

The plot of the film concerns Rachel. Married to a wonderful man she is the step mother to his five year old daughter who adores her. She has a near perfect life. Despite being a mother to her husband’s child she still would like one of her own. In formed by her doctor that he window to have a child is closing she has to come to terms with perhaps not being able to have the one thing she wants.

Quietly powerful, this film shines because of the performance of Virginie Efira. A beautifully modulated performance she manages to say so much with each look and movement. It’s a stunning performance that isn’t showy, but which kicks you in the heart. She clearly knows how luck she is to have what she wants but the need to have a child of her own haunts her. This is the sort of real life performance that the award bodies should be rewarding because it is so hard to pull off, but which they always overlook because it isn’t big and loud and screaming “look at me!”

As I said at the top this is the rare film that feels like we are watching life. Because I am so trained on waiting for a big turn, I was on edge waiting for some giant twist that never came.  Life just happened.  When the film was done I was pleasantly surprised and I waded into the film again to see it on it’s own terms, free of expectations.

More films should be like this.

Go see this  if you are the west coast a the Santa Barbara Film Fest (February 12) or on the east coast at Rendezvous with French Cinema (March 3 and 12)