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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 8, 2024 19:22:28 GMT
Puán (El Profesor in French) is an Argentinian comedy even if there is not much about which to laugh. Marcelo is a philosophy professor at the University of Buenos Aires, and his mentor has just dropped dead. It is a sure thing that he will be promoted to replace the dead guy, but all of a sudden an old rival from the past shows up. He has been working in Germany. The other guy Rafael, is more charismatic, better looking and knows how to whore himself out to the intellectual community.
But what was more interesting to me was the Argentinian crisis in which these people live. Their salaries never arrive, they have to do all sorts of weird odd jobs to survive, the students are in constant revolt. The university even closes down their buildings because the electricity and water have been turned off. And this movie was made before Javier Milei was even elected.
And yet life goes on with the usual happy moments, embarrassing moments, tense moments and all the rest. Even when your country is going to shit, you just have to deal with it.
(Puán is the name of the street in Buenos Aires on which the School of Philosophy and Letters is located.)
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 10, 2024 10:51:24 GMT
André Téchiné rarely leaves you feeling happy at the end of his movies, and Les gens d'à côté (English title: My New Friends) is no exception. Isabelle Huppert is a police officer nearing retirement who lives alone in gentle mourning of her dead African companion. She spends most of her time looking after plants. But the young couple who moves in next door is interesting and they are drawn into friendship. They start doing a lot of things together. She is sort of the mother/grandmother who was absent from their lives. Their little girl is especially attracted.
Mom (the always remarkable Hafsia Herzi) and daughter go away for the Christmas holidays, leaving Dad (the ubiquitous Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) alone at home. This doesn't seem normal and in no time Isabelle has done an investigation. Dad has a troubled judicial past for a number of reasons and is not allowed to leave Perpignan.
It turns out that he is a black bloc militant. And when she reveals that she is in the police, it is the breaking point.
But he returns for her help anyway when he gets stuck in a shitty situation. And she help him. Guess who is in the shitty situation in the end.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 11, 2024 14:49:41 GMT
Sidse Babett Knudsen is a Danish national treasure even if I have mostly seen her in French movies, but I think that internationally she is most known for the TV series Borgen. In her French movies, she is always nice, even heroic. Anyway in Vogter (Sons in both French and English release), she is a grim prison guard. She works in the section for "fragile" prisoners, but she witnesses the arrival of a new prisoner in the high security section for the really bad guys. She clearly recognises him and asks to be transferred to that part of the prison. Since every single section is understaffed, her request is approved.
And she makes the detention of prisoner Mikkel an absolute living hell. She throws away his mail and packages instead of distributing them, she spits in his food and gets him in trouble for things that he didn't do. But in any case, he is a raging violent psychotic, so there is no pity for him.
Why is she doing this? We finally find out although the title of the movie is the principal clue. This is a difficult watch.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 21, 2024 16:07:58 GMT
Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez is not at all a standard movie. It takes place in Mexico and is almost completely in Spanish but was filmed almost entirely in France. It is a musical about a vicious drug lord who pays a lawyer to help him become the woman he always knew he was. She has to find a discreet country for the operation and also hide his wife and children in a safe place.
After a few years, she decides that she can't live without her children, and hires the lawyer again to bring them back (along with her wife).
A yes, there are songs and dances. It is really quite amazing.
The main criticism from Mexicans is that Selena Gomez speaks terrible Spanish and has a doubtful Mexican accent. But her role isn't as important as some of the other characters and those of us who are not accomplished hispanophones are not qualified to give an opinion about her language skills.
Zoë Saldaña is amazing as is of course the Spanish trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 21, 2024 19:53:00 GMT
Effing whispering ~and~ singing and dancing?!
My idea of hell.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 25, 2024 18:57:49 GMT
Girls Will Be Girls is an Indian movie about a 16 year old girl consumed by lust. She has a boyfriend who might also be her cousin (hard to tell with Asian families where 'Auntie' is a common term for any close older female person. Anyway, Mira is hot after Sri and it is reciprocal, but he is clearly not indifferent to Mira's young mother.
Indian cultural rules apply even though this is a high class family (they speak English 90% of the time). "Don't close the door when you study together" etc. But things become very intense. This is a place where touching fingertips can just about bring you to orgasm.
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Post by rikita on Aug 29, 2024 22:13:23 GMT
the picture of the neutral cigarette pack won't load for me, so i don't know what it looks like ... here, cigarette packs have to phave pictures of diseases caused by smoking on them, is that not the case in france and other countries, then?
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