Trois Couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors Blue)

April 9.

Trois Couleurs is one of those trilogies that has been recommended to me over and over and has been in my Netflix queue for years. I wanted to see it, three great French movies that everyone loves, but I never found the motivation. So when my friend mentioned he had ordered the trilogy last year and finally got it, I guess Amazon didn’t have the motivation to send it, I said OK, let me borrow it. I’m sure he wasn’t going to charge me late fees, but I didn’t feel it was right to hold onto it for months, so finally this weekend I watched part one: Bleu.

So after all this time it’s nice to be able to say Bleu, starring Juliette Binoche as the widow of a famous composer, really lived up to the hype. It was amazing and beautiful and disturbing and sad.

Bleu starts with the car accident that kills Binoche’s husband and daughter and follows her as she tries to live after the tragedy. Bleu is a bit mysterious with unanswered questions and a linear storyline but it seems to be more about the emotion.

I’ve already returned Bleu and have parts two and three. I am excited to see where this trilogy, which is general in theme, (trilogy of films dealing with contemporary French society concerns), goes.

Rating: Love

Certified Copy

March 26.

I had really high expectations for Certified Copy. The French movie set in Tuscany starring Juliette Binoche got rave reviews everywhere I looked. So as the main characters - Binoche, an apparent single mother running an antique shop in small town Italy and William Shimell an art historian and author - have an uncomfortable meeting, full of strange bickering, I wasn't sure what I thought of it.

And then, when the pair started acted as a married couple, but not in a cute, fun way - in a strange sad way, I was actually less uncomfortable but still confused. This couple seemed to truly be married ... I think.

So in the end I wasn't sure what I thought. The conversation was interesting, the scenery and camera angles were gorgeous and interesting. But the story. What had happened? Were they married? Were they strangers? I don't know.

A few days later, I was talking to a coworker about the film and we had similar reactions. But as we talked about it, we both began to appreciate what we saw more and more. There are so many questions. About what happened, sure, but also about the way people speak to each other and why. And there's no denying that the storytelling was like nothing I've ever seen before. So, now I feel like I need to watch this movie again, and that it could be a movie I love, but for now ...

Rating: Like

The Illusionist (L'illusionniste)

March 12.

L'illusionniste is sad. That’s the way I felt the whole movie. Sure there’s a flash of the fun times the magician had when he had a successful act in Paris, but really it’s about his decline. I spent the whole movie waiting for the change, for something good to happen. It didn’t. On his way down, the illusionist spends some time in Scotland where he befriends a young girl, Alice. I thought this was where some happiness would come in. But Alice just seems selfish and unappreciative of his generosity.

Sometimes I enjoy movies like this, a story that is linear seems more honest and life doesn’t always have a happy ending. So maybe it was my mood or maybe I was waiting for some of the silliness that was in The Triplets of Belleville, but it just felt a little empty.

Rating: Ehh

The Triplets of Belleville

February 14.

I love The Triplets of Belleville. The animation and story are so whimsy, weird and interesting.

The story is about a boy, his dog and a woman I am guessing is his grandmother. They all live in Paris, so from scene one I was in.  The boy becomes interested in the Tour de France and starts cycling, with the old woman as his trainer. As he's racing in the Tour De France he gets kidnapped and his grandmother (dog in tow) follow his kidnappers to New York. The grandmother gets help from the expat French triplets, who were a famous singing act about 50 years before.

There are parts of Triplets that seem like a dream, or maybe the whole thing is a dream. I don't know. But I loved it anyway.

Rating: Love

Un Prophete (A Prophet)

April 3.

"Un Prophete" was nominated for an Oscar and compared to the greatest mafia movies ever made, so when it popped up at one theater in town I saw it the first chance I got.

It's interesting that it was presented as a mafia movie since the entire story takes place during Malik El Djebena's, played by Tahar Rahim, prison sentence. The French prison is divided by Arabs and Corsicans. But Malik, who is both, keeps to himself. That is until the Corsican mafia inmates running the prison need his help. He doesn't exactly rise in the Corsican mafia, but he learns a lot and branches out on his own.

Rahim is an amazing newcomer and he plays the character, who spends half the story observing and letting things happen to and around him, brilliantly. He's also beautiful if you can get passed he weird 70s-porn mustache.