I voted for Chirac!!

A horrifying confession - but it was the story of the left in 2002 in France when Chirac and Le Pen were the 2 candidates left in the second round.

We went to an OU French association film day on Saturday where we saw 'Le Nom des Gens' - a querying of identity in modern France. It puts various modern French taboos in conjunction - the Holocaust, the Algerian war, race and asks what they mean for modern society, have they assimilated them or just glossed them over. Here's a trailer (no subtitles)and here's a shorter version - with subtitles and more inhibited! We had a few talks which explained some of the complicated cultural references... (just one) Arthur Martin (the name of the male protagonist) would be like being called John Lewis in the UK! The film is neatly set between the 2002 and 2007 French elections.

The Wave

The last Silkscreen film was The Wave based on the story of a simulation where students are asked to cause pain to someone else but because they're asked by an authority figure - an apparent scientist - it must be ok. This film places the action in a school where the students are undertaking a political studies course where things become rather too real.

I found it very difficult to suspend my disbelief - the group coalescing in less than a week, but maybe I'm sceptical about group think! Or maybe like the students at the start of the film I also think we're beyond than? Here's a review.
I was reminded - at a certain point - of the scene in 'The White Rose' where other students put subversive literature in a university..

Monsieur Lazhar

Silkscreen showed Monsieur Lazhar last week - similar in styl to 'Etre et Avoir' from the point of view of primary schoolchildren - but here dealing with the death of a teacher and their handling of the emotional trauma with a new rather unconventional M Lazhar. A very powerful film which engages with wonderful performances by the children and you gradually realise that the pain of the children and the new teacher are one. Here's a review.

Le Havre

Yesterday we went to Altrincham for an Open University day of French Cinema. After an introduction we saw Kaurismäki's Le Havre - here is the trailer A film about and set in the French port of Le Havre, it pays homage to French cinema of the 30-50's as well as merging together the eras! A film about a shoe-shiner and his encounters with an illegal immigrant who is attempting to get to London - it's funny but when you consider the story it's somewhat of an un-funny tale, but that didn't detract from it. Produced by Sputnik films with a dog (a fairly important character) called Laika(!), with a female lead called Arletty (as the 30's French film star lots of scenes and constume reminiscent of those eras. Modern mobile phones abut with phones from the 30's - delightful. I enjoyed the moment after the priests (smoking - as does nearly everyone) have their shoes shined and Monet (the detective in pursuit of the immigrant) appears to go into church and a wooden panelled confessional to be addressed by someone off screen, but after a moment you realise he's in the police station talking to his boss! Delightful!
In the afternoon we had some sessions discussing the film which helped to place the insight of others alongside what I'd seen as well as clips from the related historic films.

Politics and the Family - i

Earlier this month we saw the last film of Silkscreen's season - Blame it on Fidel, here's the trailer:

A tale of children growing up in a left-wing activist household in 1970's France. It probably helps to be to some extent left-winged and have a sense of humour, otherwise it becomes a joyless exposé of the trauma that the children suffered. Here's the Guardian review - I loved the way the children felt their way into relationship with a variety of child-minders by the sharing of creation myths. We bought the copy of the dvd at the end of the Silkscreen evening so a re-watch is lined up!

Another Year

The Silk Screen's film on Wednesday was Mike Leigh's another year - here's the trailer:

I thought it was a very gentle film, viewing relationships between the central couple and their friends through the seasons - lots of horticulture and horticultural metaphors! There was maybe not so much a sense of charicature as in some of Leigh's films affectionate without guying too much (cf Happy Go Lucky). Here's Peter Bradshaw's review from the Guardian. (The review says that the funeral takes place in a Lancashire town - I thought it was meant to be Hull, was I confused or not concentrating?) Lots of wine drinking - recommended!

Growing old (dis)-gracefully

On Wednesday was the second film of this season't Silkscreen - Chega de Saudade (Ballroom) of Lais Bodanzky, an affectionate study of growing old set in a São Paulo down-at-heel ballroom

I couldn't find a trailer with subtitles but this isn't the official trailer and has very little spoken dialogue! No punches pulled in its depiction of ageing and growth. Great fun! I was in charge of projection for the first time - so an apprehensive occasion - but all seems to have gone off smoothly!

Avoir des enfants...

Last night there was a French Film evening at Macclesfield College and after a buffet cooked by the catering students (you take a risk! - but every time I've been it has been marvellously cooked and served) they showed Rémi Bezançon's Le Premier Jour du Reste de ta Vie (I don't think I need a translation of the title). A funny and moving film about the inter-generational gap, growing up and the way patterns replicate themselves down the generations. It was a great hit in France - mainly by word of mouth - not a lot happens in the film but it is the little telling details. Maybe there's over-much focus on the family - surely there'd have been partners at, for example, the scattering of the ashes scene? Death looms large - particularly for dogs(!) but it has a tender and affirming message. A couple of reviews are here and here's a a blogger's take on it. Clément Courouve, who introduced it, said that he saw new details and themes each time he's watched it and I shall probably be re-watching...

The White Ribbon

Last night's film at the Silk Screen was Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon as the linked review puts it:

..a ghost story without a ghost, a whodunnit without a denouement, a historical parable without a lesson..

A tale of Germany just before the First World War where everyone (almost) knew their place, a peaceful rural cummunity where the unsettling and nightmarish is only just below the surface. 143 minutes - but it gripped and carried you along with the narration of one looking back from a perspective of one looking back across even more nightmarish events. It will unsettle you - but do see it! I was reminded of last seasons El Orfanato (the Orphanage) another film placing innocence and threat of the young alongside each other.
Here's the trailer to the White Ribbon:

Maybe you'll feel frustrated at the end of the film but the images and story will live with you!

2 days in Paris

The final SilkScreen of the season, last night, was Julie Delpy's 2 days in Paris. You probably needed to like Woody Allen's work to enjoy this evisceration of certain attitudes and styles. Funny, bawdy and a delight. It took me a little time to get into - and that was combined with the SilkScreen's twitchy sound system and some projection issues but it is a lovely frothy comedy of manners - it had its dead moments - that argument by the canal just didn't work for me at all - but I would otherwise recommend it. I didn't realise until afterwards that Delpy's father, in the film, is her real father, their interaction is wonderful. Here's the trailer:

Mouths and eyes

The Silkscreen - our local world cinema club - showed Susanne Biel's 'after the wedding' this week.
Here's the trailer:

A Danish charity worker returns from his work at an Indian orphanage in order to seek much needed funding from a wealthy potential donor. He is then invited to the daughter’s wedding held at a beautiful house outside Copenhagen. Your prejudices are engaged and overturned again and again, I thought it a wonderful film though there were times when I felt beaten over the head to emote. Powerful though and the concentration upon eyes (human and animal) and mouths as a means of carrying the drama lends it a certain atmosphere. I did spend some time in the early part of the film thinking 'must suspend disbelief' but it is definitely worth it! See it before they release the English language re-make! Here's the Guardian review - this one is ok but some reviews and the wikipedia page contain major spoilers!

Quatre cents coups

Last night we went to the Silk Screen to see Truffaut's Quatre cents coups.

I'd not seen this film for many years and for some reason it was the memory of the humourous scenes which stuck in the mind from then, but it's a tragic story from a lonely childhood lit by wonderful sometimes funny observation. The above clip is the final scene, audaciously daring, and unforgettable (though my mind was playing tricks!).

Le Serpent

Last night, in very cold weather, we paid a visit to the first showing in 2010 from Macclesfield's Silk Screen - Barbier's Le Serpent

  Comme Au Cinema

That's the French trailer - you may find it disturbing - so beware! A pretty violent film which pays a rather over the top homage to Hitchcock's Psycho. I didn't want to like it but I was drawn in, it has its moments of humour early on but most of it is hard hitting. Trying to ignore a few gaping plot holes I though this was worth the watch if only for the brooding presence of the filming and sets.

The Return

At the Silk Screen on Wednesday we saw Zvyagintsev's 'The Return' a tale of the arrival, out of the blue, of a husband and father after 12 years absence. You never find out why he was away and the story follows a trip as he takes his sons to the sea in Northern Siberia. Lots of things are unexplained and the viewer ends up almost as puzzled as the teenage children. The Observer review is here, one review commented on the resemblance to Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también - a long secretive road trip to a beach -I picked up on that but, for me, the larger similarity was to Io non ho paura (and here's that film's wikipedia page), its fascination with nature, great skyscapes especially clouds and the wind in the trees, not to mention children on an edge of adult events they just didn't understand. I was put off by one of the committee's quick summary, a week before the showing, the reality was very worth while! Here's the trailer:

In Bruges

To the Silk screen in Macclesfield for the first film we've managed to see this season - Martin McDonagh's In Bruges a dark violent film in which the characters swear a lot - but it certainly had its comedic moments. The blog is here and Ralph Fiennes also has some nice shots.
Did I enjoy it - yes in spite of the violence it was well paced and some of those lines..

Silk Screen

The Silk Screen web site has been updated for the 2009-2010 season. Looks good and at only £24 for 12 films joining is a pretty obvious move if you're into non mainstream cinema and live in the Macclesfield area.

Happy Go Lucky

Wednesday was the last Silk Screen of the season with an AGM and a showing of Mike Leigh's Happy Go Lucky. I thought it was a joy to watch, though it's easy to see how the character of Poppy - the lead, could grate. One would be very tempted to physical violence after a short time in her presence. As the Guardian Review says 'relentless chirpiness'. Wonderfully funny, but I'm still reeling from the emotional punch in the final scene between her and the driving instructor. Go and see it!

A final comment from Redbox:

Poppy does not see the glass as half empty or half-full; instead, she's ecstatic about the fact there's a glass at all, and overjoyed that there's water in it.

The Silk screen is now planning next years programme and at £25 pounds for 12 films that's pretty good value!

Entre les Murs

A trip last night to the Cornerhouse to see Bégaudeau amd Cantet's 'Entre les Murs' a film about teaching in an inner city Parisian school. Cinema 3 was packed out at 5:45 with hardly a free seat - and they're been showing it for two weeks! A slow paced absorbing film immersing you in very real dilemmas.
As Peter Bradshaw's Guardian review says:

This story builds quietly, almost invisibly, through the film, and culminates in the disciplinary hearing in which Souleymane's non-French-speaking mother is present and in which the gloweringly silent and defiant pupil must translate her passionate and heartbreaking defence of him as a good boy. Like the rest of the film, this scene is natural and unforced and effortlessly persuasive, but it is the non-dramatic sequences that I somehow found the most gripping. François has a lesson in which he simply demonstrates at some length the imperfect subjunctive tense.

Strongly recommended! Don't think it could have been filmed without the previous example of Etre et Avoir which takes a junior school, this one is very much teenagers and, for me, throughout, the shadow of yesterday's events in a German school darkened the picture.
Apparently the Bégaudeau novel is even slower paced, making it not to difficult for non-native French speakers to get to grips with.
A dinner in (too much) haste on the way back to the station at Don Giovanni's - risotto - delicious as ever!

Ca c'est moi

Here's that sequence from Le Scaphandre et le papillon

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon

Wednesday was marked with a second trip to see Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) - I originally saw it back in early 2008 having read the book in 2006- this week it was a trip to the Macclesfield Silk Screen. Here's the French trailer
in my opinion this is better than the English trailer which is more concerned with surface and effect rather than content!
A wonderful film which will challenge, as quotes:

My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas’s court.
You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face. You can build castles in Spain, steal the Golden Fleece, discover Atlantis, realize your childhood dreams and adult ambitions.

.. you can be whereever and whoever you want.
Though the English trailer does have that skiing sequence. I've also had Charles Trenet La Mer echoing in my mind ever since: