for some peculiar reason I recently watched 3 movies that I really really like, and all 3 of them are in french?
I mentioned last week abt the
science of sleep, and it did not disappoint. Go and watch it with an open mind, don't go looking for reasons, I guess not everything needs to be justified? Gael Garcia was fantastic as Stephan, (also an absolute eye candy). It's a world that Stephane lives in where dreams and reality collides. this is my best effort to tell you the general idea of the fim, the rest, you will have to watch to understand, since it's so visually lush and surreal.
2nd one is called
Priceless (Hors de prix). The story is very straight forward. Basically, hotel employee, Jean (Gad Elmaleh) fell for a temptress/gold digger, Irene (Audrey Tatou, The Da vinci code, Amielie). She mistaken Jean to be a millionaire, but when she later finds out he isn't, she beat an hasty retreat. But Jean was so taken by Irene, he followed her to Cote d'Azur. With Jean trying to match his love's lifestyle, he was quickly out of money. He hesitantly took on an offer to become a rich woman's boy toy and found himself one step closer to Irene. Irene also starts to give him advice on seduction - without realising she is slowly falling for Jean.
Sounds like a dumb plot, you asked? I was skeptical at first, too. But the movie has all the right ingredients - beautiful actors that could act, beautiful location (the French Riviera), amazing costumes (I was doing a mental count during the movie how many Chanel bags Irene has / and Gal Elmaleh in a slim Dior homme suit on a scooter her sugar mama got him....delish). The plot is simple but charming at the same time.
watch the trailer and browse the nice flash website:
http://www.tfmdistribution.com/horsdeprix/
The last film I will recommend is
Paris Je'taime. Basically it's a collaborative effort from 18 directors who were give 5 minutes each to interpret their feelings towards the city, it is almost like a love letter to Paris. Anyone who has or has not been to Paris will be struck by the magic of this city. My favourite bits were a story about a stereotypical American tourist (think bum bag and track suit!) narrating in broken French about her adventure as a single middle aged woman travelling around Paris, trying to make some sense to her life – it was charming and heart breaking at the same time. The second one was a story about a child whose parents were mimes, the little boy tells the story of how his parents met.
My least favourite story was shot my Christopher Doyle (wong kar wai's cinematographer). It was just a mad mix of kung fu+chinese girls in tight cheong sams jumping thru windows antics. It's like – WHY?
D.
