L'écume des jours (Mood Indigo)

A friend just walked out of a Mood Indigo screening, here in summer 2014, which led me to discover that my reviews for the last few days of Fantastic Fest 2013 were missing.  I'm trying to piece together my reviews from memory.

The thing about Mood Indigo is that it is very pretty.  The film starts in the happy, whimsical way typical of French film.  Batchelor Colin is in love, life is good, and he lives in a magical house with a mouse and live in chef.  The world is colorful and dancing as he woos Chlöe his future bride.

But a rare illness - a water lily growing in her lungs - strikes Chlöe on their honeymoon, and things begin to go awry.  The great part of this film is how the cinematography adapts to the mood.  The colorful is replaced with the grey, the animated world starts to decay, and darkness literally grows into their home and life.  The sad part of the film is just how damned depressing it is to see things go so badly for this happy young couple.  I think this film epitomizes French cinema - sentient mouse, claymation, live in chef, and horribly depressing ending of death and decay.  No thanks.

L'écume des jours (Mood Indigo)
2013, 94 minutes, directed by Michel Gondry

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest of the Wicked)

I've watched several films this week featuring good-cops-with-a-side-business, where they're put in a bad situation and need to bring forth their best side to save the day.  Santos is not one of those cops.  He's downright evil.  Set in Paris ahead of a G-20 summit, this feature finds him very quickly murdering three people late night at a strip joint.  A witness escapes, forcing Santos to ditch his G-20 surveillance responsibilities and take on investigation of the club's contacts.  Meanwhile, Chacón, a police investigator, takes on the murder case, forging ahead into the same investigation from a different angle, thinking terrorism.  Can she catch Santos before he eliminates the witness, or is something more going on here?

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest of the Wicked)
2011, 114 minutes, directed by Enrique Urbizu

Holy Motors

Is Monsieur Oscar a master of disguise?  The ultimate odd-jobs man? Or is he and the entire Paris population simply insane?  Prepare to have your head rattled with Holy Motors.  Warning: people going into this film expecting a plot tend to be disappointed.  Think of it more as a day-in-the-life of the Most Interesting Man in the World.

Holy Motors
2012, 115 minutes, directed by Leos Carax 

District B13

Leïto, a product of Paris bario B13, wants to clean up his home and rescue his sister Lola.  Damien, a go-it-alone cop, needs to defuse a bomb captured by the B13 thugs.  Together they need to bring down the crime boss Taha, save the girl, and save the city.

I liked the idea of putting two very physical actors together on screen, though I have to admit their respective solo work at the start of the film exceeds their group scenes.  Still the story is solid enough and the action sequences are good.  I'd watch it again.

District B13
2004, 84 minutes, directed by Pierre Morel

Hugo

I read a few reviews of this last week - and I agree with them all.  It deliberately stays very real where it could become farcical.  Yes, the inspector is rather out of place in this otherwise grounded story, but it's not to the point of distracting from enjoyment of the story.

Hugo in 3D
2011, 126 minutes, directed by Martin Scorcese

Calibre 9

All hell breaks loose when a gun, possessed by the soul of a dead hooker named Sarah, decides to use a mild-mannered city planner named Yann to exact revenge on society, corruption, and anyone else who gets in her way.

This is just what the festival has so far lacked and I greatly needed - glorious, glorious, violence.  With guns.  Well, one gun, named Sarah.

Calibre 9
2011, 84 minutes, directed by Jean-Christian Tassy

Carré Blanc

What a surprise.  Another slow-burning story of dystopian future.  And yet this one just works.  The style is excellent, as is the film's overall tone.  Croquet-based humor at its best.  This film might be up there with The City of Lost Children as one of my favorite films of the genre.

Carré Blanc
2011, 77 minutes, directed by Jean-Baptiste Léonetti

Alas, the director couldn't make it.  He was literally in the airport in Paris when his coat was stolen along with his passport.  I would have liked to see him talk about his film.  I think you have to be a pretty interesting guy to be able to put humor in a film like that - and pull it off so well.

Une pure affaire (Borderline)

If the first two seasons of Weeds taught us anything, it's that hot moms dealing drugs can be cool.  This film features a French couple who "stumble" into the cocaine business.  It's starts very light-hearted, but it's hard to enjoy when I know it's going to go horribly wrong.  And then it all does.  But hang in there.

Une pure affaire (Borderline)
2011, 88 minutes, directed by Alexandre Coffre

Outside the theater after the screening.  I can't help but think that the marquee above his head is reading his thoughts.

Micmacs à tire-larigot

Per the director, "micmacs" means "shenanigans", and there's not a better way to describe the film.  This is a cliche-filled whimsical romp through the world of the down-and-out, centered around Bazil, a poor soul who lost his father to a land mine in the war, and much later was shot in the head, costing him his home and job and leaving him destitute on the street.  He learns the manufacturer of both implements of destruction, and when the opportunity arises, leads an ingenious troupe in fitting revenge.  I think I've seen this film three times before in various forms, but it was a pleasant way to spend an evening.

Micmacs à tire-larigot
2009, 105 minutes, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Truffe

When small furry creatures try to dominate the Montreal truffle industry, only one woman can stand in their way. The director's cut, only 65 minutes long, is tight and crisp, with the trance-induced plot elements woven into a traditional three-act play. I especially appreciated the black-and-white film, allowing contrast to dominate the cinematography.

Truffe
2008, 65 minutes, directed by Kim Nguyen

Black

Who'd have thought that France would resurrect the funkiest of 70s genres - the blaxspoitation film - and remake it to such grand success? This film has all the traditional elements but feels fresh. Action. Adventure. Mysticism. Groovy Bass. Oh yeah.

Black
2009, 115 minutes, directed by Pierre Laffargue

Note to self: buy the soundtrack

The Crème (The Cream)

Man gets facial cream that, when sparingly applied, makes everyone else see him as a celebrity - until it wears off. Hilarity ensues. But then he lets a good thing rot. What an idiot. Can he pull it out?

The Crème (The Cream)
2007, 83 minutes, directed by Reynald Bertrand

Persepolis

I won't call this a story of Iran. It is a story of life. Every society places controls on its members. Without them, it wouldn't be a society. Yet all too often we go too far. Those in charge of enforcing the controls become abusive, drunk on their power. I don't think the cycle will end.

Go see this film.

Persepolis
2007, 95 minutes, directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi