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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 7, 2017 21:23:17 GMT
It looks WONDERFUL!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2017 5:46:02 GMT
I was reading some of the unfavourable reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and none of them actually calls it a bad movie. It just upset them and they thought the subject was too harsh, and of course completely inappropriate for children.
One valid critique is that Sigourney Weaver's British accent is "shaky." The director would not have caught that since he is Spanish and it is a Spanish movie.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2017 13:22:31 GMT
Yesterday I saw Neruda which pretty much bored me even though it was well done.
Today I went to see the biopic Dalida about one of the biggest stars in France in the last century. It would be very difficult to make up an odder story than her real life, notably the fact that 3 of the 4 men of her life committed suicide. (The one who got away was an 18 year old, but at least Dalida got a song out of it.). And of course then she killed herself in 1987. The young Italian actress in the title role is remarkable. She probably gave it too much energy because during the promotional tour, she fell out of her chair and had an epilectic fit in front of the audience on a live talk show.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2017 22:18:08 GMT
I have never really been a fan of Chet Baker, but I found Ethan Hawke's performance in the Canadian film Born to Be Blue really outstanding. It apparently takes far too many liberties for a biopic, but it very poignantly shows the horror of trying to play the trumpet again when all of your teeth have been knocked out by a drug dealer. Just seeing him try to push his dentures back into place every time he played his horn was heartbreaking. The movie really only covers a short period of time, from his junkie low point to his partial redemption at the end of the 1960's. I think that a movie that followed him to his death in 1988 would have been far less kind.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2017 22:23:05 GMT
I remember the 1988 documentary Let's Get Lost.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2017 5:04:28 GMT
I hope that's not the last movie you saw!
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Post by lugg on Jan 20, 2017 19:25:49 GMT
I had not heard of Born to be Blue so thank you K2 , it looks like something I would enjoy. Last Saturday I went to see La La Land and really enjoyed it. However, I am really surprised that the majority of reviews are so positive as I cant believe that it appeals to so many.
There are some widely reported films due for release in 2017 that I really want to see but today I listened to an interview with Andrew Garfield and now both Hacksaw Ridge and Silence have been added to that list. Hacksaw Ridge set in WW2 but sounds like a slasher movie is neither a war film per se or a horror movie but a true story about a pacifist who fought court martial to become a medic in WW2 .
Silence just because it is a Scorsese film 25 years or so in the making.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2017 15:20:22 GMT
Okay, I will say it: I did not love La La Land (which just came out today in France since they held it back while waiting for the appropriate awards and nominations). I liked it, but I really did not find much that was outstanding about it. There are some very nice scenes, the actors are appealing, but the plot is weak and just kind of wanders around until the end. I did approve of the ending which was not at all as sweet as many spectators would have wanted. I think it will clinch Best Song at the Oscars, and Ryan Gosling probably has his best shot at Best Actor, but more for previous performances than this movie. And naturally it will get at least 3 or 4 other Oscars due to the studio voting system.
It is probably a bit shameful to admit this, but I sort of preferred Why Him? with James Franco. It was appalling and in completely bad taste but much more lively than La La Land.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2017 0:09:01 GMT
Didn't see Why Him? (& really don't like James Franco), but was totally lukewarm about La La Land. First of all, it's a musical, so barf. I fast-forwarded past the opening sequence. Then I sort of got into it a little bit but right at the point (spoiler ahead) where he surprises her by coming home & making dinner & they start arguing, the video messed up. That's when I realized that I didn't care enough to try again. Can't comment on the end since I didn't see it, but I think your review sums up the movie perfectly.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2017 19:54:23 GMT
Today I went to see Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ang Lee. The title alone is total box office poison and in Paris it is only on about 4 screens (a major release gets 60-90 screens). Considering the fact that Ang Lee is a major director and his last movie was Life of Pi, 5 years ago already, which was a smash success, I was more than intrigued. The cast is also very strange. The lead character is a complete unknown, but what about this combination: Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin? Can you imagine all of these people in the same movie? I couldn't.
Okay, it takes place in 2004 when a group of soldiers involved in a heroic act in Iraq return to the United States and go on a publicity tour. We only meet them when they get to Dallas where a gigantic Thanksgiving day event is planned at the stadium with a halftime show at the stadium. The situation is complicated -- the soldiers want to do what they are told, but they are also suffering from PTSS to varying degrees. Imagine how difficult it is to remain calm when gigantic fireworks go off unexpectedly in the stadium...
I was absolutely fascinated by the movie, but I had to wonder about certain things that Ang Lee did. The acting seems extremely amateurish at certain times with really stilted dialogue. But it makes me wonder at the same time -- soldiers who have been drilled in behaviour often sound like robots when they reply to questions. And Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are not all that different -- ways to talk and respond to events have been drilled into them. So I accept this if it was Ang Lee's intention.
In the end, I found the film completely gut wrenching while remaining totally ambiguous. It is impossible to know if it totally supports the military or if it despises what has been done to them. Or both. I don't think many people will have a chance to see this movie, though.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2017 18:09:36 GMT
It's funny how things go. I was off to a cinema this morning without having decided what to see, but I knew that there were at least 3 films at the multiplex that interested me at the proper time. But on the metro, they announced that metro line 14 was not operating until 10am. These weekend events for maintenance are relatively common in low season, but I had not paid attention. So I could not get to my original destination. Since I know the cinemas of Paris by heart (and even their movie times), I decided that I would just stay on the line to get to a different place, not quite as good and not quite as daring in its programming but still good enough for me to find something to see. I was a bit mistaken and the pickings were slim. With my unlimited movie card, it was not really a big deal, so I decided to see Rings, which had not at all been on my viewing list.
I had seen the original Japanese Ringu which was as scary as shit, and I think I even saw the American remake The Ring, which was faithful to the original yet totally pathetic. I know I did not bother to see The Ring 2 (and Ringu 2 was never even released in France). After all, how much can you milk out of this subject?
In case anybody has missed out on the original subject, it concerns an ultra creepy videotape which causes you to die within a week if you watch it. The only way to survive is to convince somebody else to watch it. Nasty.
The first thing I wondered about this movie was would they even still be using videotapes? Yes -- if you happen to go to the flea market. Okay, that's settled. So here we go again. Naturally, we have the young couple. The guy has watched the tape so he disappears so that his girlfriend will never find out about the tape and be tempted to watch it. Well, that doesn't work. The countdown has begun.
Being a standard horror movie, the ways they find to scare you are always a bit interesting, but even more so are the incredibly stupid things that the characters do. The couple have found the apparent epicentre of the horror, so they check into a creepy B&B in the town. He goes out to get some dinner for them, and what does she do? She decides to break into the creepy abandoned church, tear a hole in the floor and discover the half flooded concealed dungeon underneath. Armed with her trusty flashlight, she jumps right down there to get to the bottom of things.
Frankly, when it gets this ridiculous, I just have to enjoy the movie. The blind defrocked priest, the university professor who has dug up the truth but who dies electrocuted when a power pole falls on his wrecked car, it's all good. I saw that it rated 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. Really, it isn't that bad.
The only bad thing is that it has the typical ending to inform you that the evil continues and there will probably be another sequel.
This trailer is perhaps the most dishonest trailer that I have ever seen because it completely scrambles the events in the film and the chronology is totally wrong. Then again, who cares?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 5, 2017 18:16:12 GMT
I'm a bit behind...the last film I went to see was probably 'Theory of Everthing' with the everybody's darling (but mine) Eddie Redmayne. I wasn't terribly impressed...the BBC's version several years ago (with Benedict Cumberpatch as Stephen Hawking) was much better imo.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 8, 2017 16:29:57 GMT
I don't remember last time I went to the movie. Frozen I guess..
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Post by tryeu on Feb 8, 2017 18:29:15 GMT
The last one was Bullhead. It's very interesting film about Jacky who buys injectable steroids for sale because he needs to fight. It's about his past, his relation with mafia and so on. In general, this film is worth watching.
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Post by tryeu on Feb 8, 2017 18:32:36 GMT
I had not heard of Born to be Blue so thank you K2 , it looks like something I would enjoy. Last Saturday I went to see La La Land and really enjoyed it. However, I am really surprised that the majority of reviews are so positive as I cant believe that it appeals to so many. There are some widely reported films due for release in 2017 that I really want to see but today I listened to an interview with Andrew Garfield and now both Hacksaw Ridge and Silence have been added to that list. Hacksaw Ridge set in WW2 but sounds like a slasher movie is neither a war film per se or a horror movie but a true story about a pacifist who fought court martial to become a medic in WW2 . Silence just because it is a Scorsese film 25 years or so in the making. it's an awesome video. thnaks for sharing
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2017 15:48:56 GMT
So, I went to see the trashy and fascinating American Honey today, all 2 hours and 43 minutes of it. It is most certainly one of Shia LaBeouf's best performances ever, which probably isn't saying much to most people, especially if they have not seen his work in Europe. Oddly enough, I feel more "at home" in the settings portrayed in the film because most of my experience with the United States was in shitty small town America and almost never in the nicer areas. Even in Los Angeles, my university (USC) was on the edge of a slum and had nice big walls all around it with a little tram running outside to where a lot of the poorer students had to live (and also Frat Row was out there) -- the students all called it "the rape escape." So when I see the battered houses, the yards full of trash and the disquieting denizens, it is all much more familiar to me than the Beverly Hills lifestyle or the Steven Spielberg suburbs. This movie takes place in the world I know.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2017 11:54:53 GMT
So, I went to see 50 Shades Darker, ha ha ha, what a piece of shit! Jamie Dornan should be ashamed of himself after being so excellent in The Fall. As for Dakota Johnson, this is probably the high point of her career, so she might as well take advantage of it. I really liked it when Grey crashed his helicopter into Mount St. Helens and then walked in the door of his apartment without a scratch just a couple of hours later. After all, it is only 185 miles. Kim Basinger looks like she might be interesting in #3 as the Evil Witch since Grey says "you taught me how to fuck, but Anastasia taught me how to love" when he banishes her while she has murder in her eyes at his birthday party (just a couple of hours after his helicopter crash!). The final scene shows a Mysterious Stranger observing things from afar as he burns a cigarette hole through a family photo of Grey -- you know he is really really Bad because this is the one and only cigarette that appears in the entire movie and cigarettes are Bad. So maybe the last movie will be more interesting and won't have me nodding off as much. As for the sex scenes.... *yawn* I see the movie has a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and one of good reviews is by MTV. Full review: Bad to the Bonerexcerpt:
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2017 18:25:04 GMT
Today I went to see the new Guillaume Canet movie Rock'n Roll. This sort of movie has become a genre in itself over the years, because I have seen at least a half dozen French movies and a couple of American ones in which real stars play alternate reality versions of themselves using their real names. The French television series 10% is another manifestation of this genre. In this movie, Guillaume Canet is making a movie with a young actress who makes him feel old, since he is double her age and she more or less considers him to be a has been, especially since he is playing her father. He brings his doubts home to Marion Cotillard who couldn't care less. She is perfecting her Québec accent for an upcoming movie (in the real world, Xavier Dolan's last movie) and wants to keep in character at all times. Her accent is so incomprehensible that her dialogue is subtitled into normal French. This is hilarious in French speaking Europe and probably in Québec, too, but it will be lost on most of the world when the movie is released elsewhere. Anyway the first half of the movie is about his increasingly desperate attempts to prove that he is still rocking. Ridiculous clothes and nightclub antics, ending up with appearing on YouTube after puking all over himself in the street.
The second half of the movie goes somewhere entirely different and is incredibly disturbing. Even the critics who don't like the movie have respected keeping what happens in the second half secret, so I will do the same. However, I will reveal that after the whole movie taking place in 'normal' Paris, it finishes in the Everglades with a pet alligator.
The number of famous people playing "themselves" in this movie is really remarkable, including Ben Foster and Johnny Hallyday.
At the screening I went to, Guillaume Canet came to present the movie in person, which is always somewhat admirable, since these people are rarely able to get up to go to the cinema at 9 a.m. And they are always amazed to see a full house at that time of day when their concept of going to a movie is 8 p.m. It was also nice that at the end of the projection, he returned to face the audience, and Marion Cotillard came with him to talk about the movie for a few minutes and answer questions (especially about the second half). I like seeing such people dressed normally instead of wearing "red carpet" attire, and they both seemed remarkably accessible since they were swarmed for selfies and autographs before they could escape, and they handled the situation gracefully.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2017 19:38:19 GMT
A Cure for Wellness is so totally outlandish that it is really quite entertaining. It makes Gore Verbinski's previous movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean 1,2,3 seem quite tame in comparison.
Loving is good but very slow, which is standard for Jeff Nichols although it is very different from his other movies. I have no idea why Ruth Negga received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She is very pleasant but really did not do much. I suppose it is just to prove "Oscars-not-so-white-anymore."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2017 17:15:45 GMT
Kills on Wheels is a totally shitty English language title for the Hungarian movie Tiszta szívvel which means 'pure heart.' The French title isn't much better Roues libres, which you could translate as 'Freewheelers.' Nevertheless, I completely understand how difficult it is to market this movie, probably even in Hungary, due to its subject matter. One of the articles that I read described it as 'Tarentino in wheelchairs.' Frankly it is one of the best movies that I have seen in the past year.
It is about a former fireman who went to prison for some sort of work mistake. He is now crippled and hates it, but he is convinced that he will manage to walk again within 3 years. He has also taken on work as a hitman for the Serbian mafia. He spends a lot of time at a physical therapy centre full of sad cases. Two of them are young men who live there. One has a birth deformity that is slowly killing him as his organs become more and more compressed. His roommate is merely spastic and can walk for short distances but has great difficulty controlling his arms. This is the source of a certain amount of comedy, for example when he finally manages to insert a coin into a vending machine to buy some water but his hand hits the wrong button and he ends up with pretzels. Anyway, they are not happy with their lives, although the deformed man is a talented comic book artist. As for the spastic guy, the most important thing in his life seems to be to keep spraying himself with perfumed deodorant, in case he meets a chick. They are immediately attracted to the sullen new arrival who finds them pathetic.
Naturally, their relations warm up little by little. After a first assassination and quite a bit of prodding by the young men, the hitman decides what the hell, maybe they can be of use to him. Things get quite bad relatively fast, especially when the Serbians tell their employee that they will not pay him for his work unless he offs his assistants.
It might not be the best made movie in the world or have the cleverest plot, but what really moved me was that the two young men are played by real handicapped people. When you see them struggle in the movie, they are really struggling.
The trailer for the movie is a bit disappointing because it makes it look like it is just a movie about a handicapped thug, but it is so much more than that.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2017 20:00:32 GMT
Today I saw the German film Grüße aus Fukushima (Greetings from Fukushima) which was given the obvious title of Fukushima Mon Amour in France. It's about a young German woman in emotional distress who suddenly finds herself in Japan working as a clown. She is part of a rather pathetic troupe of 3 people who provide entertainment for the elderly, living in a prefab shelter since their own homes have become uninhabitable.
She befriends one of the old people, a former geisha, who has decided to leave the camp and go back to her old home in the radioactive forbidden zone. As much as she fears for her health, she is in such upheaval in her life that she moves into the ruined house with the woman and assists her in making it livable. There is somewhat of a problem with the ghosts of the tsunami victims returning at night, but they do not want to harm anybody and can be kept at bay by throwing salt on your shoulders.
Frankly, the movie did not get wonderful reviews because many of the critics felt that the plot went nowhere and there was too much time spent with nothing happening. But I liked it very much because it is normal for not much to happen when you are living in a radioactive forbidden zone. It is in black and white and obviously the authentic images of the area are quite stark. You get to see parts of the abandoned city being invaded by vegetation with the awnings ripped and the pavement cracking. This is the sort of thing that I want to discover at the cinema instead of the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
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Post by rikita on Feb 23, 2017 0:38:35 GMT
finally watched the third hobbit movie on monday. not in a theatre though, as i only got around to seeing it now ...
mr. r. got movie-and-babysitting-vouchers for christmas, though, we should try to use them sometime soon ...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2017 14:53:34 GMT
The French film Alibi.com was really quite funny and is one of those movies that will inevitably get an American remake sooner or later. Just the title explains the movie, but the specific problem in the movie is that the alibi guy gets a customer who wants to spend a weekend with his mistress (the usual sort of work the alibi guy does) but a day or two later he meets the parents of his girlfriend and you can imagine who the father is. Just a few moments later, the father explains to the alibi guy (since of course they have isolated themselves for a private talk) that the reason his daughter has broken up with all of her other boyfriends is because she absolutely despises lying and deception...
I also saw Split and Lion this week. They are both good. I don't think that Lion will win any Oscars, though.
Chez Nous is a very interesting Belgian movie although it takes place just across the border in France. It's about a popular nurse who is recruited by an extreme right political party for the municipal elections. The head of the party is an austere blonde woman who has big plans. There is a lot of sleazy manipulation and demonstration of ways that make the politics sound reasonable. Sound familiar?
I saw another remarkable Belgian movie called A Wedding (Noces) about a Pakistani Belgian family. In French and Urdu, it shows the family with a completely modern lifestyle but with extreme attachment to traditions. The protagonist is 18 years old and pregnant. She goes for an abortion (you find out that an abortion costs 3.50 euros in Belgium but 800 euros if you wait too long and have to go to the Netherlands). Her adoring brother is assisting her, and her parents have accepted the mistake even if they are shocked. But it is obvious that she must be married to someone acceptable as quickly as possible to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again. This is the 21st century, so the parents choose 3 acceptable (to them) candidates by using the internet and have her daughter interview them on Skype. After one of the interviews, the girl has to rush to the bathroom to puke.
The girl is more Belgian than Pakistani so she rebels as much as she can, but she loves her family and they love her. Her big sister even flies in from Barcelona to convince her. "Of course it's not fair. We're women." She also explains that getting your hymen re-sown is a simple procedure. After all, she did it too.
The movie is based on a true story, and this sort of thing has happened in France as well, so I kept hoping against hope that it wouldn't end the same way. No luck there.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2017 17:28:42 GMT
T2 Trainspotting **- I found that I did not want to see these characters 20 years older Certain Women *** - Kelly Reichardt's best movie yet, basically 3 short stories about women facing complicated situations 20th Century Women **** - fascinating look into life in Santa Barbara in 1979 Patients **** - young paraplegics in a physical therapy clinic, hilarious and tragic (I know the person who made this movie, based on his own experience.) De sas en sas ** - visiting day at a French prison Logan *** - Wolverine and Professor X finally die. What more can we hope for? Actually, quite sad and gripping Land of Mine **** - young German POWs are turned into hamburger meat when forced to demine Danish beaches in 1945 Trespass Against Us *** - Michael Fassbender tries to break away from his family of travellers. Patriarch Brenon Gleeson is having none of this. John Wick Chapter 2 * - saw this accidentally when I misread the film programme. Nice if you like to see brains blowing out of skulls 50 times
A few trailers regarding the better items:
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2017 22:52:13 GMT
Perhaps in honour of International Women's Day, today I went to see De plus belle, a movie about an unhappy woman recovering from breast cancer. She is having difficulty getting over the ordeal, hates wearing a wig after the treatment and can't imagine a man ever seeing her naked again. She joins a therapeutic group of women getting in touch with their bodies whether they are old or fat or just ugly with plans for a strip tease spectacle at the end of the line. And of course a man takes interest in her, but she keeps running away without explanation. As things move along, she has a relapse and is informed that her breasts must be removed... It is not a happy subject, even for men to watch. It was not at all a perfect movie, but I found it quite moving anyway.
One of the things that made it all the more fascinating is that the star is France's #1 female stand up comedian, and I think that this is her first dramatic role ever.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2017 5:47:52 GMT
Beauty and the Beast is watchable is you can stand musicals, but the animated film was better. However, Emma Watson is totally charming and clearly benefited from all of her Harry Potter experience to be able to act convincingly when she was obviously often looking at "nothing" in front of a green screen.
The Lost City of Z is not as good as it should have been. The Heart of Darkness elements did not convince me completely. I just cannot imagine that any tribe could send out so many spears or darts or whatever through dense vegetation and keep them coming, especially when the vast majority miss their mark. Yet this is a standard scene in so many of these jungle movies. I am uncertain that there is any base in reality in these scenes, at least in terms of the quantity of projectiles. I liked the Robert Pattinson character, totally hidden behind his bushy beard.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 24, 2017 7:37:04 GMT
I went to the movie theater. First time since 2015 I think. A french movie 'l'embarras du choix' - I think - très con - but nice. The kind of movie you watch on TV asking yourself, should I terminate it ?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2017 12:44:54 GMT
There's an even dumber one coming out next week. After "L'embarras du choix" where the woman can't decide between two men (Bridget Jones syndrome), we will have Juliette Binoche and Camille Cottin in "Telle mère, telle fille" in which mother and daughter become impregnated at the same time, and if I am not mistaken, by the same man.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2017 13:07:38 GMT
I went to see the French horror movie Grave ( = "Serious" ) yesterday, which actually was released in the United States before France under the title Raw. I would imagine that it's because the U.S. consumes far more horror movies than France, which is not known for making gory movies very much. It's about a girl entering veterinary school. She is from a family of vegetarian veterinarians, but there is some serious hazing going on in this school, and she is forced to eat raw kidney. And it changes her taste in food completely. This movie has received amazingly positive reviews everywhere even though it makes some spectators faint or vomit. Frankly, I had to look at my watch near the end of the movie because I was wondering how much more of it that I could take, but I saw I was only 10 minutes from the end so I soldiered on. It has animal cadavers, amateur bikini waxing in extreme closeup, sex, blood, horrible skin diseases... and cannibalism. It is super well done and very difficult to watch.
I should probably mention another French horror movie (Dans la forêt) that I saw a while back, which conforms more to the French idea of horror -- a growing sense of dread of what might happen, even if it never happens. This one was about two young boys visiting their divorced father who lives deep in the woods in Sweden in total isolation. Is he crazy and dangerous or is it all in the boys' imaginations?
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 28, 2017 13:32:30 GMT
There is not a prayer of me watching Raw.......
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