MA VIE EN ROSE FRANCE/BELGIUM
Dir. Alain Berliner*
With Georges du Fresne, Michele Laroque, Jean-Phillipe Ecoffey.
French with English Subtitles, Rated R, 88 Min.
Nine-year -old Ludovic is a delightful little boy who wants to be a girl when he grows up. He delights in girls’s apparel and sees no problem with long hair and lipstick. Not so simple, however, for his parents who strive to be open minded but are at times confused, horrified and embarrassed. Visits to Ludovic’s fantasy world in pink, where he is a beautiful fairy princess, are balanced by middle class reality in a Belgian suburb where nonconformists are weirdoes. Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film. “Ma Vie en Rose will break your heart and make you smile at the same time! David Ansen, Newsweek
Marius et Jeannette (1998) Robert Guediguian*
With Ariane Ascaride, Gerard Meylan, Pascale Roberts Jaques Boudet,
Féderíque Bonnai.
French with English subtitles, Not Rated, 102 Min.
Humor, tenderness, jokes mix in the warm sud of Marseilles in the Midi"(South
of France). Marius is a security guard in an old disused ciment factory.
In a nearby street, Jeannette brings up alone her two children on a low
salary. One day she tries to steal old pots of paint from the disused
factory and meets Marius. Rather than turn her in he
ends up helping her paint her apartment. Down-and-out working class people
in Marseilles, their romance is an inspiration to their neighbors who help
make it work.
It is a simple love story between ordinary people. A nice tale
that ends well but in which a lot of strong emotions are expressed.
The film alludes to many topics of contemporary France: the rise of the
National Front (F.N) in politics, religion, racism, war memories of a neighbor
who lived in a deportation camp..., children going away to study in Paris.
Above all it is a wonderful portrayal of people: men interacting,
women talking together, men and women, adults and children relating in
everyday crises and joys. Wonderfully human.
VAGABOND (Sans toit ni loi)* (1980's film)
Director Agnes Varda. Best Foreign film and best actress.
Account of a young woman's death and life. Breathtaking performance
by Sandrine Bonnaire as Mona a young woman who drops out of Parisian life
to wander across the southwest countryside of France, in the winter, exploring
the freedom that she thinks she has. In the opening scene , her frozen
body is discovered in a vineyard. Agnes Varda, recounts her past
, carefully dissecting French society.
La vie est un long fleuve tranquille (Life is
a Long Quiet River)*
Director: Etienne Chatillez (1988), also starring: André Wilms,
Benoit
Magimel, Hélène Vincent
This French satire telling the story of the repercussions for two families,
one upper middle-class and one lower class, after a nurse
switched newborns because she's angry with the doctor who delivered
them.
Later, when he refuses to marry her, she informs the families
of her earlier action. So the young boy in the poor family, who has become
a smoking, drinking petty thief, is taken in by the well-to-do
family, a strict, straight-laced catholic brood. And the reverse, the
girl returns to her original family after having been brought up in an
upper middle class milieu. The result is rather fun chaos.
. 90 mins.
Riens du tout (Little Nothings) Director: Cedric
Klapisch
(1993). Starring: Jean-Pierre Darroussin
in French *
The film focuses on a typical French department store:
"Les Grandes
Galeries". All kind of things can be found in
there, as well as all kind of people. Mr. Lepetit has just been appointed
General Manager of the company whose one and
only aim is to precisely manage, but also to keep his staff together,
and
to generate profit; in one word, have the whole
staff moving properly. You have to know that Mr. Lepetit is a man of
challenge, fearless. He will make the company
profitable by using the policy of "human factor".
ROSETTA BELGIUM 1999**
Dir. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
With Emile Dequenne, Anne Yernaux, Fabrizio Rongione
French with English subtitles, Rated R, 95 Min.
Rosetta is a seventeen-year-old woman who knows full well the meaning
of desperation. Daily she skirts economic calamity for herself and her
alcoholic mother by selling old clothes, fishing for food in a polluted
stream, and hoarding any item that comes her way. A normal life, a friend,
and above all a job become her obsessions. She befriends Riquet, a young
man of her own age in about the same circumstances, except that he has
a job. Not a great job, but one that Rosette covets to the point of betraying
him. The brothers Dardenne give us a straightforward story shot in a relentless
cinéma verité style. Palme d'Or at Cannes and Best Actress
for Emilie Dequenne in the role of Rosetta.