Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours

Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee

He – a brilliant computer programmer Lucas – finds out that « No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun» (quoting the passage from Pink Floyd song called Time). Now, like the main protagonist of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s book «Oscar and the Lady in Pink», every day of his life counts for ten years.

She – a model and telepath Blanche – is the mentally abused girl, who is living in a loveless marriage. Blanche is fed up with her empty life, but she can’t break the circle. Those two opposite men have met in a café; their waltz starts out immediately.

Andrzej Zulawski, after over-the-top «L’amour braque», have made the stunning film. «Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours» is a story of love, which is all consuming, mad, doomed and fast.

The film is the most lyric and romantic creation of this director. Nevertheless, in the Universe of Andrzej Zulawski all traditional categories, events and meanings are losing their common meaning, Spectators, who are expecting the traditional love story («love at the first sight-date-romance-…»), would be greatly disappointed.

In the cinematic world of Andrzej Zulawski love is full of pain, suffering and despair. The affair of Blance and Lucas is a mad waltz of two hurt people. They know that they days are limited and desperately trying to squeeze everything out of their love. Their acquaintance starts out with a verbal abuse and violent argument; behind the aggressive façade, you can feel their chemistry.

Jacques Dutronc, besides being a good singer, is a very good actor. He had the experience of working with Andrzej Zulawski in his French debut – «L'important c'est d'aimer». In «Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours», The Actor created a convincing portrait of mentally degrading Lucas, who is desperately trying to live fully. Jacques Dutronc portrays the tragedy of a man, whose day of life counts for ten years, by portraying his constant repetition of simple words and phrases, in order not to forget their meaning, self-talking, and examination of his past.

If in «L’amour braque» Sophie Marceau was not very convincing as a modern Nastasia Philippovna because of her acting inexperience and inability to «fly on the most high-octane fuel», which is required for this role (Nevertheless, Sophie Marceau deserves credit for playing Nastasia Philippovna better, than two actresses in the Soviet and Russian conventional adaptations of The Idiot). In this film, she had played, on the edge of her possibilities, the mentally traumatized Blanche. The scenes of her telepathy sessions are full or hatred and real pain; the scenes of her love encounters with Lucas are the cocktail of tenderness and suffering.

«Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours» is the stunning story of a doomed and sincere love. After over-the-top «L’amour braque», Andrzej Zulawski found the balance between eroticism, sensibility and his trademark over-emotionality. The film is recommended for the first encounter with Andrzej Zulawski.

8/10

Les Amants

Mon amour…

In 1957, Louis Malle has shot his first film – noir Elevator to the Gallows. For the script of The Lovers Malle had chosen the most banal story – bored socialite, who meets a lover. Nevertheless, the director has turned this banality into a story of collision between false and true love.

The world of Jeanne Tournier consists of falsehood. Every prisoner of this so-called «The Plato Cave» is playing his role: the bored wife, the socialite girlfriend, the cuckold husband, the elegant lover. There is no place for a real feelings, Jeanne cannot even say «tu» to her lover.

Real love storms into the life of Jeanne in a face of Bernard Dubois-Lambert. This young archeologist has nothing in common with her friends and acquaintances; even more, he despises them.  Bernard is capable of thinking out of the box and his love is sincere.

This collision «wakes up» Jeanne and she is ready to leave everything behind. There is no longer a place for hypocritical rules of the so-called «higher society»; Jeanne is finally living a full live and she is ready for the uncertain future.

 Jeanne Moreau, who often called the ideal of intellectual femininity, portrays the transformation of her hero from a petit bourgeois, in the bad sense of this word, to a woman, who breathes freely. This transformation seen by comparing the mechanic dates of Jeanne with lover and sincere love scene with Bernard.

The Lovers is a wonderful film, which could make you think about your life. I strongly recommend to watch The Lovers in French with subtitles, in order to fully appreciate acting of Jeanne Moreau. 

La femme publique

He is ice cold, he's the vice, the cynicism, the intelligence personified, and…

«Possession» made me quite interested in the films of Andrzej Żuławski. After «The Important Thing Is To Love», I have watched «The Public Woman», which I would try to analyze into this review.

An aspiring young actor Ethel, who got part-time job as a nude model, gets the part of Liza Tushina into the adaptation of The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The film director Lucas Kessling, who also play Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch Stavrogin, takes a professional and sexual interest in Ethel. The director is not satisfied with Ethel’s acting and he tries to make her acting better. Concurrently, into the real world, happens some strange things: the savage murder of Czech actress, the acquaintance of Ethel with Milan – half-mad friend of Lucas.  

Most critics say The Public Woman is the self-irony of Andrzej Żuławski. Nevertheless, he said in an interview, that this film could not be regarded as «the distorted auto-portrait». I think that The Public Woman firstly should be regarded as a loose adaptation of the Possessed. That is why; I recommend reading or rereading the book before watching this film.

…one would have thought that he must be a paragon of beauty, yet at the same time there seemed something repellent about him

Lucas Kessling is the ultimate Nikolay Stavrogin both at the film set and in the real world. His character is the evil genius, the manipulative person, the soul molester. Lucas plays a direct or indirect part into the all subplots and has almost absolute dominance over Fedka the Convict – Milan Mliska. Francis Huster has portrayed the real Stavrogin – a diabolically smart and charismatic man, - and it is a pity that actor has not received any awards.

I always fancied that you would take me to some place where there was a huge wicked spider…

Ethel is Lisa Tushina, first at the set, then more and more in the real life. She’s merely a toy in a hands of Lucas. You could even say, that all strange events were merely set up by Lucas in order to get her acting better. Valérie Kaprisky cannot «fly on the high-octane fuel», as Isabelle Adjani and Romy Schneider, but, along with those great actors, she played on the edge of her possibilities.

Alas, the poor woman was so anxious to be deceived again!

Andrzej Żuławski plays a mind game with the spectator. Behind the façade of erotic film with euro-pop soundtrack, the director mixes different genres: a film within film, a political thriller, a avant-garde cinema, drama and etc. You should not forget that in the Universe of Andrzej Żuławski the genres and other standard cinematic attributes loses their traditional meaning.

The Public Woman is a loose adaptation, which is much better, interesting and polyhedral, than the conventional Andrzej Waida film.  All those who love art-house, and especially Andrzej Żuławski fans, should immediately watch this masterpiece.

Tout feu, tout flamme

The École polytechnique alumni Pauline Valance works as an assistant to the Minister of the Economy, Finances and Industry and single-handily supports her family. Everything goes on as usual, until sudden comeback of Victor – the ne'er-do-well dad. Pauline treats him with a cynical suspicion. Her suspicions are realized when Victor makes grandmother to sign a power of attorney certificate and sells the family flat. Driven by animalistic rage, Pauline, along with gangsters, chases her father to the French-Swiss border.

It is not widely known, that Isabelle Adjani has started her career as a comedy actress. Into the troupe of the Comedie-Francaise The Actress has played in classical French comedies. Despite the fact, that Isabelle Adjani has earned her place in the Pantheon after «The Story of Adelie H.». After that, The Actress has been always admired and worshipped for her dramatic roles; nevertheless, she had also sometimes played in cute comedies.

In «Tout feu, tout flamme» Isabelle Adjani shows us a variety of persons: the Princess of Darkness, secretly ruling the French and European economy; the sweet girl, who got to take care of her family; the raging monster, who is ready cut anybody’s throat and so on.

Yves Montand looks good as a ne'er-do-well dad, whose business schemes are always goes belly-up. Actor uses his natural charm and brings comedy relief to the film; the most hilarious scene was the Chinese scene.

Jean-Paul Rappeneau, the director of Von Voyage, mixes genres: comedy; father-daughter drama; gangster film and melodrama. The main theme of this film is the father-daughter conflict, spiced by a comedy sauce.

«Tout feu, tout flamme» is a very cute comedy with a good Isabelle Adjani-Yves Montand acting duo. All those who love French cinema, and especially Isabelle Adjani fans, should immediately watch this film.

7,5/10 

Les Gangsters

I have never heard about Hervé Guibert until I have found an interview with Isabelle Adjani where she talked about her refusal to act in a film, which the late author has planned specially for her. Thanks to Mademoiselle Adjani, I have discovered Patrick Modiano (to put it more frankly – I heard about the Nobel Prize in Literature for Modiano, and then I have scanned, because of my poor French, the article about him by Adjani). Such brilliant actress won’t read or recommend a second rate literature and the Modiano’s case have proved it. That is why I have decided to read Hervé Guibert books.

Les Gangsters stars out as a story about defrauding of two elderly women – Louise and Susanne – by some Portuguese workers. Susanne and Louise are the cousin grandmothers of Hervé Guibert.

The book starts out as a crime story, but behind the façade, there is a much deeper theme – the feel of inevitable death. Hervé Guibert never directly mentions AIDS but he has Herpes zoster – one of the side illnesses of this terrible virus. In my opinion, he feels certain emotional bond to Susanne and Louise because they are also slowly dying.

Les Gangsters also deals with the usual theme of «life must go on». Despite the pain, Hervé Guibert tries to live a normal life – dating one lover, trying to find his true love and affection Vincent. Additionally, he tries to reexamine his life by recalling some of the most notable events and how defrauding scheme have changed his perception of the world.

Les Gangsters is the case of a simple book, which grows into something bigger with every page. You can even feel certain admiration for Hervé Guibert, who continues to live and write, despite his terrible illness.

P.S. Thanks to my Right Honorable Friend Florence Dhenin who told me that Hervé Guibert is a great writer – I agree with you!

Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia

The fact that half of those qualified to vote don’t vote in presidential elections is proof that the third republic is neither credible nor truly legitimate

Until recently, the only thing that I knew about Gore Vidal was that he authored the script of Caligula, which he later disowned. Then one day I have been killing time on YouTube and found «The Cryrto-Nazi» debate between William F. Buckley, whose intelligence I admire, and Gore Vidal. After that, I have decided to right that wrong and read «Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia».

The book starts out as an anti-George W. Bush pamphlet. Gore Vidal constantly exposes his hypocrisy, wars, even accuses him of breaking of the False Statement Statute. Even his environmental legislation and anti-HIV/AIDS efforts has been described as cynical attempts to gut regulation and a way to please the Christian Right.

In the second part of Imperial America Gore Vidal tackles the creating of the American empire. In the author’s opinion, the Empire started in 1898, when the US has acquired Philippines. Nevertheless, until the end of the Second World War, the Empire had a very limited influence. Gore Vidal accuses Harry Truman of deliberately misleading the public about a scope of Soviet threat in order to start the Cold War.

Then, Gore Vidal disembarks the glamorous idea of the American Revolution. He points out that the constitutional convention was merely a business meeting. The Founders just merely adopted the best possible variant, and then Gore Vidal attacked the famed «checks and balances» as a way to disguise the anti-democratic foundation of the US. In addition, he pokes the religious rights by an anti-religious quotes from The Founders («This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there was no religion in it» - J. Adams). That is why, in the author’s opinion, the US needs a new Constitution with a Swiss model as a perfect example.

The best thing about this book is that it spurs your intellectual curiosity. Gore Vidal makes lots of rather controversial propositions (legalizing drugs, the stealing of elections by computers, the Secret Bank which rules the US, three Republics) and you want to do some self-research in order to support or oppose his ideas. Especially it concerns the part about creating of the Constitution – it makes you curious and in order to satisfy your little curiosity you have to check The Federalist Papers.

«Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia» is a well-researched critique of the American policy. If you are interested in such books, then read, it is quite easy and understandable to the general reader. In addition, I would like also to recommend a book by Richard Posner «Pragmatism, Law and Democracy» which, in some aspects, support Gore Vidal’s claims from a legal point of view.

Possession

Goodness is only some kind of reflection upon evil

Back in 1978, Andrzej Żuławski has offered Isabelle Adjani the double role, but she turned it down. Only after the birth of her first son, The Actress has agreed to act in this, to put it mildly, rather strange motion picture.

Mark comes back to his family in West Berlin. From the first minutes, it is obvious that his marriage with Anna is disintegrating. Anna denies any extramarital affairs, but Mark finds out and after throwing a tantrum in café, leaves the family. After three weeks, Mark pays visit to the apartment and finds out neglected son Bob. When Anna comes back, the couple gets into very ugly and violent confrontation. Going mad from jealousy and love, Mark hires a private detective.

Possession starts out as a rather over-the-top family drama: absent husband, sexually frustrated wife, love triangle and son in the middle of it. Nevertheless, after the first eight minutes, Andrzej Żuławski begins to gradually build tension and create atmosphere of the madness. Mark and Anna are starting very violent arguments, autosadism. Despite all of this, Mark still loves Anna and would do anything to get her love back. I think a lot of viewers would think that Mark and Anna should separate, but minute after minute Possession drags you further and further. After the first half, Andrzej Żuławski makes the U-turn,

What I miscarried there was sister Faith, and what was left is sister Chance. So I had to take care of my faith to protect it

The over-the-top family drama stops and starts something, which could’t be categorized in just one genre. The second half of Possession, one could say, is the mix of horror, parable, psychological thriller and philosophic film essay.   

The detective and Mark finds out that into the so-called love nest lives The Thing, fed with corpses, which morphs into the human. Anna tells the bizarre story of its birth.

Andrzej Żuławski adds the favorite Dostoevsky theme – the lack of faith and it’s surrogates. All members of a love triangle are trying to make-up for their lack of faith: Mark by his mad love to Anna; Heinrich by drugs and dzen-buddism; Anna goes even further and creates her own God. Concerning Anna, you could even quote a passage of Kirillov from «The Possessed»: « God is the pain of the fear of death. Whoever conquers pain and fear will himself become God. Then a new life, then a new man, everything new...»

The duality theme plays a vital part in this film, starting with Berlin and the Berlin Wall. Also Mark meets Bob’s schoolteacher Helena, the complete copy of Anna, who is kind, sweet and have a true affection for a boy. The duality theme is used as in a classical literature – good and bad side; thesis and antithesis.

The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun

Isabelle Adjani has earned her place in the Pantheon after «The Story of Adelie H.», but Possession deserves a second statue, in analogy with a Roman triumph, on the Forum of Cinema. You can’t measure The Actress work by acting school standards:  it is not a method acting, it is not any other school; it is Isabelle Adjani’s acting. The Actress has widened the scope of a human possibility in acting; her body language and facial expression captures every aspect of Anna’s psychological condition.   The subway scene provokes a mixed feeling of disgust and amazement. It is hard to believe, that Isabelle Adjani never formally studied acting and after the film, you really begin to appreciate her acting genius.  

I always thought that Sam Neil is good, but rather mediocre actor. Although, in Possession he also showed brilliant acting. Even the simplest Neil’s scenes are filled with madness. For Sam Neil, his «acting Rubicon» was the opening sequence of his secluded life. Heinz Bennent was also good, but his role was rather supporting.

Bruno Nuytten camera takes a vital part into creating the atmosphere of madness. The camera, which is constantly following the characters, makes a 180 or 360 degrees turn and perfectly captures the inner world of the protagonists. The carefree editing style, which gone into a fashion again and annoys, perfectly suits this film.

Possession is a film that disgusts; it is a very tough challenge to watch it. Nevertheless, if you watch this film, you shall never forget it.

9/10

Toxic Affair

I think I have a cancer!

After "Camille Claudel" Isabelle Adjani has stopped her acting career for five years. She has returned from her «vacation» by acting in "Toxic Affair" – another forgotten Adjani’s film (along with Tout feu, tout flame, Antonieta, L'année prochaine... si tout va bien and some other).

Since abandoning her modeling career, Penelope constantly throws herself out of the frying-pan into the fire. She has writing ambitions, but doesn’t have any ideas about what to write, cries at the psychiatrist office, argues with her mother. One night, she drives her boyfriend Georges so mad that he breaks-up with her. After that, Penelope completely loses her sanity and storms her girlfriend’s Sophie apartment. For the next 48 hours, Penelope tries to cope with her loss by different methods: the failed suicide attempt, the visit to the African-French extrasensory and so on and so on.

Penelope is the quintessential drama queen. Everyone, at least once, have met a female who constantly writes or talks about her writing ambitions which are stopped by a lack of time; about their contradictions and wish to hide in the monastery; who tries to hide their infantilism by constant talking about their tough childhood. I think cynics would seriously consider mercy killing as viable option for Penelope.

Toxic Affair would be stupid and boring if it wasn’t for one person - Isabelle Adjani. The Actress completely steals the show by her magnificent acting. She proves that for the real actress a five year break means nothing. Isabelle Adjani truly captures all hysterics, mood swings, incoherence and egoism of Penelope. The Adjani’s facial expression is superb, as in «The Story of Adelie H.», you could even call this film «The Story of Adelie H. Ultra Light».

The supporting cast was also good. Michel Blanc portrayed a suicide-fixed loser; Fabrice Luchini hilariously trolls Penelope and Clémentine Célarié portrays Penelope’s girlfriend, who sometimes wants to dump her in the Seine.

Toxic Affair is the perfect example how one great actress could turn stupid film into something watchable and interesting. If you an Adjani’s fan, watch it.

7/10 (+1 for Adjani by applying the legal principle «Any reasonable doubt shall be interpreted in favor of the defendant»)