September 9, 1999
East Is East (1999) ***
Fantasia 2000 (1999) ***
An animated IMAX extravaganza featuring seven new sequences and one classic segment from the original Disney classic. Best of all are those snotty flamingos playing with a yoyo in a wacky interpretation of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. Donald Duck stars in an equally hilarious segment about Noah's Ark, set to the music of Sir Edward Elgar's classic (and oft-ridiculed) Pomp And Circumstance. And there are also giant whales frolicking among icebergs...while Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome is playing on the soundtrack. Often quite entertaining, the film has one major drawback: some segments too closely imitate those from the 1940 film - Beethoven replaces Bach in an equally boring abstract sequence and Stavinsky's Firebird is a carbon copy of Mussorgsky's Night On The Bald Mountain.
Un film d'animation de Hendel Butoy. Avec Mickey Mouse et Donald Duck. La suite du grand classique d'animation de Walt Disney, Fantasia 2000 nous offre un pot-pourri irrésistible de la musique classique, du jazz, de l'art abstrait, du surréalisme et des luttes epiques. On retient surtout une superbe numéro des flamants jouant avec un yoyo, ainsi qu'une fresque impressionante avec des balaines géantes qui gambadent parmi les icebergs. Le fameux Donald Duck fait une apparition dans un segment qui raconte l'histoire de Noe, tandis que la Cinquième Symphonie de Beethoven est illustrée par des images purement abstraits. Presenté dans le format Imax, Fantasia 2000 est un vrai morceau de bravure - un film à la fois innovateur et traditionel.
Un film d'animation de Hendel Butoy. Avec Mickey Mouse et Donald Duck. La suite du grand classique d'animation de Walt Disney, Fantasia 2000 nous offre un pot-pourri irrésistible de la musique classique, du jazz, de l'art abstrait, du surréalisme et des luttes epiques. On retient surtout une superbe numéro des flamants jouant avec un yoyo, ainsi qu'une fresque impressionante avec des balaines géantes qui gambadent parmi les icebergs. Le fameux Donald Duck fait une apparition dans un segment qui raconte l'histoire de Noe, tandis que la Cinquième Symphonie de Beethoven est illustrée par des images purement abstraits. Presenté dans le format Imax, Fantasia 2000 est un vrai morceau de bravure - un film à la fois innovateur et traditionel.
The Iron Giant (1999) ***
Directed by Brad Bird. With the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr and Cloris Leachman. Very entertaining animated feature about a young boy befriending a giant robot from outer space. Often hilarious and always exciting, it deserves to be a huge hit. A lighthearted fare, made for kids of all ages, with a surprisingly strong anti-militarist message.
Les Enfants du marais (1999) ***
Directed by Jean Becker. With Jacques Villeret, Jacques Gamblin and Michel Serrault. A deeply moving, very sentimental and often unforgettable little film about friendship, loyalty and love. Set in a small French town in the early 1930's, it delights spectators with its profoudly nostalgic charm. A genuine crowd pleaser.
The Winslow Boy (1999) ***
Directed by David Mamet. With Rebecca Pidgeon, Nigel Hawthorne and Jeremy Northam. Fine period drama based on a real-life scandal from 1910, involving a 13-year-old British naval cadet accused of stealing five shillings. Instead of focusing on the court case itself, writer/director David Mamet has chosen an interesting angle to tell the story. The result is a fascinating picture, with superb dialogue and excellent performances.
Where A Good Man Goes (1999) ***
Directed by Johnny To. With Lau Ching-Wan. A gangster movie slowly morphing into a melodrama. Touching and beautiful.
Toy Story 2 (1999) ***
Directed by John Lasseter. Even better than the first film, with exciting action scenes and superb computer animation.
Tarzan (1999) ***
Directed by Kevin Lima and Chris Buck. Voices of Minnie Driver, Rosie O'Donnell and Tony Goldwyn. Entertaining and fast-paced jungle/adventure flick about that loud, tree-swinging, loincloth-clad hunk raised by apes in the African wilderness. But the real star of the film is the magnificently animated, three-dimensional jungle, where the camera can follow Tarzan as he crashes throught thick leaves, uses a branch as a trampoline and jumps towards the next tree. Songs are few and far between, but action scenes come fast and furious every five minutes.
Sweet And Lowdown (1999) ***
Comédie de Woody Allen. Avec Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Uma Thurman, John Waters, Anthony LaPaglia. Avec ce petit film très réussi, Woody Allen poursuit l'exploration des thèmes qui lui sont chers. Et encore une fois (après "Broadway Danny Rose", "Radio Days" et "Bullets Over Broadway"), il recrée l'atmosphère du show-business new-yorkais des années 30. Le personnage principal, Emmet Ray (Sean Penn) est un musicien célèbre et gâté, qui tombe amoureux d'une fille muette (Samantha Morton) et qui s'implique dans le monde des gangsters. Emmet Ray est un homme plutôt inéquilibré, mais capable de plaire aux femmes et de conduire une morale à la fois libératrice (pour lui) et machiste (pour elle), face aux ambiguïtés de son métier. Les dialogues sont absolument savoureux, la musique est superbe - bref, Sweet And Lowdown est un véritable bijou. A voir absolument.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) ***
Directed by George Lucas. Ignoring both the hype and the inevitable backlash, let's just say that it's a superior example of Hollywood entertainment. Exciting from start to finish, it's a fast-paced ride across the Galaxy.
Sleepy Hollow (1999) ***
Directed by Tim Burton. Visually stunning adaptation of Washington Irving's famous novel.
The Sixth Sense (1999) ***
Directed by M.Night Shyamalan. With Bruce Willis, Olivia Williams and Toni Collette. First, it LOOKS like a typical Bruce Willis Hollywood blockbuster. And after HEARING its co-star Toni Collette, we can SMELL a disaster. But this TOUCHING and very bizarre drama actually offers a TASTE of something different. It should be seen twice. On the first viewing, it seems horribly pretentious, gloomy and weird. But once you know the ending, its stylistic austerity and its quasi-bergmanian silence, suddenly make perfect SENSE.
The Real Howard Spitz (1999) ***
Directed by Vadim Jean. With Kelsey Grammer, Genevieve Tessier and Amanda Donohoe. A very original, iconoclastic comedy about a failed pulp fiction writer (Grammer) who tries to make it big in the kiddie book business. He enlists the help of a precocious little girl (Tessier) and falls in love with her mother (Donohoe). Grammer and Tessier have great chemistry together, and the little moppet steals every scene she's in. An amazing mixture of odd-ball satire and warm sentimentality, this is a minor gem that seems to have fallen between the cracks of the film distribution system.
Petits freres (1999) ***
Directed by Jacques Doillon. Gripping drama set in a poor housing project on the outskirts of Paris. Story of a feisty young girl whose dog has been stolen by hoodlums.
Pan Tadeusz (1999) ***
Directed by Andrzej Wajda. With Michal Zebrowski, Daniel Olbrychski and Marek Kondrat. A wonderful adaptation of an epic poem about a small uprising in Russian-occupied Poland during the Napoleonic Wars. It’s a very patriotic work, but its political message isn’t nationalistic at all. Instead of demonizing foreigners, the film blames internal divisions as the chief cause of Poland’s downfall. The picture is most memorable for its beautiful poetic dialogue.
The Cup (1999) ***
Directed by Khyentse Norbu. With Orgyen Tobgyal, Neten Chokling, Jamyang Lodro. You just can’t go wrong with this Bhutanese comedy (Bhutan: a tiny Asian country in the Himalayas, squeezed tight between India and China), which was directed by a Buddhist lama recognized as the incarnation of a 19th century Tibetan saint. The story centers on a group of young Tibetan monks with an unquenchable passion for soccer. During the World Cup playoffs, they sneak out of their monastery by night and make their way to a nearby town to watch the games on television. The film celebrates the values that unite all of humanity. It also idealizes the specific local traditions that contribute to the rich tapestry of cultural diversity. And, most importantly, it manages to reconcile both concepts in a playful and entertaining way. Bhutan's submission for the best foreign film Oscar.
Buena Vista Social Club (1999) ***
Directed by Wim Wenders. A memorable documentary about aging Cuban musicians.
The Adventures Of Elmo In Grouchland (1999) ***
Directed by Gary Halvorson. With Vanessa Williams and Mandy Patinkin. This is an absolutely superb motion picture - a delightful and totally unexpected surprise. Clearly inspired by Bertold Brecht, it features characters adressing the audience, commenting on the plot and poking fun at other films (including Titanic). And while self-reflexive and incredibly clever, it still works beautifully as a simple kidpic, with excellent songs, entertaining adventures and appropriate moral lessons.
Adieu plancher des vaches (1999) ***
Directed by Otar Iosseliani. Low-key, very dry comedy about a weird aristocratic family.
Ma petite entreprise (1999) ***
Directed by Pierre Jolivet. With Vincent Lindon, François Berléand and Roschdy Zem. A businessman (Lindon) is facing bankrupcy after his little enterprise literally goes up in flames.... and after he discovers he never had any insurance coverage. Winner of the Best Screenplay Award at the last year’s Montreal Film Festival, this is a charming and delightful screwball farce.
Histoires d'hiver (1999) ***
Directed by Francois Bouvier. With Joel Drapeau-Dalpe, Denis Chouinard and Diane Lavallee. Wonderfully witty, insightful, charming and entertaining, this little gem deserves to be compared with Mon oncle Antoine. If all you expect is a simple story of a boy obsessed with hockey, brace yourself for a huge treat - this film is like a delicious candy slowly melting in one's mouth.
La Dilettante (1999) ***
Comédie de Pascal Thomas. Avec Catherine Frot, Odette Laure, et Nathalie Lafaurie. Cette delicieuse comédie signée Pascal Thomas offre le triple mérite, devenu de plus en plus rare dans le cinéma français, d’être à la fois intelligente, réjouissante et originale. Son intelligence est dû à un scénario exquis, plein de répliques savoureuses. La réjouissance est fortement liée à la création impeccable de Catherine Frot, qu’on a déja vu dans Un air de famille et Diner de cons. Et quant à l’originalité, elle vient surtout de la manière incouciante (et très picaresque) dont on y aborde le récit. Il s’agit, en effect, d’un film qui “saute” d’une situation à l’autre, en poursuivant en perte d’haleine son héroïne excéntrique qui passe par la vie comme un typhoon tropical, ne laissant derrière elle que les bouches grands ouvertes des passants.
A delicious French comedy which offers a triple treat of intelligence, entertainment and originality. The script is exquisitely written and full of delightful one-liners. Catherine Frot’s performance is impeccable. But most impressive of all is the film’s refreshingly off-handed approach to storytelling (jumping frivolously from one situation to another), undoubtedly inspired by its excentric heroine, who also passes through life like a tornado leaving nothing but chaos and exhiliration in her wake.
Cookie's Fortune (1999) ***
Robert Altman's least ambitious film of 1990's, set in a small Mississippi community.
Not One Less (1999) ***
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) ***
August 8, 1999
Lovers (1999) **
Directed by Jean-Marc Barr. Dogma 5 film about a French girl (Elodie Bouchez) falling in love with an illegal immigrant from Yugoslavia.
Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef (1999) *
Directed by Eric Valli. With Thilen Lhondop, Gurgon Kyap, Lhaka Tsamchoe. Unlike Khyentse Norbu’s The Cup, this film set in the Himalayas was directed by a European, and it shows. It’s a perfect example of a regrettable trend in international filmmaking, where the characters behave the way most Westerners imagine that exotic foreigners (in this case, Tibetan herdsmen) ought to be behaving. The vistas are suberb (no surprise here), the tents seem authentic enough, but everything else appears superficial and forced.
Fin aout, debut septembre (1999) *
Directed by Olivier Assayas. With Francois Cluzet and Vieginie Ledoyen. Is there a movie here?
Le Comptoir (1999) *
Directed by Sophie Tatischeff. With Mireille Perrier, Maurane and Michel Laprise. This film will try the patience of any viewer. It's neither a comedy nor a drama nor a romance, nor anything else for that matter. Set in a remote corner of Brittany, it's slow, unfocused and infuriatingly tedious. Jumping back and forth between the present and the past, it's like an annoying flea just begging to be squashed.
Le Temps retrouvé (1999) *
Directed by Raoul Ruiz. With Catherine Deneuve, John Malkovich and Emmanuelle Beart. Ruiz is an odd maestro - absolutely brilliant one moment (Genealogie d'un crime), boringly inept the next (Trois vies et un mort). And this lethargic adaptation of Marcel Proust's novel represents Ruiz at his very worst. Not only is the film uninspired, lazy and conceited, it doesn't even make any sense.
Kennedy et moi (1999) **
Directed by Sam Karmann. With Jean-Pierre Bacri, Nicole Garcia, Patrick Chesnais. After “American Beauty” and “Wonder Boys”, here’s another movie about a family man facing a mid-life crisis and making an ass of himself. Someday, a brilliant scientist will win a Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the strange telepatic waves that allow screenwriters in remote corners of the world to simultaneously come up with exactly the same characters and narrative ideas.
Pourquoi pas moi? (1999) **
Directed by Stephane Giusti. With Julie Gayet, Brigitte Rouan and Marie-France Pisier. Uplifting French film about a bunch of happy-go-lucky lesbians who finally decide to come out of the closet. So they invite their parents for a quiet weekend in the country. Homophobia almost never raises its ugly head - everybody is gay and happy. A nice little fairy tale that makes Better Than Chocolate look gritty and realistic by comparaison.
Un Pont entre deux rives (1999) **
Directed by Gerard Depardieu and Frederic Auburtin. With Gerard Depardieu, Carole Bouquet and Charles Berling. This must be the zillionth French movie about adultery. This time, a wife (Bouquet) cheats on her husband (Depardieu) with her lover (Berling). It's nicely crafted, often pleasantly low-key, but unforgivably unoriginal. Set in 1961, it tries to make some obscure comments about class differences which only make it look like one of those dated, pre-New Wave melodramas, so derided by the Cahiers du Cinema crowd.
Muriel Leferle (1999) **
Directed by Raymond Depardon. Documentary about a young woman caught stealing a car.
Peau neuve (1999) **
Drame d’Emilie Deleuze. Avec Samuel Le Bihan, Catherine Vinatier, Claire Nebout, Candice Dufour et Fabien Lucciarini. Fatigué par son travail en tant que testeur de jeux video, un père de famille décide subitement de devenir... conducteur d’engin de chantier. Il quitte sa famille pour suivre un stage de formation de quatre moins. Contrairement à ce qu’on pourrait s’attendre, “Peau neuve”, la première réalisation d’Emilie Deleuze (la fille du célèbre philosophe français) n’est pas une comédie noire (genre “American Beauty”), mais plutôt un drame serieux, remarquablement subtil et souvent très interessant. C’est une ouvre qui traite du besoin de changer sa vie, ses habitudes, ses valeurs, ses attentes, bref... sa peau.
Pas vu pas pris (1999) **
Directed by Pierre Carles. With Pierre Carles, Karl Zero and Anne Sinclair. A biting expose denouncing the hypocrisy of the French media establishment. Everything had started with a private conversation between a media mogul and a government minister, accidently recorded by a camera. Then came a simple TV report, consisting of interviews with top Gallic media executives trying to explain why they had never aired that conversation. And finally we have this film, which deals with the deliberate suppression of that report by all the French TV stations. Ironically, the original conversation was actually quite innocent. Once again, "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up".
Je regle mon pas sur le pas de mon pere (1999) **
Directed by Remi Waterhouse. With Jean Yanne, Guillaume Canet and Laurence Cote. Amusing little French farce about a father-and-son team of charming swindlers, who play on human greed and stupidity. Conventional and rather clumsy in execution, it's nonetheless a very likable and entertaining effort, with Cote (playing one of their victims) injecting a hefty (and much needed)dose of sex appeal.
Est-Ouest (1999) **
Directed by Regis Wagnier. With Sandrine Bonnaire, Catherine Deneuve, and Oleg Menchikov. A French woman (Bonnaire), married to a Russian physician, comes to live in the Soviet Union in 1946, and soon bitterly regrets her stupidity. The Stalinist oppression is exposed once again in this slow-moving, often touching drama about love, freedom, injustice and cruel deception. It could be seen as a sequel of sorts to "Letter To Brezhnev".
Les Enfants du siècle (1999) **
Drame biographique de Diane Kurys ("Entre nous", "La Baule les Pins"). Avec Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Robin Renucci, Isabelle Carré, Stefano Dionisi. Les relations amoureuses (et orageuses) entre la célèbre romancière George Sand et l'écrivain Alfred de Musset. Elle, une féministe avant date. Lui, un génie fou. Ils partent en Italie, où Alfred trompe George avec des prostituées, tandis que George trompe Alfred avec un médecin. Resultat: les pauvres spectateurs doivent endurer leurs chicanes incessants pendant presque trois heures. Néanmoins, "Les Enfants du siècle" reste un film bien fait, assez conventionnel, mais toujours fascinant. Il présente aussi une belle reconstitution de l'epoque, avec les costumes et le decor sortis tout droit du début du XIX siècle.
Les Convoyeurs attendent (1999) **
"Les Convoyeurs attendent"... et les spectateurs restent stupéfait devant cette étrange comédie belge, à la fois absurde, réjouissante, originale et déroutante. C`est l`histoire de la famille Closset, qui habite dans une petite ville industrielle où règne le chômage et la misère. Le père a un rêve: gagner une voiture en battant un record du Livre Guinness. N`importe quel exploit fera l`affaire: il embrigade donc son fils pour ouvrir et fermer une porte plus de 40 824 fois en 24 heures. Une bagatelle, quoi... Tenace, mais aussi très ridicule dans son acharnement, le père est un personnage complètement grotesque. Il apparaît comme un crétin qui mène sa famille à la catastrophe. Et de son côté, en baignant tout dans une atmosphère de l`ironie et du sarcasme, le film joue constamment avec le spectateur, transgressant les règles habituelles du récit classique. Comédie de Benoît Mariage. Avec Benoît Poelvoorde, Morgane Simon, Bouli Lanners, Lise Lacroix et Jean-François Devigne.
It's like a Ken Loach movie... dubbed and re-edited by a bunch of doped-out pranksters. All the requisite elements of a earnest social-realist drama are in place. All that's missing are logic and reality. Baffling and incomprehensible, this Belgian comedy is full of jokes without punchlines, bizarre ideas, obscure allusions and absurd story arcs.
Le Ciel, les oiseaux et... ta mère! (1999) **
Directed by Djamel Bensalah. With Djamel Debbouze, Olivia Bonamy et Stephane Soo Mongo. "La Haine" meets "Conte d'ete" in this mind-boggling, deeply flawed, often entertaining and quite original little film about four tough, foul-mouthed ghetto kids on vacation in Biarritz. Dialogue is fresh, exciting... and often completely incomprehensible. Viewing this film is like listening to a hopelessly drunk jazz player blowing hard on his trombone. It's clumsy and imperfect, but highly refreshing.
Ca commence aujourd'hui (1999) **
Story of an elementary-school principal in a poor town in northern France.
La Bûche (1999) **
Directed by Danielle Thompson. With Emmanuelle Béart, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Sabine Azéma. Question: is the director English or French? It doesn't matter. The film is very, very French: husbands cheat on their wives (having children with their mistresses), and wives cheat on their husbands (having children with their lovers). And so three sisters (or maybe half-sisters?) have to sort out their complex family ties (an unknown half-brother, a stepfather's first wife, etc.), while making exactly the same mistakes as their parents.
Le Bleu des villes (1999) **
Directed by Stephane Brizé. With Florence Vignon, Antoine Chappey and Mathilde Seigner. Who wants to see a movie about a female trafic cop who dream of being a singer? Anyone? Granted, it doesn't sound very promising, but this French comedy/drama is actually quite entertaining and amazingly subtle. No, really. The heroine is like a butterfly - an ugly worm giving tickets to motorists who slowly metamorphoses into a beautiful creature ready to sing and fly.
Au coeur du mensonge (1999) **
Directed by Claude Chabrol. With Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacques Gamblin and Valeria Bruni-Tedeshi. When a little girl is raped and murdered, her art teacher becomes the prime suspect. But while his wife (Bonnaire) continues to support him, she still has an affair with another man. So it's up to a police inspector (Bruni-Tedeshi) to solve the murder mystery. What we've got here is a standard police drama, very well made, but hardly memorable.
Asterix et Obelix contre Cesar (1999) **
Directed by Claude Zidi. With Gerard Depardieu, Christian Clavier and Roberto Benigni. An entertaining, live-action-packed adaptation of Albert Uderzo and Rene Goscinny's comic books. It's very predictable, but in an exciting, funny and fast-paced way. Whether fighting snakes, lions, crocodiles, spiders or Roman soldiers, Asterix and Obelix never loose their Gallic sense of humor. And the production values (especially the sets and the costumes) are impressive.
A mort la mort (1999) **
Directed by Romain Goupil. With Romain Goupil, Marianne Denicourt and Dani. Pretty cruel, but not particularly funny satire about the old French radicals from May 68 events in Paris. They are presented as Militants Anonymous, forced to cope with their addiction to mass demonstrations, petitions and other types of organized protest. The humor doesn't work - it's often too creepy (or just plain bizarre), but there are some nicely twisted bits of pseudo-feminist objectification of the male body.
Les Amants criminels (1999) **
Directed by Francois Ozon. "Hansel And Gretel" meets "Natural Born Killers".
Alice et Martin (1999) **
Directed by Andre Techine. With Juliette Binoche, Alexis Loret and Carmen Maura. A solid, well-directed French drama about a young man (Loret) trying to deal with death of his father. The effective use of a "hidden" flashback greatly enchances the dramatic tension of this psychologically complex story that examines the issues of guilt, mental illness and personal responsability. Binoche is superb as Loret's supportive girlfriend.
July 7, 1999
The City Of Marvels (1999) **
Directed by Mario Camus. An entertaining, but confusing adaptation of Eduardo Mendoza's novel set in 19th-century Spain.
Chang Jiang - The Great River Of China (1999) **
Breadtaking scenery of the Three Gorges of the Yangze River. An IMAX film.
God's Wedding (1999) **
Directed by Joao Cesar Monteiro. Portugese comedy about a 60-year-old Casanova sleeping with girls almost a quarter his age.
Face To Face (1999) **
Romanian film about a marital crisis caused by revelations that the husband was a Securitate informer spying on his wife.
Jam (1999) **
An inevitable consequence of the world-wide success of "Pulp Fiction" - a yet another tense gangster film with a fragmented storyline.
Rainbow Trout (1999) **
Directed by Park Chong-Won. A South Korean version of "Deliverance", pitting sophisticated city folks against simple country bumpkins.
Beresina Or The Last Days Of Switzerland (1999) **
Directed by Daniel Schmid. A very curious film about a Russian prostitute who deftly turns the tables on the male patriarchy, becoming a successful dominatrix and then being crowned as the first Queen of Switzerland.
Gamera 3 (1999) **
Directed by Shusuke Kaneko. Quite an impressive Japanses monster film, with Gamera battling giant Iris.
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