Rev Stan's film blog

Unlocking Sarah's Key

This is the second film I've seen in as many months about the round up and expulsion of French Jews during the second world war.  The first was The Round Up and set predominantly during the second world war. Sarah's Key has two interlinked stories set during the war and in contemporary France.

At the heart of the film is the  story of Sarah (Melusine Mayance). She is the young daughter of a Jewish family living in Paris and when the round up starts she locks her younger brother in a hidden cupboard so that he will be safe.

As her family are carted off first to a velodrome in Paris, then holding camps before the final journey to the concentration camps Sarah is desperate to get back to her brother and free him from the cupboard.

The contemporary story sees an American journalist, Julia (Kristen Scott Thomas) who is married to a French architect and living in Paris and is researching a piece on the round up. In the course of her research she discovers that her husband's family apartment, which he is renovating, belonged to a Jewish family who were sent off to the camps. Sarah's family in fact.

So as the story of Sarah and her attempts to get back to her brother unfold, Julia is slowly unearthing the story herself and the connection her husband's family have with that period of history.

It's nicely done but it is one of those films that you can't help feeling like the writers have come up with a good idea then gone beyond what is really necessary, diluting what is good source material. 

The story of Sarah and whether she will or won't get back to her brother and whether he is or isn't still in cupboard, dead or alive is a compelling and deeply moving one. Julia's investigation into the story adds an extra layer of tension as she gets ever closer to discovering the truth.

*Potential spoilers* But does Julia really need to have marital and fertility problems? It is interesting to know what happened to Sarah after the war but does it need to go into quite so much detail about her family and the tension between Julia and the Sarah's grown up son just seems extraneous.

Sarah's key has some great moments and occasionally comes close to The Counterfeiters for dilemma and psychological trauma but its excess baggage weighs it down which is a shame. I'm going to give it 68%.

It's got 72% from users on IMDb, 58% from Metacritic and on Rotten Tomatoes it has 74% from critics and 84% from users.

 

French film double bill #2: The Round Up

The last Holocaust film I saw was the Counterfeiters which is one of my all time favourite films. This French-made film is set in France and tells the story of the round up of French Jews in 1942 by the occupying Germans.

It follows a group of Jewish families living in an enclave in Paris as life gets more tough and restricted in the lead up to and after their incarceration before being transported to Poland.

Aside from the families' stories it also examines the politics of the time as French politician's negotiated the terms of the hand over and the numbers.

Naturally its an emotional piece both from the perspective of those whose lives as are destroyed and the non-Jewish French people who did everything they could to help them and ease their suffering.

French film double bill part 1: Point Blank

 This film packs an awful lot of action/thriller punch for it's 86 minute running time. OK so it stretches the suspension of disbelief quite a bit but it still has a pretty good grip.

Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) is a trainee nurse with a heavily pregnant wife who gets dragged into the criminal underworld. While on duty one night he sees a doctor he doesn't recognise with a patient. When confronted the doctor runs and he realises that the patient's ventilation tube has been cut.

He saves the patient and the incident is reported to the police and that is that. Or so he thinks only that evening, while at home with his wife, he is knocked unconscious and his wife is kidnapped. The 'ransom' is that he has three hours to get that same patient out of the hospital.

French/Canadian cinema burns bright: Incendies

This is a corker of a film. It starts with twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) being read their mother Nawal's (Lubna Azabal) will through which she requests they find their father, whom they thought was dead and a brother they never knew they had. Once they find them they are to give them each a letter and only then can she can be buried.

With their mother's unknown past hammering on their door, Jeanne decides to leave for the Middle East to search for her brother and father. Simon, who is having problems coming to terms with the situation initially decides to stay at home but as Jeanne starts to discover the truth is persuaded to fly out to help.

The film then interweaves the siblings search and the story of their mother's violent and heartbreaking early life from her teens at the outbreak of religious unrest and then civil war in an unnamed Middle Eastern country - most likely Lebanon. The two threads gradually draw together as Jeanne and Simon discover the truth.

And it is stark, shocking, intelligent and gripping. Beautifully shot and acted it is one of those films that lingers long after you leave the cinema.

It's getting 87% from me. Over on Rotten Tomatoes it's got 92% from both critics and viewers while on IMDb it's got 8.2/10.

 

The Potiche 15 minute film review

Must admit that French comedy normally leaves me feeling a bit 'meh' but I was drawn to this Catherine Deneuve/Gerard Depardieu vehicle because underneath the humour and the very kitsch 70s setting there was an interesting history lesson.

Deneuve is the 'potiche' or trophy wife of the title - Suzanne Pujol - although this being the 70s it doesn't mean spoilt in the way it does today, it means stay at home wife who's husband views her as nothing more than a home-maker.

The husband in question, Robert (Fabrice Luchini), owns the local umbrella factory and runs it with an iron fist and disregard to the workers conditions, and as a result strikes are frequent. He's also having an affair with his secretary.

When Robert is taken hostage by the workers Suzanne is forced to call on the help of her former lover and now left-wing politician Maurice Babin (Depardieu). The shock of the kidnap sends Robert to his sick bed and Suzanne to the head of the table in the boardroom. With the help of Babin, she succeeds in winning over the workers and everything begins to runs smoothly.

And it is a real joy to watch. Deneuve proves at 67 that she has still got charm and sex-appeal by the bagful and for all the kitsch, frothiness there are plenty of nods to the real issues of the day. The way the men behave and talk to the woman serves as a stark reminder of what has changed and what hasn't. 

It put a real smile on my face and I'm giving it 79%. IMDb has given it 6.8/10 and Rotten Tomatoes UK doesn't have a consensus yet.

 

 

 

The 'argh getting behind with my reviews' review: Love Like Poison

This is a coming of age tale - that difficult time when you start to leave childhood behind, realise your parents aren't perfect and have your first sexual encounters.

The protagonist, in this French film, is Anna played by new-comer Clara Augarde. Her mother is religious and has her educated at single sex Catholic boarding school but her father is an atheist who has just moved out to be with another woman.

Her mother seeks solace in old childhood friend and local priest Pere Francois and is struggling to come to terms with the split, admitting in confession to feeling jealous of her estranged husband's love for their daughter.

The 'argh getting behind with my reviews' review: Farewell

Actually saw this French cold war spy thriller a couple of weekends ago but Birthday celebrations and general busy-ness got in the way of writing up my thoughts.

I'm a bit of a fan of films set during the cold war and have been looking out for something to match up to the excellent The Lives of Others (2007) for sometime. This one seemed to fit the bill: It's set in Moscow rather than Germany and is about a French engineer, Pierre, who reluctantly gets roped into passing on Russian secrets to the French intelligence service.

It is based on a true story and certainly has a good dollop of tension but this feels more like a character piece, focusing on the relationship that develops between Pierre (Guillaume Canet) and the Russian mole Sergei (Emir Kusturica) and their motives. The stronger the bond and understanding then the more there is to loose.

There is much to enjoy about Farewell including scenes towards the end that have you holding your breath but it stops just a smidge short of matching The Lives of Others somehow.

I'm giving it 71%. It gets 86% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 75% of site visitors liked it too. On Metacritic it gets 75% from the critics but hasn't had enough users rate it yet.

 

The breath of French air: Little White Lies

After a run of mediocre to bad Hollywood films this French ensemble piece was a breath of fresh air. OK so it's a bit long and indulgent in places but it still feel like a gourmet burger after a McDonalds.

A group gathers around their friend's hospital bed as he recovers from a serious road traffic accident. They debate whether they should still go on their annual group holiday or not. And essentially that's what they do, go on holiday.

But each has a secret, something they are not being honest about. So they laugh, they have fun, they argue, get on each others nerves and all the time the pack of white lies they have built starts to look more and more precarious. It take one tragic event to bring the whole lot tumbling down and make them all face up to a few home truths.

There aren't any great shocks if that is what you are expecting, it is more of a slow burn, but it is funny, engaging and the ending packs an emotional punch (and it made me want to go on holiday to France and drink wine over-looking the sea). It also stars some of the cream of French acting talent not least being the wonderful Marion Cotillard.

I'm giving it 58%. On Rotten Tomatoes the 23 critics gave it an average of 48% while the site's user rating was much higher at 67%. It isn't listed on Metacritic.

 

Of Gods and Men impressed Cannes but did it impress Stan?

Xavier Beauvois's film is based on the true story of a group of aging French monks kidnapped from their monastery in the Atlas mountains in Algeria by terrorists in 1996.

Much of the film follows the day to day life of the monks growing food, tending their bees, providing medical care and clothing for the local village as well as writing and reading for the illiterate. And of course praying, reading and debating the bible and looking out for each other.

It is a peaceful and mutually respectful co-existence between Catholic monks and the local muslim community. There is no scandal, drama, tension or jealously between the monks themselves or with the village. It is a harsh environment and they help each other. 

They take part in community debates and decision making and have friends there who invite them to their family celebrations.

It is a slow pace of life but the gathering threat of the renegade army, while doing nothing to the speed with which duties are performed, disturbs their inner peace.

The monks debate with the village council whether they should flee the impending danger or stay and face almost certain death at the hands of the terrorists. The villagers want them to stay: 'you are the branch and we are the birds' says one.

It is the debate within themselves that is the more difficult one. Each has to make their own decision as to whether to stay or go. Faith is tested in some while in others it is the strength they need.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

What can I say about this film? Well it's beautiful - I love the period and Chanel's style is par excellence so it gets loads of points for elegance.

But what of Chanel and Igor themselves and the relationship the film is set around?

Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen looking like a period Freddie Mercury) first meets Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) at the disastrous first performance  of his The Rite of Spring in which police are brought in to calm down the disgruntled crowd.

A few years later, exiled from his native Russia and living in a cramped hotel with his wife and family, Chanel offers him her house outside Paris in order to work. And so he moves with his family and a relationship develops between him and his host.

Other than a physical attraction their motives for their liaison aren't clear. Chanel leads Stravinsky into adultery by stripping off in front of him. When confronted by his dying wife, who guesses what is going on, Chanel offers no apology or signs of remorse despite her interest in Stravinsky already appearing to be on wane.  As the relationship begins to crumble he produces the rework of The Rite of Spring which was to be hailed a masterpiece and she finally chooses the signature Chanel no. 5 scent.

Chanel comes across as manipulative bitch to Stravinsky's lost devoted puppy and we are led to believe their liaison helped them create some of their best work.

It's an unsatisfying biography that reveals little about the people themselves rather concentrating on the relationship that may or may not have actually happened but if you want to watch women swanning around in beautiful clothes in elegant settings then it's definitely worth it just for that.

What the professionals said:

Steve Rose in The Guardian gave it three stars commenting "Ultimately, the affair develops into a brittle battle of artistic wills. "I'm as powerful as you," Chanel tells Stravinsky. "You're not an artist, you're a shopkeeper," he replies. It's an inviting question. How do you compare such disparate talents? How do you compare smell with sound?"

Anthony Quinn in The Independent also gave it three stars: "This Coco is more austere and ruthless than Tautou's gamine waif, and the film itself is a more considered, textured portrait. One of the best things here is a coda that finds both principals alone in old age (they died within months of one another in 1971), contemplating mementoes of their liaison – whatever it was – half a century before."

Rotten Tomatoes UK gave it an overall rating of 51%

Metacritic gave it an overall rating of 56%