French Film – The Film Ramble

Les Miserables (2019)

September 9, 2020September 9, 2020Posted in Film, ReviewTagged French Film, Les Miserables1 Comment

It’s thematically similar to the 2012 Tom Hooper musical, but shorter and has no Russel Crowe singing. Therefore, it is fully deserving of its perfect grade: [Grade: A+]

I like the idea that someone who hasn’t read my blog and assumes I summarise my thoughts at the beginning will think “What a waste of time” and click off the website and never read it again as it clearly has no substance. While that may be true, I like to think I’m not that bad and for believing this blog hasn’t totally gone to pot, I reward(?) you with a proper review of the 2019 version of Les Miserables, now out in cinemas, a film which was nominated for best international film at the Oscars.

Named after, and thematically similar to the Victor Hugo book/Tom Hooper musical with Hugh Jackman et al, the plot of Ladj Ly’s debut film is somewhat different to it. Inspired by the Paris riots. the film takes place just after France won the world cup (Why didn’t Kane square it to Sterling?), we are introduced to three policeman, team head Chris, Gwada and the new recruit Greaser. The first half of the film sees a tour of one of Paris’ poor predominantly black neighbourhoods, meeting all of the key characters and seeing increasingly suspect policing methods from Chris and a lion cub going missing. We get a feeling on increased tension, all leading to an arrest going wrong and the resulting fall out of it when the police realise a boy with a drone has been filming.

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Review: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

March 9, 2020March 9, 2020Posted in Film, ReviewTagged Adele Haenel, Foreign Film, French Film, Noemie Merlant, Portrait of a lady on fire1 Comment

International films now have an unintended burden upon them. After Parasite’s rousing success at the Oscars (and of course in my own awards), any foreign film coming out soon will be compared to it. Portrait Of A Lady On Fire was my first foreign cinematic endeavour since Parasite, so with a lot to be compared against, how did it do? Well, quickly put, not badly.

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Review: I Lost My Body

December 8, 2019December 8, 2019Posted in Film, ReviewTagged Alia Shawkat, Animation, Dev Patel, French Film, Hakim Faris, Netflix, Victoire Du Bois1 Comment

Unlike most reviews I do, I watched this film on a TV. I also watched this film in its original language (with subtitles), however, Netflix does have an English option with Dev Patel as its lead. I would recommend sticking to the French as the voices match the aesthetic and music better.

One of the great film betrayals is the idea that animation is only for kids films. The idea is that it’s obviously make belief and therefore, no self respecting adult could consider an animated film a masterpiece. Well, this is wrong. Spider-man into the Spider-verse is one of the most creative superhero films around. WALL-E is a gorgeous emotional tale for everyone with mature themes to think about. Then you have true the great animated film Spirited Away. In fact, it’s not a great animated film, it’s just a great film, full stop. Animation creates a contract between writer and viewer in which the latter suspends their disbelief, leading to more abnormal and creative ways to write. This is when animation is done right. Anyway, now we have removed any inhibitions around the genre, lets move on…

At the time of writing, it’s been 6 days since I watched I Lost My Body (or J’ai perdu mon corps), yet I still remember most of it. It’s a film with a sense of familiarity yet difference at the same time. We start with a hand escaping from the fridge. What we can tell about it straight away is that it is looking for its body, so it scuttles away like an insect using its fingers for legs. At the same time, we are introduced to Naofel (Hakim Faris/(Dev Patel)), who we see as a young boy growing up. There is a lot of focus on his hand as you see him use it in a variety of places and each texture he feels or interacts with is done in a way which shows said hand as sentient. It’s pretty obvious from early on, that he’s going to lose said hand at some point. So we end up with time jumps between the story of how he loses his hand and the story of his hand trying to find him.

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