Birdman

People, they love blood. They love action. Not this talky, depressing, philosophical bullshit

Riggan Thomson used to be a blockbuster star, but it was a long time ago. In an attempt to reclaim past glory, he writes, directs and plays the leading part in the stage adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story «What We Talk About When We Talk About Love». Riggan has to face many difficulties: the skeptical daughter; the critical contempt; the trolling of Mike Shiner and, first, his alter ego…

Birdman, with sufficient simplification, could be described by these words – the self-parody. Michael Keaton, who was the best Batman, plays his own distorted image – the washed-up actor, who desperately tries to succeed in the «real art». Riggan Thomson is the quintessential dinosaur – despises the social networking; tries to rebuild relationship with his estranged daughter and worries about not getting in the headlines, if a plane of him and Clooney would crash.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu makes fun of the modern Hollywood, where the form has taken over the substance. The modern culture, in author’s opinion, got the same traits – the cheap épatage; the silly tweets and the stupid YouTube videos could make more popular, than the «real art».

The author pokes the washed-up actors in general, who are trying to reclaim their glory be acting, which is incomparable with their acting possibilities. In order to show the limits of Riggan’s acting, the director creates the character of Edward Norton – the grotesquely method and brilliant actor. A critic also shows Riggan the difference between real and fake acting.

The film uses, jokingly, the theme of temptation. His alter ego – Birdman, constantly tempts Riggan Thomson. As a classical demon, he constantly seduces Riggan to abandon art and return to the easy buck of blockbusters. Birdman, by giving Riggan the supernatural traits, shows him the advantages of an easy path.

Birdman is a very good film. I would be surprised, if this film will not get any Oscars.

9/10

La vieille qui marchait dans la mer

The Benefice of Jeanne Moreau

The history of cinema knows many examples of a mediocre crime-comedy films. «La vieille qui marchait dans la mer» is rather mediocre, except for the leading role – Jeanne Moreau.

Lady M. is an old con artist, who tries to save her wading beauty, but still keeps her great charm. Along with her ex-lover Pompilius, she travels to the resorts and blackmails rich tourists. During one of those «business trips», she gets a crush on a young lifeguard and immediately brings him into the business.

This, at the first glance short, crush completely changes the life of Lady M. Incapable of physical love; she tries to feel it by watching Lambert’s acts with young girls. Lady M. starts to behave as a spoiled young girl: brags about having 2017 lovers; beats Lambert with a cane and immediately begs forgiveness; teaching the secrets of con artists and advising how to behave with girls.

Jeanne Moreau proves that the age means nothing for the truly great artist – she will electrify at the age of 20, 30, 60 and 80. The Actress has created interesting and charming con artist by the means of voice acting, facial expression, voiceover and her unique magic. The one could see in Lady M. the little self-irony of Jeanne Moreau.

In other aspects, this film is far from brilliant. Michel Serrault – another great French actor, - created the only interesting character, except for Lady M. Luc Thuillier is good as Lambert, but he is lost in the shadow of two great actors.

«La vieille qui marchait dans la mer» is a mediocre film, which is watchable only because of Jeanne Moreau. If you a Moreau’s fan, then watch it.

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

Trois couleurs: Bleu

Liberté

Julie has gone through a terrible tragedy – the death of her husband and daughter in an automobile accident. At first, she tries to kill herself, but unable to swallow the lethal dose of drugs. After being released from hospital, she decides to sell the family mansion and to move to Paris. Once in a capital, Julie tries to cut all connections to the past.

«Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité» is the national motto of the French Republic. The national flag symbolizes the words: Blue for Liberté; White for Égalité; Red for Fraternité. Of course, these words have a political meaning. Krzysztof Kieślowski has made a film about personal liberty.

Julie tries to reach the personal liberty by the means of cutting all ties with the society. This path is wrong, because «Ghosts of the past» would still haunt you. The right way of reaching personal liberty is to «look into the eyes» of your past and pass it over and through you.

The acting of Juliette Binoche could be described in one word – natural. The Actress has naturally portrayed the introverted Julie, who is coping with a terrible tragedy. Binoche gives to Julie some traits of an ordinary woman, which makes her look even more natural.

Trois couleurs: Bleu is a visually stunning and sad film, which, nevertheless, gives us some hope. The film is recommended to all cinema-lovers, it will not disappoint you.

8/10

Touche pas à la femme blanche

The White Man's Burden

Progress – the constant feature of the sustainable economic growth. Periodically, for the sake of progress, the one need to «waste» some people. The government of the United States of America have decided that, for the sake of progress, it is necessary to «waste» the Indians. They entrust this mission to General Terry, who delegates the battle command to Major General Custer.

The year of film’s release was the same as The Paris Peace Accords and The Watergate. Behind the façade of a standard Western film, one could see the spit in the face of a society as a whole.

It became necessary to destroy the town to save it

Touche pas à la femme blanche draws parallel to The Vietnam War and, to the lesser extent, to other so-called «local wars». The author makes an absurdist decision by putting soldiers and officers of XIXth century Army into the modern world. He does it in order to show, that despite all so-called progress the imperialists are still cruel and barbarous toward those, whom they regard as the «second-class people».

Military heroes, all of whom were the real figures, are depicted as satiric stupid soldiers. The Vietnam War was, as we know, «the first televised war», so General Custer and Buffalo Bill draws the parallel with Rumsfeld’s briefings at the Pentagon.

The government of the United States of America cares only about the profit and always ready to «waste» some or maybe a lot of people. The anthropology professor, who scientifically proves the white man’s dominance, is a rather cruel parody of Kissinger – former professor of International relations at the Harvard.

How beastly the bourgeois…

Marco Ferreri ruthlessly exploits the so-called «goody-good» people. He shows the petit bourgeoisie as ignorant, cruel and silly. «The great silent majority» are fully endorsing the barbarous policy of their government. The affair of Marie-Helene and Major General is absurdist and fully depicts the double standards of the society.

Mitch Bouyer is the stereotypical collaborator. The both sides equally despise him, but he desperately tries to use his little power. The only thing, which brings him pleasure, is the bullying and harassment of Caucasian female workers in his shop.

Touche pas à la femme blanche is a well-made anti-bourgeoisie film. All those, who enjoy good cinema, should give it a try.

8/10

Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour?

The history of cinema knows many examples of films, exploiting the theme of prostitution: a sociological cinematic essay «Vivre sa vie» and an analysis of society by the means of Ludwig Wittgenstein linguistic philosophy «2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle» by Jean-Luc Godard; an aesthetic erotique «La Marge» by Walerian Borowczyk. All these film have one thing in common – they show prostitution among the lower class; prostitution among the upper-class representatives remains relatively untouched. Nevertheless, everyone know the gossips and city legends about rich socialites, who goes to the truck stops; who are having fun with their horsemen and so on, and so on.

Séverine Serizy is living an upper-call petit bourgeoisie life. She has everything in her life, except for one thing – the sexual satisfaction. Unable to satisfy her sadomasochistic sexual desires with her husband, Severine takes the most radical step – starts working at the high-end brothel. At the daylight, she is the enigmatic Belle de Jour, but at the nights, she plays role of the good petit bourgeoisie.

Unfortunately, I haven’t read the original novel of Joseph Kessel. Nonetheless, one could fill the similarities between the film and the classical dirty books – «Venus in Furs» by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and «Story of O» by Pauline Réage. From «Venus in Furs» comes the feminized name of Catherine Deneuve’s hero and her sadomasochistic fantasies. «Story of O» brings the fantasy plot twists and the opening scene reminds us of Pauline Réage novel.

Belle de Jour is a child (or at least teen) film in the terms of modern explicit standards. The film has not lost the bit of its sarcastic critique of the bourgeoisie life. Luis Buñuel mocks double standards and hypocrisy of the so-called «goody-good people». A bored housewife could find satisfaction of her twisted sexual desires inly in brothel. Other representatives of the upper classes also has not passed a shoe into their «abnormal» sexual desires.

Luis Buñuel plays a constant intellectual game with the spectator, by mixing reality and fantasy. The game becomes more and more sophisticated, along with Séverine journey into the Wonderland. There is no «real» sexual scene, except for the sadomasochistic dreams of Séverine, it is up to spectator to decide the extent of Séverine’s sexual madness.

Belle de Jour is a brilliant film, which has not lost its magic and originality. Remember one thing - «All Power to the Imagination!»

9/10

La Reine Margot

Mes catholiques, mes protestants, réunis tous ensemble dans la Maison de Dieu. C'est un symbole ce mariage, ça va tout arranger!

In my opinion, the book of Alexander Dumas-father «Queen Margot» is not a literary masterpiece. This book is well written, interesting, and enjoyable; nevertheless, it is unrealistic, too romantic and influenced by propaganda against Catherine de Medici. Patrice Chéreau have taken out the best parts of the book, and have created his own vision of the XVI-century France.

The director drags the spectator into the real Middle Ages – blood, dirt, worthless human life, promiscuity of the French court. Patrice Chéreau portrays France, which is torn by a horrible civil war, when «the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death».

«La Reine Margot» shows the inner world of a French ruling class with a weak and hypochondriac Charles IX as the nominal ruler. In reality, there is a ruthless political game between Catholics and Huguenots. Neither Admiral Coligny or Duke de Guise are interested in the well-being of France, they only pursue their military and political interests.

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre depicted as the bloody orgy, which has nothing to do with a religion. In the 10-minute span, the director portrays a graphic portrait of people, who lost all traits of honor and humanity; they are cutting throats of women and children and molest corpses just for fun.

Jean-Hugues Anglade has convincingly portrayed weak and hypochondriac King of France. He clearly understands, that he is merely a toy in the hands of his mother and nobility, but he can’t break the circle. The Actor has brilliantly showed the good side of Charles IX, who is capable of admiring true friendship and abhors violence.

Daniel Auteuil portrayed King of Navarre, and the future King of France Henry IV, who is forced to become a hostage and takes his own «school of unhappiness». King of Navarra is degraded to the spectator of Huguenots genocide, but he is still, compared with Charles IX brothers, capable of a human conduct.

Virna Lisi showed The Princess of Darkness, The Devil in the Flesh, which is morphed in the form of Catherine de Medici. She is the only person, who cares about the future of France. Catherine plays on her own «chess board», but the fate has prepared the different future for her. Despite the blood on her hands, one could feel a certain degree of admiration and compassion towards Catherine, you could even quote Oscar Wilde: «Sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life».

Everyone, who is got used to the «burning» Adelie Hugo, Anna, Camille Claudel and Penelope would be stunned by Isabelle Adjani’s acting. Margaret de Valois is the ultimate Royal consort – cold, arrogant and emotionally distant. The Actress portrayed the tragedy of a woman who was always the other’s people toy; who is stuck in the loveless marriage; whose only form of rebellion is the quick affairs. Nevertheless, Margaret was the only person who found the courage to protect the unloved husband and who become his tutor in the «school of unhappiness».

As Jeanne Moreau in «Les Amants», Isabelle Adjani portrays the transformation of Margaret de Valois by a true love in the form of La Mole. She becomes a woman, who breathes freely and is ready to commit the most selfless acts. Isabelle Adjani’s acting is more restrained, than in her other masterpieces, she relies more on the voice acting, facial expression, eyes. This restrained technique does not make Adjani’s acting weaker, than in her other masterpieces. The last scene of «La reine Margot» could make your heart bleed nothing less than the scenes of «L’Histoire de Adelie H.». After this film, you want to give The Actress a standing ovation. In addition, one would like to thank Mademoiselle Adjani for not wasting her acting genius on the second and third-rate films; she saved herself only for the best.

Others actors were also brilliant. Pascal Greggory as the cunning Duke of Anjou, who is willing to do anything to become a King. Miguel Bosé as the arrogant Duke de Guise. Dominique Blanc as Henriette de Nevers – Margot’s friend and accomplice. Veteran French actor Jean-Claude as Admiral Coligny; the list goes on and on.

«La Reine Margot» is an off-charts brilliant film, which would be interesting to everyone.

10/10