Scène : la cité des enfants perdus. Jamais nous ne croisons le soleil. Nous le décelons parfois sous des cernes trop bruns.  Mais l'amitié entre Icare et Phoebus est sans issue. Notre tâche est moins noble. Réassort. Labeur répétitif, journalier. Les clients rivalisent d'audace pour pallier leur paresse. Compréhensible. Serviabilité, prévenance, obséquiosité. Devise intacte, immémoriale. Nous nous devons d'être corvéables à merci. Simplement pour que les secondes s'affolent et mettent un terme à notre fonction. Pointeuse. En être hors. Contempler les préludes tapageurs du nadir et s'en retourner, fourbu mais grisé. Quoique.

En vrac : une jeune fille noire me demandant : "y'a des effaceurs pour noirs ?" Me rappelle un article que j'avais lu sur le gommage identitaire, mais lequel ? Chypriotes en goguette - espagnols cherchant du papier de soie - pause payée - parlé de littérature japonaise avec B. qui me confie qu'il a lu tout Mishima sauf La mer de la fertilité - que le déclic s'est produit en regardant La femme des sables et Millenium Mambo (oui, celui-là était taiwanais) -bons de commande dupli - triplicata - "vous êtes de la maison?" -manifestation pro-Tibet - couple de vieux beaux chiants désireux d'acheter un trieur avec pochette transparente pour y mettre les fiches de paie que leur patron de fils aura rédigées (10 par mois en tout) - Pentel - plus de Maped plus de Conte - pas de recharge pour les mont-blanc - et B. de me dire lors que je lui demandais la clef des toilettes et que je lui en demandais la localisation précise : "T'inquiète, j'vais pas t'tenir la queue !" Le contraire m'eût étonné et - non rien - vitrine - clefs - œillets - plus d'enveloppe fermeture ficelle - lutins à foison - panini poulet-coca-lucky au square de Cluny - Truffaut et la Filmo - à cor et à cri - "Viens !" - orfraies sur le trottoir - singulier - serai-t-il possible de mettre encore plus de tirets - mauvaise donne - pas le temps de lire la RILI - pointer - sensation de faire partie de quelque chose - entité - holisme - dire "on n'en fait plus" - étrange - géante péroxydée a commandé deux listes le matin même - où les peut-elle récupérer ? - cave - nous en devenons des homophones grandeur nature - le réserviste L. très gentil fait des films selon B. - peut-être ai-je mal compris - Colin Dexter - les messages de N. et J. furent roboratifs. Après une déchirante absence de quelques heures, la sequel vous sera livrée. Je reviendrai. Epique. Et toc.

Ce soir, suis heureux pour N.

]]> http://luciddose.wordpress.com/?p=50 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:37:17 +0000 lefeeverte http://luciddose.wordpress.com/?p=50 Foutaises (Things I like, Things I hate) is a wonderful short film by beloved director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children, Amelie, Delicatessen).  If you've seen Amelie, you can see how he later incorporated this idea to paint the amazing characters of that film. 

MERMAID, from Russia, and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, from Sweden, bracketed my Wednesday's viewing at E.I.F.F. and together form a pretty neat Fever Dream Double Feature. Both deal with childhood/adolescence, both have a fantasy element and a dark side, while ostensibly taking place in the real modern world (MERMAID starts in the '90s and LTROI is set in the '80s, for no particularly obvious reason), both are commercial as hell but eschew the Hollywood manner of constructing a script like a Swiss watch (or pretending to do so while leaving colossal gaps and improbabilities, as is generally the case nowadays) and both benefit from a slower cutting rate than is standard in America and increasingly in the U.K.

One has a surprise downbeat ending and the other an upbeat, neither of which I was sure about but neither of which seemed to mar my enjoyment overall.

MERMAID, written and directed by Anna Melikyan, follows an unusual, misfit girl from aged 6, when she stops speaking after a solar eclipse, to aged 18, when first love with a dissolute moon salesman (yes, I believe people do make a living selling lunar real estate) cures her and brings about dramatic developments in her life, all of which she reads in the city of Moscow -- it's billboards and hoardings seem to carry private messages to her throughout. This I dig, as anyone who's read my "Things I Read Off the Screen" pieces will understand.

It's kind of an emo AMELIE. An EMOLIE, if you will. By this I mean that it substitutes a darker world-view and a keener sense of heart-ache for the more saccharine aspects of Jeunet's Parisian romance. Perhaps that's what you get when you trade Paris for Moscow.

As the Jeunet comparison suggests, the film is a big-budget visual banquet, but it shuns the hyperkinetic frenzy of NIGHT WATCH and even harkens back to this kind of thing:

There's a recurring, developing, surreal dream-tableau that reminds me simultaneously of old Russian sci-fi, Fellini, and David Bowie's Ashes to Ashes video.

This was my favourite of the new films I've seen at the festival, until I saw LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. I left the Cameo with a spring in my stride and a song in my knee. It restored my faith in green-haired Russian girls.

LTROI is, let's be frank, a vampire story. Shrewd in its borrowings from legend and in the slow-burn way it allows them to be expressed onscreen, it most closely resembles George Romero's melancholy MARTIN, but it doesn't avoid the supernatural -- indeed, it takes it quite seriously (which is refreshing) and plunges in feet-first.

Could I describe this film as a romance between two twelve-year-old outcasts? Yes, and it's beautifully observed. It's not often you can get a Proustian rush AND a body count. Could I describe it as a romance between a budding serial killer and a vampire? Yes, but you might get the wrong idea. It's stately, luminous, tender, harsh, it mingles realism with the fantastic in a way that illuminates both. It's directed by Tomas Alfredson and scripted by John Ajvide Lindqvist, from his novel.

"My script is about being lifted out of the darkness by love."

Fiona couldn't make it so hopefully she'll get to see it tomorrow. I joked that it's her new favourite film, only she doesn't know it yet.

Spéciale mention à Marc Caro qui s'est occupé des bruitages additionnels, ils ont tout particulièrement attiré mon attention.... de même, le comédien qui n'est plus à présenter et dont j'adore la gueule...

Régalez-vous !

I finally figured it out, though. I love movies by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Many people probably haven't heard of him, but he directed and wrote "Amelie." When I was much younger my dad introduced me to "Amelie" and "Delicatessen." I always thought they were good, but hadn't thought much more than that. When I got an assignment in my editing class to reverse engineer a scene, I chose "The City of Lost Children," I became completely enthralled, and ended up reverse engineering half of the film.

The worlds he creates are so amazing, and beautiful. The set designs and colors he uses create an incredibly surreal feel. He uses wide angle lenses, which distort people. He even chooses actors which have strange faces, such as Dominique Pinon (who stars in most if not all Jeunet's films), to create an even stranger world. His stories are also very peculiar, and the characters that he creates through image, sound, and writing are very unique.

"Delicatessen" is about a group of people living in a building together, that, due to hard times, have had to resort to cannibalism. The protagonist is a strange little fellow, who used to be in a circus, and misses his monkey. He comes to the community, looking for odd jobs. He is granted one, and stays there for quite a while, completely oblivious to what's going on around him.

"The City of Lost Children" is even stranger. Involving dream theft, clones, and a talking brain. It all seems quite reasonable, given the context.

The relationships in his films are also very interesting, awkward, and usually incredibly cute. "The City of Lost Children" has a childish strong man and a very mature little girl that grow very close. The relationship in "Delicatessen" between the protagonist and the butcher's daughter is very sad at first, but adorable as well. "Amelie" is all about an awkward girl, and how she falls in love. Jeunet really knows how to make the audience feel for a character, and be really interested and involved in what happens to them.

I am really excited to learn more about French New Wave Cinema in my Postwar Global Cinema class. Since I hear that a lot of Jeunet's surrealist tendencies are derived from it. I am very happy that I finally get to take film theory classes. They are amazingly enjoyable.

So yeah, I've finally decided, my favorite movie is "Delicatessen." If you haven't seen it, you should. I'll let you borrow it.

Amelie

Rating: 4/5

Info:

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Running Time: 116 minutes

Original Release: 2001

Certificate: 15

Genre: Offbeat Romance

Starring: Audrey Tautou

French with English subtitles

Plot:

Amelie Poulain (Tautou) lives a sheltered life. Wrapped in cotton wool as a child, she develops a thirst for life's simpler pleasures and decides to try and spread a little love to the Parisians while trying to come to terms with her own affections for the man of her dreams

Review:

Its not often that a French film makes as big a impression on the west as Amelie (or Le Fabluleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain, or The Fabulous Destiny Of Amelie Poulain for those of you who didn't do french at school) has, but when it does its one hell of a cracker.

Some good quirky acting on behalf of the leads combined with that fact that Jean-Pierre Jenet appears to have shot the film through a stained glass window gives Amelie a warming glossy effect and does wonders for the image of Paris's notorious Montmartre district. This combined with a gloriously beautiful score makes Amelie a must have for the DVD collection.

This offbeat romance is probably best compared to the likes of 'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind' or 'Lost In Translation' because of its sheer oddball quality. All in all, Amelie with its charmingly innocent tale is exactly the sort of film to liven your spirits when your feeling a bit down in the dumps.

With Jeunet's trademark lush cinematography, A Very Long Engagement is a romantic film, but one that doesn't shy away from depicting the horrors of war both physical and mental. The film's story begins on January 6, 1917 - exactly ninety days before we watched it - when five French soldiers are court-martialed for self-mutilation. There punishment is to be thrown out of the trench into No Man's Land where presumably the Germans will take care of their execution. One of the victims is Manech Langonnet (Gaspard Ulliel), a young man engaged to Mathilde Donnay (Audrey Tatou).

Three years later Mathilde is still convinced that Manech is alive and will return to her. She begins a search to find him by looking for all the other men who were in the trench that day and their families. What follows is a mix of mystery as Mathilde pieces the story together with the grim realism of war contrasted with romantic flashbacks to Mathilde and Manech's youth. There's also a political message of the social injustices of war that find the poor and powerless stuck in the trenches. A Very Long Engagement is also very funny at times.

Overall this is a brilliant film that's got me still trying to untangle it's complexities long after it is over. I have been wanting to see this movie for a long time and it was worth the wait.

PS - Despite all appearances I'm not really watching French films to the exclusion of all else.

Millainen sitten on hyvä ekspositio elokuvassa. Elokuva vaatii alleviivaavuutta, mutta milloin alleviivaavuus alkaa syösä teosta. Se pyöri mielessä, kun keskustelimme Blade runnerista tänään kahvikupin ääressä töissä. Kertojan ääni - mitä se tekikään teokselle. Miten erilainen elokuva onkaan versiossa, jossa on kertoja ja onnellinen loppu (teatteriversio), kuin niitä ilman olevassa versiossa (director's cut). Oivallisin eksposotio kauneutensa, vihjailevuutensa puolesta on mielestäni Jeunetin Kadonneiden lasten kaupungissa (City of lost children). Oivallinen elokuva - eräs parahultaisimmista.

Alla olevasta linkistä voi katsoa You Tubesta Kadonneiden lasten kaupungin alun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fPplRlMbKA&feature=related

Lundi 17 décembre: interview de Dominic Purcell, Lincoln de Prison Break.

Je suis arrivée depuis dix minutes. Aucun de mes deux supposés chefs ne m'a parlé, mais Juliette, qui travaille à côté de moi, me propose de partir avec elle dans un grand hôtel parisien interviewer Dominic Purcell, qui joue Lincoln sur Prison Break et qui est à Paris pour de la promo (cause chômage technique, cause grève des scénaristes). Comme ell e a pas mal de taf, je fais des recherches, j'écris des questions et comme elles sont chouettes et que Juliette est chouette elle me laisse en poser! Dominic Purcell est beau comme un dieu, je crois presqu'avoir trouvé mon alter-ego quand je vois son t-shirt "ironie-postmoderne" starwars vintage. Mais il fallait qu'il ouvre la bouche...

Mardi 18 décembre: dégustation au Grand Véfour.

Claire et Dominique m'ont gentiment emmenée avec elles au Grand Véfour, assister à "un atelier de goût" du chef Guy Martin avec une classe de primaire à l'école Sainte Geneviève. Prof très drôle, quand le chef demande si certains enfants ont des allergies, elle répond "non non!" avant qu'un petit de neuf ans crie "Mais si mais si! Machin il est allergique aux produits laitiers!" et elle, tranquille "Ah oui tiens... j'avais oublié...".

Partie pour prendre des notes, je me retrouve en plus à déguster avec les petits! Dome de carotte au gingembre, croustillant de dorade au sumac et citron au sel, tarte chocolat encens... Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

En plus en rentrant j'écris un "faux" factuel sur la sortie, pour m'entraîner à écrire des dépêches. Sauf que voilà, Matin + a vu une des photos prises par le photographe AFP et veut l'utiliser dans l'édition du mercredi. Ils ont besoin d'un factuel. Et Claire crie à Dominique 2 (ma chef), "mais Cécile elle en a fait un de factuel!". Me voilà projetée agencière, je fais deux cent mots envoyés illico. Dominique 2 me sourit et me lance "Bon tu me fais 500 mots pour cette après-midi!"

On peut trouver ma dépêche ici ou ici avec la photo et sans doute ailleurs!

Mercredi 19 décembre: projection presse de Dante 01.

J'écris "l'entretien" de Dominic Purcell avec Juliette, puis je commence à m'embêter. Rébecca crie partout dans le service pour trouver quelqun qui pourrait aller à une projection presse d'un film. Je n'ose pas demander, mais Dominique 2 finit par lui lancer "Envoie cécile elle se débrouillera très bien". Me voilà partie pour voir Dante 01, le premier long-métrage tout seul et sans les mains de Marc Caro, le comparse de Jean-Pierre Jeunet pour Delicatessen et La Cité des Enfants Disparus. Avis mitigé. Très difficile d'en faire une critique "afp": raconter l'histoire mais pas la fin, critiquer mais dans un langage assez soutenu. Je galère.

Jeudi 20 décembre: visite au ministère de la Culture.

A force de harcèlement, Jean-Pierre accepte de m'emmener avec lui au ministère de la Culture voir la signature d'un accord entre France Télévisions et les syndicats de producteurs de fiction française (l'ARP, le BLIC et le BLOC, meilleurs acronymes du monde). Au programme, Patrick de Carolis qui est très grand très beau et très poivre et sel (mais qui ne sera jamais aussi beau que toi, france interien de l'Elysée), les mecs des syndicats qui font tous des petits discours bien ficelés sans notes, et Christine Albanel, qui a deux pages de notes et qui ne parvient qu'à les lire....
Retour à la Bourse, fausse dépêche que Jean-Pierre reprend en m'expliquant que même si c'est l'AFP il faut quand même "apater le chaland". Mais bon, j'ai toutes les quotes qu'il fallait avoir, et d'ailleurs pour la peine il me pique mon dernier paragraphe pour le mettre dans son 500 mots.

Vendredi 21 décembre: sex toy en open space

Journée plutôt calme, entrecoupée des appels aux cadeaux: TF1 & co envoient à tous les journalistes du pôle média des macarons, des chocolats, c'est à la limite de l'indigestion! En fin d'aprèm, une des journalistes vient nous faire admirer un magnifique père noël en chocolat, qu'elle vient de recevoir de chez Artcurial, la maison d'enchères. Sauf que voilà, son père noël il tient un sapin un peu suggestif... tout le monde devient tout rouge jusqu'à ce qu'on regarde la boîte: là, en rose, c'est écrit, le père noël tient un "butt plug" en chocolat... très très classe comme cadeau!

In the build-up to the new Fall season, there was a fair amount of hype that Pushing Daisies would be 'the' show of the season, but sadly, whoever makes the trailers for the show is an idiot. If not for my obsessive disorder of TiVo'ing almost every new show "to check it out", there's a good chance that I'd be one of the millions of people sitting around in complete ignorance of the daisies being pushed.

We're 4 episodes into the season now, and it hasn't lost its edge; every episode plays like a movie, a mix of Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands" and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amelie". The vibrant colours, the perfectly precise narration, the humour, the romance, and the 'quirkiness' of the entire premise, all add up to a perfect example of "Must See TV".

For me, and anyone else from the UK, seeing Anna Friel in something so outstanding comes as a shock, and the joy of discovering that Jim Dale is the narrator stays with me in every episode. For those who don't know Jim Dale, he used to be in the "Carry On..." movies in the UK, but more importantly starred in "Digby, The Biggest Dog In The World", which was self-proclaimed as being "The Biggest Howl Ever Unleashed!". If you haven't seen that movie, don't. It does, however, bring back wonderful memories of more innocent years. Oh, and he also narrates the audiobook version of a book series called "Harry Potter", whatever that is.

Anyway, if you've not experienced Pushing Daisies yet, you can still catch up online at abc.com, and then settle down every Wednesday night for another joyous treat of an episode (and if you have HD - wow!).

Just as Daisy's "Legally Blonde Ambition" is essential reading, Bryan Fuller's "Pushing Daisies" is essential viewing. Go watch.