Tag: French movie

Trisha’s Take: Le Concert review

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Le Concert

Directed by Radu Mihăileanu
Starring Aleksei Guskov, Mélanie Laurent, Dmitri Nazarov, Miou-Miou and more

On Midsummer Eve, I was walking through a park in Brooklyn with some friends on our way to get some artisanal ice cream. As we neared the park’s exit, the unmistakable sound of a piano wafted towards us in the summer air.

There at the crux of two paths stood an upright piano, and a bushy-haired hipster was coaxing out a very familiar classical tune. No, not Für Elise or the Moonlight Sonata, but Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat (or Op.9 No.2 for the musical geeks). A crowd had formed, and everyone applauded with verve as the final notes died away, the pianist acknowledging the applause briefly before melting back into the crowd. A friend who was visiting from L.A. said later that it had been the fourth time that day he had encountered spontaneous music that day coming from people who weren’t busking.

It’s that idea of making music for the pure joy of making music or the beauty of it that permeates every frame within Le Concert, and I’m afraid that if you don’t understand that, you’re definitely not going to understand or like this movie.

This isn’t to say that only classical music geeks will understand or like this movie. I loved this, and as I’ve mentioned before, the only musical training I’ve ever had is a few 300-level courses as my commuter university over a decade ago. I will say, though, that having maybe just a bit of that knowledge in your background somewhere will definitely help.

Our protagonist is Andreï Filipov (Aleksei Guskov), a former conductor for the Bolshoi Ballet’s orchestra whom after a very humiliating experience at the hands of a Communist Party leader, is forced to endure work as its janitor 30 years later. However, after shamelessly prying into his boss’ fax communications, he gets the wild idea to gather up his old musicians to play one last hurrah at the Théâtre du Châtelet along side a French virtuoso named Anne-Marie Jacquet (Mélanie Laurent, who was last seen as Shoshanna in Inglorious Basterds) with whom he shares a mysterious connection.

There are several things this movie gets right. As a heist film—because they’re stealing the concert away from the real Bolshoi Orchestra—it works because you get to watch the formation of the team and learn what quirky talents they’ll bring to the endeavor. As a music film, it works because there are some scenes here and there where it’s just all about the philosophy behind the art of music. Guskov is so believable in his love of the art that it’s hard not to stand up and shout, “Yes, yes!” as he gives this unforgettable monologue before the climax of the movie. Also, kudos to Guskov and Laurent for all of the non-verbal acting they had to do while the central mystery was revealed in a montage/monologue with a Tchaikovsky concerto playing in the background. Sadly, I’m not musically geeky enough to tell you whether or not any of the music in the climactic scene is any good, but it’s my hope that it is.

As a French farcical comedy, it works because of fantastic performances by the supporting cast, especially Dmitri Nazarov as the the put-upon best friend, Valeriy Barinov as their former manager (who incidentally was the one who doled out the humiliation), and Anna Kamenkova as Andrei’s wife, a crowd-wrangler who gets paid to bring people to political rallies, weddings, and funerals. Special recognition goes to Kamenkova and Guskov for portraying such a wonderful loving married couple as well. Also, as long as I’m handing out kudos, I have to give several to Romanian writer/director Radu Mihaileanu who along with screenwriters Alain-Michel Blanc and Matthew Robbins and original story writers Thierry Degrandi and Hector Cabello Reyes crafted an engaging plot that definitely had its fair share of twists and unexpected turns.

If there are any areas where I did feel uncomfortable about the movie, it was during the scenes where two of the people in the trumpet section skip out on rehearsal to try and make some extra money selling Russian caviar to French bistro chefs. Yes, they’re Jewish and trying to make a buck. Also, there are a few scenes which take place in Gypsy camps where the stereotypes of them being completely uncouth and unethical get played out, mostly for laughs. I’m not sure how to feel about those scenes, though, as two of Mihailenau’s previous films have dealt with an Ethiopian boy who gets sent to Israel as a Jew by his mother in the search for a better life (Live and Become) and the attempt by a group of Jews in a French village to escape a coming Nazi invasion (Train of Life), and it’s not my place to say if it’s prejudicial because I am neither Jewish or a Gypsy. (If it helps, both movies were well reviewed.)

For all their efforts, Le Concert picked up a Cesar Award in 2010 for Best Sound and Armand Amar picked one up for Best Music Written for a Film, which says to me that the committee in charge of submitting French films for Academy Awards consideration won’t be putting it’s hat into the ring with the more acclaimed A Prophet winning all the awards. Still, if you’re in the mood for a movie about music that’s less sappy than August Rush, you really ought to buy a ticket for Le Concert.

Unrated at the time of this publication, Le Concert is going into limited release in the U.S. on July 23, courtesy of the people at The Weinstein Company always wants to remind you that they’re the guys who unleashed Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith onto the world, dammit, which means we really know our movies—now would someone help us get out of debt, please?

Trisha’s Take: Micmacs à tire-larigot review

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Micmacs à tire-larigot (aka Non-stop madness)

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Julie Ferrier, and more
Rated R for some sexuality and brief violence

When I was in the eighth grade, I was given the chance to either take a first year of Spanish at my school or to take a first year in French at the high school across the street from where I lived and where I’d eventually attend.

Impractical youngster that I was in Southern California, I chose French and for five years I was one of the more fluent speakers in my class, going as far as to win the silver medal my senior year of high school at French camp. Those classes were where I first saw or heard of classic French films like Jean de Florette, Le retour de Martin Guerre, and Au revoir les enfants (which apparently was an inspiration for Reservoir Dogs), and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Yes, even Les compères.

Alas, my ear for the language has diminished, but that still doesn’t mean that I’m not about to turn down the chance to see a movie by perhaps one of France’s great directors of the modern era.

Even before it made its debut at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, Micmacs à tire-larigot was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for a U.S. release, and it’s no small wonder why.

Just as in director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s first major hit Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, whimsy abounds in Micmacs in the form of a motley crew of homeless misfits who are tasked by the main character Bazil (played by Dany Boon) to help him seek his justice upon the arms dealers who were responsible for the death of his father and who supplied the bullet which lodged in his brain during a drive-by gone wrong where he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

That there’s a lot of grim scenes depicting the actual shooting or the fact that the first five minutes of the movie start with watching Bazil’s father accidentally trigger a landmine he was tasked to clear could be perhaps a continuation of the themes in A Very Long Engagement.

And yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about “Leverage” while watching this movie because what unfolds after we meet the happy band of misfits (including such heavy-weight French and French-speaking actors as Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, and long-time Jeunet-collaborator Dominique Pinon) is a series of heists featuring cobbled-together tools and a female contortionist.

Of course, each misfit has a quirky note about them that gives them their “speciality” and makes them integral to the smooth workings of the plans. Of course something goes wrong, and the crew has to work together to get Boon back once he’s been captured by the bad guys (who are played with such scene-eating relish by André Dussollier and Nicolas Marié that I feared there wouldn’t be a set left by the end of the movie).

If you’re looking for deep insights into why war exists, you’re not going to find them here. In fact, the movie could almost be a rejection of war, war-mongering, and the industries that help perpetuate the cycles of violence–but that’s just me trying to reach for a deeper meaning in a movie that really doesn’t need one.

I enjoyed every performance greatly, especially lead actor Boon’s. He portrayed well Bazil’s pride upon learning that he’s lost his job and apartment after being in the hospital for so long after the shooting, and I loved watching the bits where he had to do any bit of pantomime. I’ll admit that just like Bazil, I was flummoxed when Julie Ferrier’s tirade came out of the blue, but I don’t think that’s a function of her being a poor actor but perhaps a function of there not being enough room in the script to show her character’s changing feelings towards him.

In short, if you’re looking for a good, satisfying, and fun heist/revenge movie, you should definitely find Micmacs at your local theater.

Micmacs is going into limited release in the U.S. on May 28, but if you’re really that anxious, you could import the R2 DVD and contribute to the French GDP at the same time!