August 8, 1997
Sinon oui (1997) **
A young woman (Catherine Mendez) is pretending to be pregnant, lying to her boyfriend (Emmanuel Clarke), her father (Lou Castel) and her friends. Don't expect a comedy; this is a serious and tragic film. Extremely well done, but profoundly depressing. Reportedly based on a true story.
Sept en attente (1997) *
The film tries to imitate Rohmer's "Le Rayon vert" by relying only on improvisation, but it doesn't succeed.
Soleil (1997) **
If you've liked "Un Ete a la Goulette", you should love this one as well. It's a nicely crafted slice-of-life drama set in Algiers during World War II.
Romaine (1997) **
Quirky comedy about a not-very-bright ugly duckling of a girl who nevertheless attracts swarms of horny boys. Clearly influenced by Eric Rohmer, this clever little film consists of several seemingly banal vignettes that hide an interesting discourse on sexual representation.
Rien ne va plus (1997) **
Two nickel-and-dime crooks find themselves in the middle of a huge and messy affair. This film is far too sophisticated and refined for its own good. The dialogue is great, but there is little suspense and few thrills.
Un air si pur (1997) *
An adaptation of Knut Hamsun's novel set in a French sanatorium during World War I. Patients suffer from various mental, physical or nervous illnesses. Worse still, they drop like flies. Fabrice Luchini is especially memorable as a viper-tongued cynic whose verbal cruelty provides a welcome contrast to other characters' pathetic weaknesses.
L'Age des possibles (1997) *
A study of relationships among several young couples in Strasbourg, France. It's an ambitious film that tries desperately to say something about love in 1990's, but only succeeds in boring the viewers to tears. It doesn't help that all actors and actresses look, talk and act alike.
Le Jaguar (1997) *
Amazonian jungle seem to attract French filmmakers. After "Un Indien dans la ville" (1995), here's "Le Jaguar" - a rather mediocre little comedy starring Jean Reno.
Dobermann (1997) **
If you love ultra-violent, nihilistic, deranged, sick and morally bankrupt movies, don't miss this one. The criminals are psychopats, the cops are even worse (they let a baby play with a handgranade). Be prepared for bloodbaths of apocalyptic proportions. Bob Dole would have a heart attack if he ever saw it. Proof positive that Hollywood doesn't have a monopoly on "nightmares of depravity" - this one comes from France.
Les Demons du Jesus (1997) **
At first, it looks like a well-crafted, but nihilistic drama about losers, toughs, sadists, rapists and sluts. Every conversation seems to consist of vulgarities and insults. Slowly, however, the film reveals a more sensitive and humane side. The ending is a celebration of family values. Well, any film with "demon" and "Jesus" in the title was bound to be morally schizophrenic.
Le Cousin (1997) **
Solid police drama about cops and their informers. Bloodhounds from Internal Affairs (led by Trintignant) investigate a team of Parisian cops who use drug dealers as their informers (aka "cousins"). This tough police drama from France explores the themes of loyalty and corruption with an unusually subtle touch. There are no evil monsters or heroic knights, just flawed men and women doing their jobs.
Comme des rois (1997) **
A farce about two Polish con-men who pretend to be famous movie directors attending a prestigious film festival in France. Rarely has the pretentiousness of the European art cinema been subjected to a more savage ridicule. An entertaining film marred by a very sappy ending.
Ma vie en rose (1997) **
A very subversive Belgian comedy about a cross-dressing 7-year-old boy who stubbornly insists that he's really a little girl. The first half of the film is played strictly for laughs - the little tyke puts on lipstick and pink dresses, and finds himself a boyfriend. The second half is much darker - homophobia raises its ugly head and everybody (even his parents) turn against him. The light comedy part is handled better - it becomes a little too manipulative near the end - but this is definitely taboo-breaking cinema, and far more important for gay rights than either "In & Out" or "Ellen".
La Verite si je mens (1997) **
From France comes this thoughtful and well-acted film about a bright young man who gets ahead in business (textiles) by pretending to be Jewish. Instead of expected stereotypes, we get sympathetic, three-dimensional characters and a warm, fascinating portrait of the Sephardic community in Paris.
La Marquise (1997) **
Don't expect another "Beaumarchais l'insolent". Once again, it's a ribald period comedy about French theater, but unfortunately, without witty dialogues and clever one-liners. Sophie Marceau plays an ambitious prostitute/dancer who seduces Moliere and Racine to become a famous actress admired by King Louis XIV. Imitating those two famous playwrights, the film moves from comedy to tragedy, with jarring abruptness.
Marius et Jeannette (1997) **
Low-key, very de-dramatized film about three working-class couples in Marseilles. It's touching and charming, but unexceptional. A minor-league effort.
Chantal Ackerman par Chantal Ackerman (1997) *
A self-documentary in which the Belgian filmmaker talks about herself and her movies.
Le Septieme ciel (1997) *
French movie about a young woman trying to cure her kleptomania with hypnosis.
Nettoyage a sec (1997) *
Standard French fare: menage-a-trois, adultery, tight underwear, loose morals, tragic ending. Something about a transvestite seducing a happily married couple. The film won an Osella d'Oro at the Venice film fest, but didn't really deserve it.
Marthe (1997) *
An unremittingly bleak and depressing drama set in Fance during World War I. A young soldier, licking his wounds and trying to forget the trenches, falls in love with a pretty schoolteacher. Films like that were already seen as hopelessly dated back in the early 30's. Full title: "Marthe ou la promesse d'un jour."
Didier (1997) **
The premise might seem idiotic - a dog changes into a man, but retains all the canine instincts - but this movie offers big laughs. I mean real falling-out-of-your-seat belly laughs. The dog is played by pic's helmer, Alain Chabat, and he's absolutely terrific, giving an uncanny canine imitation. It's a really silly film.
Bye Bye (1997) *
The lives of Arab immigrants in France can't possibly be as boring, depressing and pathetic as this film would lead us to believe. And it's so unflattering to its subjects that it could well be shown at one of Le Pen's anti-immigrant rallies. Watching this insomnia-curing excuse for a motion picture is a very frustrating experience: everyone always yells, screams and acts like a jerk, but nothing of interest ever happens.
La Belle verte (1997) *
A rather naive, but good-natured film about tree-hugging, veggie-gulping, meat-hating aliens visiting the Earth.
Trois vies et une seule mort (1997) *
Marcello Mastroianni plays a man afflicted with a multiple personality disorder - he has three lives, but can only die once. A baffling film that can't decide if it's a black comedy or a serious drama. It's too dull to be the former and too bizarre to be the latter.
Fantome avec chauffeur (1997) *
What a lame turkey! Thirty years earlier, Gerard Oury made one of the best French comedies of all times, "La Grande Vadrouille", but here, he only manages to completely embarass himself with this half-backed, slow-moving bore about a ghost of a rich CEO and his driver. The only good gag takes place in a changing room.
Tenue correcte exigee (1997) *
French farce about a homeless vaganbond, his rich wife, a prostitute and a hotel owner fearing an unexpected police inspection.
Portraits chinois (1997) **
No, there are no Chinese people in this film, only young French couples cheating on each other (what else could we expect from a Gallic import ?). But very strong acting prevents this otherwise average film from being a simple soap opera.
Port Djema (1997) *
An existential drama about a French physician travelling to a war-torn East African country. Clearly influenced by Michalangelo Antonioni, it's somber, well-directed, slow-moving, thought-provoking, challenging and occasionally dull.
Hercule et Sherlock (1997) *
A rather dumb little comedy about two criminals kidnapping two dogs to help them find a box of forged currency.
Le Passage des hommes libres (1997) *
Very boring film about two European scientists exploring the South American jungle circa 1800. An ordinary PBS documentary usually has more exciting moments than this misguided, ponderous meditation on the corrosive influence of Western civilisation.
Passage a l'acte (1997) *
Boring French film about a creepy psychopath playing a cat-and-mouse game with his shrink. Director Francis Girod thinks he's another Claude Chabrol, but he's only deluding himself. He gets credit for an intriguing and disturbing ending, but the rest is crap.
Ni d'Eve ni d'Adam (1997) *
Un films sur les jeunes delinquants dans une petite ville provinciale francaise et plus particulairement un jeune garcon mal adapte qui s'enfuit avec sa jeune copine.
On connait la chanson (1997) **
Meandering, seriously overrated French pic about boring Parisian neurotics. Frequently interrupted by non-sequitur musical numbers, in which the protagonist lip-synch to classic songs, "Pennies From Heaven"-style. It unexpectedly won the Cesar Award for best film, beating "Le Bossu", a far superior film in every respect.
Nous sommes tous encore ici (1997) **
Long, analytical discourses on philosophy replace a conventional narrative in this interesting, mildly watchable, but highly listenable film. Obviously not for all tastes; an ounce of intellectual snobbery is required to be able to sit through the most complicated discourses and pretend to understand them all.
Les Palmes de M.Schutz (1997) **
Not surprisingly, this film about Marie and Pierre Curie's discovery of radioactivity is informative and erudite. But surprisingly, it's also quite funny. There are bits involving secret formulas of vodka, ways of dispatching Russian soldiers to Siberia and the smuggling of powder to the Polish resistance. A huge spoonful of humor makes history, physics and chemistry so much easier to swallow.
July 7, 1997
A Chinese Midnight Express (1997) **
A reporter exposes police corruption, is framed and goes to prison.
Le Chien du jardinier (1997) **
If the English can dust off their old Shakespearan plays and turn them into hits, why wouldn't the Spaniards try to do the same ? If you like those old farces where a countess loves a commoner (but can't marry him until it turns out he's really a duke's long-lost son), you might give it a try.
Celestial Clockwork (1997) **
Spanish film about a Venezuelan girl searching for fame and love in Paris. Directed by Fina Torres, it's a wacky comedy in the spirit of the early Almodovars.
Guantanamera (1997) **
Tomas Gutierrez Alea's last film is quite similar to his early masterpiece "Death Of A Bureaucrat".
Un Ete a la Goulette (1997) **
This film is set on the eve of the Israeli-Arab war of 1967 in a peaceful Tunisian resort town of La Goulette. But three 17-year-old girls, one Muslim, one Christian and one Jewish, have bigger problems than politics - they want to lose their virginity. The project seems to please the local boys, but the girls' fathers are far less enthusiastic.
Kichiku (1997) *
Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri. All gore all the time. Gore for gore sake. Gore-O-Rama. Inner-gang power struggles, brutal fights, tortures and other atrocities.
Destiny (1997) **
Muslim fundamentalism is denounced in this Egyptian film set in 12th century Andalousia.
Cure (1997) **
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. With Yakusho Koji. A Japanese film about a hypnotist who induces people to commit murders.
My Secret Cache (1997) **
Weird Japanese comedy about a greedy girl trying to find recover a suitcase full of money.
Junk Mail (1997) **
Memorable black comedy from Norway, about a dishonest mailman saving the life of a suicidal woman he happens to be stalking. Clearly inspired by Kieslowski's Short Film About Love (1988), but much more creepy, misantropic, hard-edged and grotesque.
Mother And Son (1997) **
A man takes care of his ailing mother. He carries her outside, and they sit together on a bench until she dies. With a plot like that, this Russian drama has to either be a great masterpiece or a monumental bore. It's both, actually, getting five stars for style and zero for entertainment value.
Karakter (1997) *
A Dutch film about a young man and his hatred for his biological father. It's a very well made, but quite unpleasant to watch, because the main protagonists are extremely unsympathetic. Another problem is a slow pace. It won this year's Academy Award for best foreign pic, but didn't really deserve it.
Let There Be Light (1997) *
This Turkish film about the civil war in Kurdistan tries to whitewash both sides. If both the Turkish military and the Kurdish rebels were such saints, why on Earth would they be fighting each other in the first place ? A political film should have the courage to offend at least one side in the conflict (and preferably both). This film tries to say that War (as an abstract concept) is bad, but the people who fight it are all good. Nice try.
Trop tard (1997) *
Flawed, but interesting Romanian film about a serial killer haunting an old coal mine. It's an allegory about the horrible legacy of Communism in Eastern Europe - rusting vestiges of industrial complexes, corruption in high places, human misery, despair, madness ... The film doesn't quite pull it all off; for a better treatment of similar themes, see Tarkovsky's "Stalker".
Too Many Ways To Be Number One (1997) **
A Hong Kong gangster (Lau Ching-Wan) has a choice of two assignments: one in Mainland China, another on Taiwan. Fairly confusing, but interesting film.
In The Name Of Innocence (1997) **
Gloomy, but very intriguing German film about a murder and its effects on people involved.
Marcello Mastroianni, je me souviens (1997) **
The legendary actor, the star of La Dolce Vita, talks about his life. A witty and charming film, presenting a slice of film history in a very subjective and intimate way. A must for lovers of Italian cinema.
Homere, la derniere odyssee (1997) **
Beautiful, melancholic film about a fragile love triangle involving an aging and blind writer (hence the title), his younger mistress and a handsome matador. Winner of three awards at last year's WFF (Jury Prize, script and FIPRESCI), it's a quiet, subtle little gem.
Historie milosne (1997) **
Cztery opowiadania: milosc ojcowska, milosc masochistyczna, milosc studentki do nauczyciela oraz milosc Rosjanki i Polaka. Zdobywca nagrody FIPRESCI na festiwalu w Wenecji. **
Hana-Bi (1997) **
Somber Japanese gangster film. Very well directed, but hardly entertaining. Winner of the Golden Lion at Venice.
Bag Of Rice (1997) *
This Iranian film is essentially a remake of "The White Balloon". Once again we've got a stubborn little girl, an object to be purchased (rice replacing goldfish), little holes in the ground to lose the money in, nice strangers who can't wait to help a little girl in trouble, etc. etc. It's just too derivative to be taken seriously.
Armageddon (1997) **
The end of the world is near and a Hong Kong billionaire (Andy Lau) fears for his life.
Ambiguous Report About The End Of The World (1997) **
Clearly inspired by Emir Kusturica, this Czech film in set in a mountain village. The opening scene with wolves devouring the villagers is a stunner.
After Divorce (1997) **
Chinese comedy about an unsuccessful writer and his one-of-a-kind relationship with his ex-sister-in-law (i.e. the sister of his former wife). The film moods shift abruptly from pathos to triumphant optimism to bitter regret. An emotional roller-coaster ride, very slow moving, but rewarding.
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