The Science of Sleep

Having not seen Michel Gondry's earlier film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when the wife went to see it because I was otherwise engaged at the tattooist, I had very little real idea of what to expect of his work. Sure, I'd seen a few music videos and some clips of his films, but The Science of Sleep was to be my first full-blown Gondry experience.

It is not easy to explain in simple terms what the film is about, although ultimately it is a love story. Or an "is it or isn't it love?" story. When Stéphane moves into an apartment next door to Stéphanie, they soon realize they share a love of the fantastic. And while his view of the world is somewhat askew, he feels he is able to share with her.

What follows is a mish-mash of reality and dreams, and at times it is not obvious which is which. But this matters not, of course, for it is all part of the fun, and you either buy into it and enjoy, or you don't and feel like you're being taken for a mug, I guess. One minute Stéphane might be presenting his own imaginary TV show (in his head or in his room?), the next all seems like a normal day at his office... until he suddenly grows enormous hands. You see what I'm saying?

The lead characters, played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg, are both very appealing, though he more so than her, while the peripheral roles are also great fun. Stéphane's work colleagues are just so painfully awful, you have to feel for him!

And the toys and animation are wonderful, really. Next time I'm in New York I wanna buy some of Lauri Faggioni's stuff, for sure.

I'm glad this wasn't totally what I was expecting. But it was a huge amount of silly fun, with a big dose of cuteness thrown in for good measure. The DVD extras were good, too, for those of you who like such things. I give The Science of Sleep 73 points out of 100.

36 Quai des Orfèvres

Sometimes a movie's publicity tagline can be offputting. I'd read that 36 Quai des Orfèvres was "a French Heat" referencing Michael Mann's mid-90s De Niro/Pacino policer. I didn't care much for Heat, so this did nothing for me but fill me with trepidation. Still, I do like Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu, so I thought I'd give it a go.

It takes a while to get a grip on what's going on here. The two leads are both cops but in different departments; one is married to the ex-wife of the other; one has friends in the Parisian underworld. For the first hour, the viewer really could be a bit flummoxed.

But that's all good. We get served up enough exposition in our movies, so once in a while it's nice to be treated like an intelligent adult able to follow a choppy narrative.

This is a taut little flick. The action, like the dialogue, is fast and furious. The performances are strong, and you feel a kinship with certain of the characters, not least the hotheaded, shaven-headed, fiercely loyal Titi, who looks more like a thug than a cop.

The story ducks and weaves, wending its way through a series of characters, and you just know some of them are not going to make it to the end. But it keeps throwing up little surprises right up until the last.

I'd highly recommend 36 Quai des Orfèvres. I seem to say this often, but try to catch it before the pending US remake comes out. (Yawn.) I score this movie 75 points out of 100.

La Vie en Rose (aka La Môme)

So, I was looking forward to La Vie en Rose, not least to see Marion Cotillard's Oscar-winning turn as Edith Piaf.

It's tough to give a synopsis other than it's a bio-pic about a French singing superstar. It spans her life from the age of about 10 to her death at an incredibly old-looking 47.

Hers was a tough life and no messin'. Jesus, it makes Johnny Cash's look like a charmed one, full of love and happiness. Not only was it tough, it also had a lot going on, and this is the main problem with the film. There is just too much information crammed into the running time.

The other significant problem is that unless you have even the most basic knowledge of her life already, you may find yourself wondering what the fuck is going on every once in a while.

Cotillard is phenomenal in the lead role, of that there can be no doubt. As she ages, you can feel every ache in her bones. Her tiny shuffling frame towards the end of her life is almost heartbreaking to behold. And her scenes on stage are quite magnetic. (Don't be put off or swayed by the haters who bitch about her not singing her own songs. The lip-syncing is so good that you never notice anyway.)

But the film is simply not quite as good as she is. I half-wonder whether one day an extended cut might surface on DVD, or perhaps a mini-series-type adaptation, because I'll wager shitloads of footage hit the cutting-room floor to get this work down to some 130 minutes.

All that said, it is a beautiful-looking film, with amazing sets, costumes, and use of colour throughout. And the performances are good from the supporting cast, too, even though many are very brief.

I score La Vie en Rose a "worth watching but slightly disappointing" 70 points out of 100.

Sheitan (aka Satan)

What drew me to Sheitan was knowing that it had Vincent Cassel in it. Cassel is a fine actor, and to be honest, I'll watch almost anything with him in (except Ocean's Twelve, natch).

I didn't know what I was letting myself in for...

The basic premise is slasher enough. A few kids go off to a deserted farmhouse in rural France. The house belongs to one of their number. Almost at their destination, the kids (and we the viewers) meet housekeeper/shepherd Joseph, whose wife, we find later, is pregnant.

Before you know it people start getting offed and weird locals are brought into the equation. Throw a bit of incest and voodoo-like dollmaking into the mix, and you're all set for a fun night in. And you even catch a glimpse of Monica Bellucci playing a vampire on a TV screen in one scene.

This is probably one of the maddest films I've seen in a looooong time. Not quite as mad as Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris, but pretty fucking wacky nonetheless.

As time has passed, the details have become lost to me, but what remains is just as important: it has left me with a feeling, a fondness, an inquisitiveness towards it, a desire to see it again and try to figure out what the hell is going on. And, for me, that's better than a comprehensive understanding. I give Sheitan 70 points out of 100.

A Self-Made Hero

This is a French film. I'm guessing it's about some sort of self-made hero, but two attempts at watching it both put me to sleep within half an hour. I didn't finish it, so I won't score it. And no score is a bad thing, my friends.

le dîner de cons (aka The Dinner Game)

I had no expectations of le dîner de cons before sitting down to watch it. My wife vaguely remembered some good reviews, so we thought we'd give it a go.

The initial set-up is that every week a group of friends get together for a dinner party, each of them bringing the dumbest person they can find, hence the name of the film, which translates as "The Idiots' Dinner", more or less.

The invited idiots are asked to talk about themselves, and the person who brought the most stupid guest is declared the winner.

So far, so slapstick.

Pierre chooses François, a man who makes world landmarks out of matchsticks, as his idiot and invites him to his house prior to heading to the dinner. But Pierre injures his back, so the pair miss the meal and end up having to spend the evening together in the apartment. Throw in an ex-wife and her lover, and sit back for the fireworks.

As I said above, I had pretty low expectations. European humour doesn't always travel well to other languages (or, rather, to subtitles). But I needn't have worried. le dîner de cons was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. I was close to rolling on the floor.

If you get the chance, you should see this instead of the forthcoming US remake, poetically titled Dinner for Schmucks (vom!). I give le dîner de cons 81 points out of 100.

Baise-Moi (aka Fuck Me; aka Rape Me)

I like a good controversy, and Baise-Moi, upon release a few years back, was nothing if not controversial. Even its native France was divided over whether such a film should be banned. France?! Considered by many to be the home of cinema and usually above such proletarian concerns as censorship... "My, oh my, che razza di film e' questo?" I wondered to myself.

The basic plot is: two women, strangers who meet one night, go on a crazed kill spree, following the rape of one of them.

They kill on a whim any man who crosses their path and quite a few women too, most notably at an orgy/sex club.

Over here in the UK our version has been shorn of a couple of its most extreme moments, but some of the hardcore sex has been left intact. This is one of that wave of cinema of that time that delighted in including full penetration, and here as in a couple of other flicks a porn star takes one of the leads to help facilitate such scenes.

So, it's Thelma and Louise meets Ms. 45 meets Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer? Well, maybe.

Does it live up to all the hype? Well, maybe.

Is it any good? Well, maybe...

That's the overriding impression I took from this maybe. It's a bit "Well, maybe." Not a terrible film, as some would have you believe, but a short film that could have been shorter still for its lack of real plot.

Tough to score, since it's more an experience, or ordeal, than a film for pleasure. But overall I'd give it 52 out of 100. That's not a wholly accurate score, since it could have been more than twice as good as it is, but it places it in the right context in my list of films rated so far.

Germinal

Another French film I remembered from way back when but had never seen, Germinal is a period tale of miners getting screwed over by their employers. When they take the only course of action left to them -- a strike -- things get pretty damn tricky. Believe me, it is actually much better, and more interesting, than it might sound!

All the cast (headed by Gérard Depardieu) do a great job, and the direction is spot on. One of those films that plays like an epic and so you brace yourself for a three-hour session only to find it runs shorter than that and that you could have sat through even more.

Acting: 14
Story: 15
Direction: 15
Enjoyment: 13
Involvement: 15
Total: 72

Jean de Florette

Jean de Florette is one of those films that I'd long been aware of but had somehow never got around to watching. It tells the story of lawyer Jean who inherits a house and a plot of land in the French countryside. He decides to move there with his family to get away from the city life and start afresh, getting back to basics and living off the land and the fruits of his own labour. He has grand plans.

Unbeknown to him, though, a couple of locals have their own plans for the land, and they block up the spring that irrigates his property, rendering his plans all but useless, in the hopes that he will pack up and go home. But Jean is not easily dissuaded from pursuing his dream. The film tells the tale of Jean's continuing efforts and his interactions with the community at large.

The community is mistrusting of the stranger among them: his being a city lawyer is not the worst of it; he's a hunchback, too, and that means bad luck, plain and simple. Of course, there is another whole load of background stuff that some of the characters know about and others don't, but I don't want to reveal too much here.

The acting in this film is first-class. I know Gérard Depardieu has become something of a cliché over the years, but he puts in a tour de force performance as Jean. And the "bad guys", an uncle-and-nephew duo played to perfection by Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil respectively, really make your skin crawl as they become more and more vindictive in their plotting.

I had never imagined how beautiful a film this would be -- one of the best I have seen in a long time. It is a rich and moving piece of work that immediately draws you under its spell. And when it ends, you know you have to rush out and grab a copy of the sequel, Manon des Sources, ASAP.

Acting: 16
Story: 17
Direction: 16
Enjoyment: 17
Involvement: 18
Total: 84