BOOK OF SOLUTIONS (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2024

 

Michel Gondry returns to film making after an almost ten year break to tell a story inspired by the making of his film MOOD INDIGO.

Here Gondry tells the story of a filmmaker who is about to have his film pulled from his control. The backers and producers are not happy so he takes the hard drives and gets the hell out of the Dodge. Fleeing the city he ends up at his aunt's home (it really is Gondry's Aunt's house) where he attempts to finish his film and stop his slide into madness.'

Not to worry this isn't a dark film. If you know Gondry's previous films you know that he's going to be all over the place, in exactly the way life is.A celebration of creative people as well as exploration of matters of the heart. I smiled  all the way through the film.

This film is a small delight and while it may not be his best work, it still is a damn fine film that happily signals a return of a master director.

Highly recommended.

Temple Woods Gang (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2024

A group of friends from a housing block decide to rob a Saudi Prince. The job seemingly goes off perfectly. Unfortunately circumstance has other other ideas and it all begins to unravel

This is an excellent little thriller. Critically acclaimed in France it's easy to see why. Focusing on the men who pull the job the film transcends your typical thriller formula. There are real stakes to what we are seeing because we come to care for everyone involved. 

Beautifully made, and echoing the 1970's films of WIlliam Friedkin such as THE FRENCH CONNECTION and SORCERER, the director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche  wraps the audience around his little finger and manipulates us in the best sort of a way.

This is one I am not going to discuss because you will just want to buy a ticket and take a ride when the film plays Rendezvous With French Cinema on March 6 and 7.

Highly recommended

A pointer toward No Love Lost (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema

I'm not going to review NO LOVE LOST.  I personally was mixed on the film, however in trying to deduce my feelings I did some reading and found some people liked the film.

This is the mannered and at times whimsical story of a young man who meets a young woman, makes her pregnant. They have the child and then the mother leaves. He becomes focused on raising his daughter. 16 or so years later they discover mom, and it throws complications into everyone's lives. 

Often amusing,often scattershot and rambling NO LOVE LOST is a film that  seemed more intent on creating a feeling rather than telling a story. There are odd asides, references to silent screen comedy and a quirkiness that you either accept or find annoying.  

You'll have to try the film to discover if clicks with you or not.

Just The Two of Us (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2024

Virginie Efira​ plays twins in the story of a woman whose sister tells her that she will meet the man of her dreams at party. What she didn't expect was that it was going to  be a nightmare as her husband is somewhere beyond obsessive.

This film didn't work for me. 

To me it played like a middle of the road Lifetime movie on the big screen. Actually there are two problems with the film. The first is that no one really is all that well developed. Our heroine is a frightened woman, her husband is an obsessive. We don't don't get any sense of them outside of the relationship. They are one note. Once you get past the central couple everyone is a complete cipher, we know nothing about them at all. Who are these people? We have no clue.

The second problem is that the film is really badly paced. The first hour is the meeting and then the marriage collapsing. We get a series of sequences that are basically a spiraling series of replays of the obsession. They aren't bad as such but they are largely so low key that it comes off as basically the same thing happening over and over for an hour. There is no tension to any of it.  It's not until Efria decides to take a lover there  that things begin to happen. The problem is that at that point things pick up and then race like the wind to the end. Instead of actually explaining things, the film simply has them happen. Yes, it's interesting and I was engaged because I wanted to see what happened, but mostly I really didn't care. I mean I knew Efria survives because she is telling the story.

I was disappointed.

Red Island (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2024

Robin Campillo follows his previous 120 BPM  with this nostalgic look  back to the early 1970’s when his family was stationed in Madagascar. Following a ten year old boy who is obsessed with comics, makes a new friend and tries to sort out what is going on with the adults.  We see the world and the events surrounding his family through his eyes.

This is a nice memory play of a film. While there is a through line on some level this is more a series of set pieces connected together over time. It’s a film that plays better in a way when you see it a second time as you catch little bits from early in the film that you didn’t know were important later. I discovered this when I went back to  check something I thought I missed and saw a couple of things early on that enriched later events.

You will forgive me if I don’t say a great deal, I am still pondering the film after seeing the film a while ago. I find my reaction is not so much wanting to discuss the film, but press it into people’s hands and just have people see it for themselves.

It’s really nice film that’s worth your time.

AMA GLORIA (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2024

When a nanny named Gloria has a family emergency she is forced to return to Cape Verde. Cleo her six year old  charge is heartbroken. It is decided that the little girl would go with Gloria for the summer, however the move results in tension at home as Gloria's family isn't certain of how to take this new, if temporary addition to the family.

Deeply moving drama will have the tears rolling down your cheeks thanks to the performances of Ilça Moreno Zego as Gloria and Louise Mauroy-Panzani as Cleo. The pairing is perfect and you can feel the love and affection between them from first frame to the last.

This is a small gem.

On The Adamant (2023) plays Rendezvous With French Cinema 2024 Monday

This is a look at the Adamant, a community center for people with mental and emotional issues located on the Seine. We follow the group on several days over the course of a year.

This is a mix of interviews with observational sequences. It's some good time with some good people. I left the film wishing that the film was longer so that I could see more.

As much as I like this film I need to warn some of you that some of this is going to seem static. There isn't much camera motion or many cuts. It's because the  Adamant isn't very big so there wasn't room for multiple cameras (besides it would have been intrusive).  This is noticeable in the first part of the film where there are more interviews then sequences where things happen. However as the film goes on we get sequences where the people we met  earlier interact and become more than just people talking at us. It's wonderful, and it will make you want to see more.

This film is a charmer and recommended

Toni (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema 2024

TONI is an absolute delight.  It gave me more laughs and smiles than most films from the last year.

The barest of plot has to do with Toni, a one time performer, now a single mom to five kids, trying to deal with life and the changes it brings.

Full confession, this was not on my hit list of films to cover for Rendezvous With French Cinema. I did my usual smart ass- send me everything and mixed into the handful of titles was TONI. It was the one that I wasn’t sure I would get to but when a slot opened up I said which film am I not looking forward to…and it was TONI. I figured I would watch a bit and then move on… and instead I started laughing and I never stopped watching.

I love when that happens.

The film works wonders in that the perfectly sly tone is matched by a cast who sell it. They let us know they are buying what is happening and as a result we do too.

What I love are the small technical things that the film does that help sell things. What I’m talking about is things like the way the music is gets clunky when things are off and comes together when life comes together. It’s a small thing but it adds so much. There are other flourishes in the mix that add flavor but I’ll leave those for you to find.

This is a wonderful gem of a film. Its getting to find films like this that Rendezvous with French Cinema is a deep dive for me every year.

Highly recommended.

ALL TO PLAY FOR (2023) Rendezvous With French Cinema

Virginie Efira gives another stellar performance as a single mom trying to do the best she can with her kids.

The film begins with two boys rushing to get medical aid. One brother is pushing the other in a shopping cart. The film then shifts gears as Slyvie (Efria) is visted at her nightclub job by the police who take her to the hospital where her son is being treated. It seems she had left the younger son home asleep and gone off to work. The older boy had not yet made it home and she thought since he was sleeping there would be no trouble. The problem is the kid got up and tried to cook something to eat, destroying the stove and burning himself.  All should be okay, except that because the authorities were involved all sorts of investigations were started and despite it being an accident there is a question of whether Sylvie should keep her kids.

Feeling more real than pretty much any film out of Hollywood, ALL TO PLAY FOR is a wonderful look at people dealing with a bad situation. Since we are with Sylvie and her family we understand there was nothing malicious going on, so we see how the turn of events rocks their world. We also get to see a whole bunch of well formed characters deal with the hands life gave them.  There is a complexity to all of the relationships that lift the film up from your typical telling of similar stories. We are not focused on the events but on the relationships with the result that get to see them as real people and feel truly connected to them. By  following the characters we get more insight then simply following the events.

This is a wonderful slice of life and a must see film.

Animal Kingdom (2023) Opens Rendezvous with French Cinema 2024 Thursday

Set at a time when nature is going haywire and a disease is mutating humans into animals, a father and son move to the south of France to be with the wife/mother who has been changing. She has been taken to a facility where it is hoped that she can be cured.  However things become complicated when a bus transporting some of the "critters" ends up in a river releasing several of them. and the son begins to show signs of changing himself.

Well made film, is a blood related film to the thoughtful zombie films like MISS ZOMBIE and MAGGIE which seek to plum humanity without blood and gore. This is a film that ponders what it means to be human, as well as our fears about change and things that don't fit our definitions of life.

This film will grab you from the start as city traffic jam is interrupted by the escape of a partly changed man. People are tossed about and cars are damaged. We are also hooked for the long haul as we wait to see what happens.

What happens is for the most part is an intriguing riff on familiar themes. We've been here before, but not quite like this. The way the themes are presented opens up our minds to new possible takes,The world makes a weird sort of sense, especially in light of our living in a post covid world. Unexpectedly for much of the first half, this film is actually scarier than most recent horror films, despite the fact this isn't a horror film even it has "monsters".

Where the film falters is in the second half. The natural flow of the plot is rushed in some ways and the story ends up feeling forced. The filmmakers need certain things to happen to make a point  so those things happen even if they don't wholly make sense.  The result are some moments that don't quite ring true.

Its not fatal but whether to accept the turns will determine if you like or love the film.

I loved much of this, especially the make up.

Definitely worth a look the film opens this year's Rendezvous With French Cinema and opens in theaters March 15

Rendezvous With French Cinema starts this week

The annual excellent Rendezvous With French Cinema starts this week and it’s time for you to get excited.

Covering a wide swath of films from France it is a place to discover a number of films you’ll be thinking about at years end. For me the one I’m going to remember if the opening night film THE ANIMAL KINGDOM which has a couple of sit bolt upright moments that force you to wonder what in the hell you are watching in a good way.

I love this fest and it’s here that I discovered so may films and performers that I never knew existed. Last year Virginie Efira was in two films that haunted me all year long. This year she’s in at least two more that I know of, one of which ALL TO PLAY FOR is deeply moving family drama.

Normally I wade in and see a ton of films before hand but my life didn’t allow me to do that this year, so I will be wading into the in personal screenings (If you see me and my monster bag stop by and say hi). Right now I’ve seen 8 films and I’m going to be seeing a few more assuming the planets stay aligned.

Do yourself a favor and get some tickets. I’ve liked everything I’ve seen, though some is better than others, so I can’t tell you not to see anything.

The slate and tickets can be found here, so take a look and buy some tickets and go.