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Movies Forum Index » International Movies Forum » _Automne_
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 Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:03 am |
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Or simply _Autumn_ on U.S. DVD. The NYT 29th string critic
wrote a vicious short review on the film when it opened. The
piece amounted to a personal attack on an American who has
the nerve to make a French film in France starring Irene Jacob,
and has almost nothing to say about the film itself. As it turns
out, the film is a perfectly legitimate first feature, with
plenty of style but also its share of rookie directorial mistakes.
In particular, much effort has gone into the look and the sound
of the first half of the film. The edge of the frames are lighted
in blue or bleached out ugly yellow but the center of the frame
is frequently a cream-colored hue or a window opening into the
Paris skyline. Alas, narratively the ugliness, revenge and
bloodshed wins out. There is a lot of bloodshed in this film
about small-time hoods and conscience-stricken hitmen (and
hit-women); some of it is played for dry humor but most of the
cast end up dead, with most of the dying and maiming occurring
off-screen. The second half of the film is bogged down in
standard thriller intrigue (the ending *is* quite nice), but the
sense of menace is very well-sustained throughout, especially
considering that most of these characters are not sympathetic.
Irene Jacob plays one of her least glamorous and most soulness
roles. She goes through much of the film sporting cuts and
bruises on her cheek -- a homage to _Chinatown_ I suppose!
I haven't had a chance to see most of her recent European
work, but she is completely convincing as the world-weary
explosive expert -- lightyears away from the damsel-in-distress
role she played in the terrible _Spy Game_. Her straight,
school-girl haircut belies her character's malevolence and
deception. There is even a hint that she shot her ex-boxfriend
to get hold of a prized briefcase, although she claims it is
an accident. She is especially good after finding out the
money is gone, and when she tries to talk her way out of a
gun pointed at her chest. She takes polaroid pictures of
everything she sees (don't know what the director has in mind
but I'm certainly reminded of Jocelyn Moorhouse's _Proof_).
The clench-jawed Laurent Lucas reminds me of Christopher Lambert in
_Subway_ (and this is certainly a much better film
than that). Dinara Drukarova is very impressive as the stone-faced
female assassin as well. In the latter part of the film, the
dialog starts to become a French translation of Anglo-American
tough-guy movie-talk, there is a trip to Brittany for no purpose
at all other than to do an extended Godard homage in a Fortress
Europa bunker location (which *is* a memorable location so let's
cut them so slack), there are too many references to other
filmmakers, and the plot resolution gets way too
complicated. But overall the film is very well made and
intelligently scripted (you really need to pay attention to
figure out the relationship between the characters. One of
the better recent French films I've seen.
Haven't seen any of the DVD extras yet.
Oh, finally, if the IMDB is to be trusted -- happy birthday, Irene! |
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:04 pm |
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I watched the film with the director's and DP's commentary track
on. (The disc has everything -- deleted scenes, casting sequences,
outtakes -- it better have those, being so expensive and not
something you can easily rent). I thought "Ra'up McGee"
(the director's name) sounded Arabic. He looks Caucasian
to me in the extra materials, not that I can tell the two apart
easily. I still don't understand why he is so hated by the critics.
He sounds so humble and sincere in the commentary. Maybe
the critics these days prefer the rah-rah sychophant antics
of Paul Thomas Anderson, whose commentary on _Boogie Nights_
left me ill for days. (Julianne Moore, who did such a fine solo
commentary for _The End of the Affair_, seemed to acknowledge
this and kept her involvement to a minimum there.)
Turns out the the scratch on Irene Jacob's cheek was an accident,
the fault of her child. I didn't even know she has a child. She has
been an exceptionally private actor; even her websites yield
no personal information. McGee relates how busy she is, flying
in from Paris to shoot for one day before going back to the theater.
Too bad there is no interview with her. |
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