SEULES LES BETES (Only the Animals)(France 2019) ****
Directed by Dominik Moll
French German director Dominik Moll is a director that is one to watch.He made a mark in the international film scene with 2000’s HARRY, UN AMI QUI VOUS VEUT DU BIEN (HARRY, HE’S HERE TO HELP) which won him the Cesar for Best Director. 5 years later in 2005, his LEMMING was chosen to open Cannes. Both are excellent films having the theme of sophisticated murder (or at least an accidental death) reminiscent of the best of Chabrol.LEMMING never made a release in North America.Fortunately, Moll’s latest SELUES LES BETES, finally gets a release here though late because of the Pandemic.SEULES LES BETES is again definite proof that Moll is a top-notch director whose films never fail to entertain and fascinate.
SEULES LES BETES which translates more accurately to “Only the Beasts” (as the word in French for animals is animaux) is based on Colin Niel’s 2018 French novel “Seules les bêtes”.It is a fascinating tale of murder and coincidences and the human’s desire for love.
From the very first 15 minutes when the film opens, director Moll grabs his audience’s attention and never lets go.The audience sees a poor teen riding his bike with a goat on piggy-back as he steers his bike towards the local village in the Ivory Coast, Africa. The next scene shifts to the cold winter snow and ice of the French Alps in southernFrance.One immediately wonders what these two scenes, so different from each other and involving two places so far away from each other, have to do with each other.Plenty!As Moll shows,through his expert storytelling, coincidences affect the lives of his 5 characters.The common theme in the stories of the five is the insatiable desire to find the perfect love, and at all costs.Moll tells his story, intercutting them and in a non-chronological order, enhancing the film’s mystery in the process.
Alice (Laure Calamy) is a married social/medical worker who makes her rounds in the country that includes a mentally affected patient, Joseph (Damien Bonnard) who she is having an affair with.Her husband, Michel (Denis Ménochet) is desperately searching for love over the internet with a girl who does not exist but whose photo is put up by the internet scammer in Africa in order to entice him to send money over.The photo used actually belongs to Marion (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a waitress.Director Moll moves his story to the real Marion, who falls head over heels in love with Evelyne (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) who is uninterested in a relationship.Evelyne is the woman who is missing and is the common thread that ties all the stories together.The less said about the plot the better as the entertainment depends largely on the twists and turns of the story.
One might complain about the extreme coincidences that occur in the story.But this fact only serves to establish director Moll’s gift in making the film’s story believable and of course frightfully entertaining.
ONLY THE ANIMALS opens November 5 in Toronto (Carlton) and a week later in Vancouver and Montreal.
STUCK TOGETHER (8 Rue de l'Humanité) (France 2021) *** Directed by Dany Boon
The non-French unless one is one who loves French comedies might not likely be familiar with the name of Dany Boon.To Boon’s credit, he has starred and directed one of the biggest French comedy hits of all time, the 2008 WELCOME TO THE STICKS.He has at present at least a film a year, last year seen in a supporting role as an action hero in LE LION (I saw the film on an Air Canada flight) and now the Netflix original film STUCK TOGETHER (8 Rue de l'Humanité).This is a comedy about the tenants, except for one owner played by Boon of an apartment with the address of 8 Humanity Street in Paris who try to make sense and survive during the Covid-19 Pandemic.The Pandemic comedy is manic and occasionally all over the place, as it crisscrosses stories with several tenants, but there are fresh laughs around every corner.
The streets of Paris are silent and empty.While many flee the capital, seven families experience lockdown in a building on the rue de l'Humanité.Among them: A café owner who reuses her pear alcohol as a hydroalcoholic gel, a geeky Zoom sports coach who gets fatter by the week, his fiancée, a singer (she sings a really corny song though getting more hits on the internet than her husband; spots videos) who is seven months pregnant and doesn't want to go to hospital alone, a self-made man who desperately wants to be as smart as his 8-year-old son, etc.During the three months of lockdown, the families eventually meet each other - for better or worse.They argue and fight but also end up banding together to fight the difficult times. The story also involves a death due to Covid, but though a bit sappy, it brings the film to credibility levels as people do die from the disease.
The funniest tenant of the lot is the mad scientist played by Yvan Attal who is constantly searching for new animals to test the second dose of his vaccine.He eventually tests it on himself, after running out of animals, most of which had died, resulting in his hilarious uncontrollable behaviour.Attal is an actor and director of countless French films, rising to fame after his directorial debut in 2001, MA FEMME EST UNE ACTRESS (which I manage to see while in London).
The film is funniest when it makes fun of director Boon’s keen Covid observations.The PCR Covid test swab with the swab more than twice in length than the actual performed on Boon’s character gets the biggest laugh.Some Covid-19 lockdown practices observed in the film might be unfamiliar to outsiders.In Paris during the lockdown, residents had to carry on them, when they go out, a déclaration sur l'honneur, a form downloaded from the internet they had to fill out and carry on their person.In the film, Boon’s character is stopped by the policier and him asked for the form.
It is not surprising that the French would be the first to come up with a Pandemic comedy and quite a hilarious one at that, enabling the audience to laugh at what they had to endure during these times.Time for Hollywood to do a re-make.
STUCK TOGETHER (8 Rue de l’Humanité) opens this week on Netflix.
As unlikely as the film’s series of events could have taken place in real life, it did, and the film clearly touts the fact at the start that the film is based untrue events (apres one historic vraie).
Etienne (Kad Merad), an often out of work but endearing actor, runs a theatre workshop in a prison, where he bringstogether an unlikely troupe of prisoners to stage Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot (En Attendant Godot).When he is allowed to take the colourful band of convicts on a tour outside of prison, Etienne finally has the chance to thrive.Each date is a new success and a unique relationship grows between this ad hoc group ofactors and their director.But soon comes the final performance in Paris. The question is whether their last night together will be the biggest hit of them all?
At first glance, the story might seem intriguing with convicts doing Beckett.But it could be a flop and a bore.But director Courcol is able to observe the best and occasionally faults of human behaviour and human nature to craft his otherwise observational piece - of both the convicts and Etienne.
Etienne initially is carried away with the notion of convicts performing in a Paris theatre.Etienne goes all out to get approval from the prison authorities and also to round up a group of 5 actors, out of 500 or so.The five are extremely lucky, they are told, as they have been selected out of 500 and they get to leave prison and perform as if they were free.But mostly, they get to experience the euphoria of performing on stage.Many of the convicts arrange for their loved ones to come to watch them perform, including Etienne, who invites his estranged daughter to attend.She does not show up, reciprocating her father’s actions as he was not always there for her.When Etienne rebukes her for not showing up at the theatre, she retorts; “You never even asked once how I did in my exams.”Actor Merhad (BIENVENUECHEZ LE CH’TIS and César Award Winner for DON’T WORRY, I’M FINE) display both the enthusiasm and frustration of working in a prison theatre.
Director Courcol humanizes the story.He relies on how the emotions of the prisoners are similar to the theme of the play.In EN ATTENDANT GODOT, the characters in the absurdist play are always waiting for Godot who never shows up.The prisoners themselves share the same fate.They are always waiting - waiting for meals, waiting to be put back to their cells, waiting for visiting time and waiting to finally get out of prison.So they can relate, as Etienne observes.It is also marvellous to see one of them, who has never read and has a bit of a speech impediment, recite the wondrous lines of Beckett.
The only trouble with the film is director Courcol trying too hard and it shows.The last portion where Etienne takes to the stage to praise his actors is over the top, with the entire audience approving and giving him a standing ovation.Too eager to please, Courcol’s timely observational piece on corrections ends up a minor feel-good movie.
The temptation of the convicts to make an escape is obviously there, as it is so easy with so few guards and with the play going on.Not to provide any spoilers, the problem is not overlooked in the film.
The film is based on true events that took place in Sweden with the big performance taking place in Gothenburg
One of my favourite local film festivals is Cinefranco for the reason I, like many others, adore French films.French films (particularly by François Truffaut) is the reason I studied French.This year, Cinefranco under the direction of the ever-energetic Marcelle Lean offers once again a wide variety of films from all over the world.
Cinefranco welcomes audiences once again to in-theatre, as well as online screenings for its 24th edition. The hybrid festival will take place Tuesday, October 26 – Tuesday, November 2, 202, with 27 features, 3 shorts programs, post-screening Conversations, and Panels, at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema and via the festival platform, accessed at:
www.cinefranco.com
Capsule Reviews of Selected films:
MARGAUX HARTMANN (France 2021) ** Directed by Ludovic Bergery
Recently widowed Margaux Hartmann (Emmanuelle Beart from MANON DES SOURCES and LA BELLE NOISEUSE) moves in with her sister.She has been and is still distraught.Looking to turn a page, she re-enrolls at university and becomes interested in new pursuits. At the same time, dark compulsions begin to arise.She succumbs to her sexual desires leading to trouble.The film gets at its most ridiculous point, a point that puts the film immediately into strapped hole when Bearts character and her professor go to a hotel room and begin sexual play.He stops and says to her: “I cannot do it.I cannot make love to a teenager.”Beart is an actress as everyone knows is not a teenager.She is in fact to this date 58 years old. The film’s sex scenes do not help the story’s credibility either.Beart as Marguax has sex with clothes on, as if she is self conscious of her age and figure, which is probably right.A film that is supposed to go deep in the emotions of a troubled female but fails miserably, unfortunately because of the miscasting of Beart.
Trailer:
MÉDECIN DE NUIT (France 2020) ***
Directed by Elie Wajeman
MÉDECIN DE NUIT (NIGHT DOCTOR) follows The misadventures of Mikael (Vincent Macaign), a doctor on night calls. It's a job Mikael is passionate about and will do all hurt of the night, ignoring his wife (or girlfriend, it is not made clear) and two children.Between two patient visits in slum areas, he cares for those whom no one else wants to see: the drug addicts, the homeless. He rubs shoulders with destitution, with destitution also flowing into his life. His life is in shambles.Especially when it comes to his pharmacist cousin of questionable morales who makes him write false prescriptions for Subutex.Overnight, he decides to get out of drug trafficking and rebuild his life.Touted as a psychological thriller, the film moves more like a drama with a few violent scenes.Director Wajeman makes no effort to make Mikael a likeable character - he has a mistress; he never makes up his mind; he gives in to his cousin, with the result that the audience grows more detached to the protagonist as the film progresses.Why Mikael keeps helping his course and why the cousin is so money greedy is also left largely unexplained.But director Wajeman creates a morbid, creepy and menacing atmosphere of the doctor’s work with junkies at night.
Trailer:
MESSE BASSE (THE LODGER) (France 2020) *** Directed by Baptiste Drapeau
Jacqueline Bisset has a starring role in MESSE BASSE (translated literally in English to Low Mass that might mean more appropriately ‘whisper’) and is one of the main reasons to rush to see this film.In the film, she, an English actress (veteran of dozens of films including RICH AND FAMOUS, TOO MANY CHEFS, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS) speaks fluent French in this film as in one of her early films, SECRETS.(She was educated in French). The story follows university medical student Julie who moves into the house of Elizabeth (Bisset), an old widow as a lodger.Elizabeth lends her a room in exchange for her help with daily chores.But things get weird as Elizabeth acts as if her dead husband, Victor, is still alive. . But soon, Julie starts feeling his presence…and an inescapable and dangerous love triangle begins. Director Baptiste Drapeau’s supernatural treatment of the film encompassing romance, mystery, mental imbalance and murder does not always work but at least he tries.At best, this worthy effort has the feel of a Chabrol film but Bisset is the reason not to miss this film.
Trailer:
PREMIERE VAGUE (FIRST WAVE) (Canada 2021) *** Directed by Max Dufad, Remi Frechette, Reda Lahmouid and Kevin T. Landry
PREMIERE VAGUE is a Conicd-19 anthology comprising 4 short stories set in Montreal, Quebec during the first wave of the Pandemic.It is March 12, 2020.COVID-19 has just been declared a global pandemic and confinement measures are being implemented all across the world.Fanny, Samuel, Marianne and Daniel, four Montrealers from very different backgrounds, must now adapt to this new reality. What they believe to be a temporary situation will turn into a long ordeal that will change their lives forever.The film is framed with the province’s Premier announcing on television the progressing states of lockdown as the numbers of Covid cases (deaths and new cases) rise.This is dramatic stuff that everyone has gone through, so the material transpiring on screen rings so true.Audiences have themselves experienced or had heard these stories - so to that effect the film does not offer anything new nor does it offer any new insight to the Pandemic.A cross section of characters, mostly young adults (except for the aged mother in Long-term care) form the basis of the story.
PROFESSION DE PERE (MY FATHER’S STORIES ) (France 2019) ***1/2 Directed by Jean-Pierre Améris
A crazy father played no better than by one of my favourite French (actually Belge) actors, Benoît Poelvoorde is the cause for alarm in this strange, wonderful but eventually disturbing story. 12-year-old Luc adores his crazy father who tells him that he is a judo champ, a parachutist, a soccer player and even an advisor to Général de Gaulle. The scene where Poelvoorde freaks out at De Gaulle on TV accusing him of betraying France is in itself worth the price of the admission ticket.Both comedic and scary (as in the scene where Luc is badly beaten with a belt) Poelvoorde portrays a violent man who needs to be understood and treated for the danger he poses to his family.Luc, who has the talent for drawing, is also coerced by his father to write the names of resistance fighters on the walls of buildings around Lyon.All these antics drive Luc’s mother crazy and with reason.Set in 1960’s Lyon, Jean-Pierre Améris directs PROFESSION DU PÈRE with subtlety and sensitivity the collateral damage caused by a parent’s madness. The film also tackles the issue of racism as when Luc encounters a new classmate from Algeria, a pied-noir (black feet, plural, a term that refers to French and other European origin born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962). The film’s relevant message about mental illness comes through loud and clear!
Trailer:
TOKYO SHAKING (France 2021) *** Directed by Olivier Pyon
TOKYO SHAKING, set in Tokyo during the real life twin disaster of the March 2011 tsunami and the nuclear plant meltdown follows the drama of Alexandra, a valued employee at a French Bank working in risk management.Alexandra (Karin Viard) must choose between the demands of work and the demands of her family.She has two children and a husband left in Hong Kong.It is March 11, 2011. The biggest tsunami Japan has ever experienced triggers the Fukushima disaster.Risks are being downplayed for the Japanese but the foreign community in Tokyo is terrified by this tragic event and the fact that no one is capable of assessing its scope.Alexandra finds herself defending honour and given word, despite the pervading terror and chaos.Director Pyon includes some nice disaster shots in his film while creating a credible atmosphere of dread and danger.The drama that ensues is nothing short of predictable but it is actress Karin Viard as Alexandra who carries the movie successfully.
CAPSULE REVIEWS of Select Films will be posted once embargoes have lifted. Embargo dates listed.
DES PREUVRES A’AMOUR (Love Letters)(France 2025) ***½ Directed by Alice...
