The Darjeeling Limited

Un film de Wes Anderson

Casting : Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Amara Karan, Camilla Rutherford, Wally Wolodarsky, Waris Ahluwalia, Nathalie Portman, Anjelica Huston. Special Guest : Bill Murray

Une première partie dans une chambre d'hôtel. Nathalie Portman ouvre la porte. Quinze minutes de cinéma, et générique. Fin de la première partie. La suite s'ouvre. Bill Murray dans un taxi, il regarde sa montre, il est en retard, nous sommes en Inde. Il finit à courir sur un quai, mais manque son train. Qu'Adrien Brody ne ratera pas. Lui, il l'est, sur le Darjeeling Limited. Et rejoint ses frères pour un voyage qui se veut spirituel, drôle, émouvant. Bienvenue à bord.

Cela faisait longtemps que je voulais le voir. Les critiques étaient excellentes, je m'en souviens très bien. J'y suis enfin allée. Il était temps, et pas trop tard. La critique ne s'était pas trompée. Un film fin, drôle, d'une réalisation impeccable. On passe avec les acteurs de surprise en surprise, on se laisse prendre au jeu de Wes Anderson, et on roule au rythme du Darjeeling Ltd. La mise en scène sert une histoire exposée sobrement, avec tact et tendresse. On rit devant la succession des situations, la mine extraordinairement effondrée d'Adrien Brody, le visage tuméfié d'un Owen Wilson qui mène la danse, à un Jason Schwartzman discret, qui tombe amoureux et qui rythme le périple au son de son ipod.

Cette épopée tragique-comique, voyage intérieur pudique et sensible, c'est Wes Anderson. La Famille Tenenbaum, la Vie Aquatique. Des acteurs qu'on retrouve au fil des diverses quêtes, idéalistes jusqu'à spirituelles, explorant la vie, la famille, des sentiments personnels aux conflits intimes. Une réalisation tout en finesse.

Il n'est pas trop tard pour aller le voir, et il ne sera jamais trop tard pour le voir.

Official Website

Site Officiel

Sweeney Todd / The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Directed by Tim Burton

Official Website

Casting : Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jayne Wisener, Laura Michelle Kelly, Ed Sanders, Jamie Campbell Bower, Michael N. Harbour, Anthony Head, Peter Bowles, Ian Burford

WELCOME TO THE MAGICAL WORLD OF TIM BURTON !

Je ne sais plus si je dois vous en parler en français ou en anglais, mais aucun doute, voilà le film qu'il ne faudra pas rater. Johnny Depp de retour sous la direction de Tim Burton. Une comédie musicale macabre à l'image sombre et excentrique du réalisateur, dont le foisonnement artistique est un régal à chacune de ses créations. 

Ce génie du rêve qui débuta aux studios Disney tout en travaillant sur son projet personnel d'animation The nightmare before Christmas (L'étrange Noël de Monsieur Jack) est sans limite. Rien ne saurait être refusé à un esprit si délicieusement conçu au romantisme exacerbé. La réalisation toujours sombre de ses films, la symbiose parfaite avec Johnny Depp, font de ce film l'évènement attendu de ce début d'année 2008.

Une histoire d'amour toujours triste qui réunit de grands acteurs. Si les photos focalisent principalement sur Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter - à juste titre - il faut aussi souligner la présence (inattendue mais savoureuse!) de l'excellentissime Britannique Alan Rickman.

Que fait donc un britannique chez Tim Burton? Un membre de la très prestigieuse et vénérable Royal Shakespeare Company de surcroît? Et bien, l'histoire se situe en plein coeur de Londres! Si nous connaissons la légende de Jack l'Eventreur, celle de Sweeney Todd, barbier sanglant qui a bel et bien existé, nous est moins familière. Et pourtant il semblerait que ce tueur en série ait existé dans le brouillard caractéristique des rues de Londres (the fog, my Dear). Quelle situation épique lorsque l'histoire est reprise par un Tim Burton qui fait chanter sa pléïade d'acteurs! Oh bonheur! Un trésor pour démarrer l'année!

Profitez, profitez-en! Un film de Tim Burton n'a toute sa saveur qu'en salle de cinéma, car seul un grand écran dans une salle obscure peut mettre en valeur la couleur sombre et flamboyante d'une de ses réalisations.

 

Version Française :

 

 

Once

Directed by John Carney

 

UK Official Website  /  US Official Website  /  Fox Searchlight Website

Casting : Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Alaistair Foley, Geoff Minogue, Bill Hodnet, Danuse Ktrestova, Marcella Plunkett

ONCE is the inspirational tale of two kindred spirits who find each other on the bustling streets of Dublin. One is a street musician who lacks the confidence to perform his own songs. The other is a young mother trying to find her way in a strange new town. As their lives intertwine, they discover each other's talents and push one another to realise what each had only dreamt about before. ONCE is their inspiring story.

Written and directed by John Carney (On the Edge, Bachelors Walk), ONCE is a nod to the classic musicals of the past, while it is also grounded in the bohemian world of struggling young Dubliners that he knew from his days as a young musician.

Text from the UK Website 

Marketa and Glen perform their own songs that can be found on the beautiful original motion soudtrack. John Carney, the talented film director, invits us to this modern time story between two main characters, shooting life with his camera upon the shoulder. Sensitive, honest and deeply human, the film enters in connection with our inwards, laying bare the hearts in a simple way.

 PRESS RELEASE

'Seriously rich in charm'
THE HERALD

'Once tells a gentle, touching love story that’s both elegantly simple and deceptively complex'
THE SCOTSMAN

'Uplifting. Quietly romantic. Rousing. The songs will stay with you'
GQ

'A rare gem - one of the year's most magical films'
I.D 

'beautifully made...tender, funny and almost unbearably moving'
The Observer

'A bold and poignant modern love-story that restores
your faith in music, romance and film'
Time Out 

'2007's most pleasant cinematic surprise – Once has enough
heart, wit, verve and songwriting genius to ensure you’ll see it far
more times than its title suggests'
EMPIRE

'A magical, beguiling wonder…..a gift of a movie that is
absolutely worth seeing more than once'
Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE 

American Gangster

Directed by Ridley Scott

Official website

Casting : Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Lymari Nadal, Ted Levine, Roger Guenveur Smith, John Hawkes, Yul Vazquez, Malcolm Goodwin, Ruby Dee, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Carla Gugino, Skyler Fortgang, John Ortiz, Cuba Gooding Jr., Armand Assante, Kathleen Garrett, Joe Morton, Ritchie Coster, Bari K. Willerford, Idris Elba, Common, Warner Miller, Albert Jones, J. Kyle Manzay, Tip Harris, Melissia Hill, Quisha Saunders, Kevin Corrigan, Robert Funaro

The rise and fall of Franck Lucas, the most powerful gangster in Harlem during the 70's.

Based on a true story - as it is said at the very beginning of the film by Universal Pictures - the story is mainly based on two characters : Frank Lucas, a man with a high sense of honour, building his power and own empire on drug trade during the Vietnam war, and Richie Roberts, a fair and incorruptible detective, seeking for the head of the drug organization that rages on Harlem's street. The parallel between this two charismatic characters will finally ends on the meeting of the two.

There is nothing more to be said about the film. Ridley Scott is professional and the film is a US big production. Well produced, well written with a large range of incredible actors served by a good story. The atmosphere of this time is very well shooted and described - as well as the US government's drug policy during the Vietnam conflict. Worth to be seen.

The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford

Directed by Andrew Dominik
From the novelist Ron Hansen

 Official website

Casting : Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, Paul Schneider, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Kailin See, Jesse Frechette, Pat Healy, Ted Levine, Michael Parks, Meredith Henderson, Brooklyn Broulx, Dustin Bollinger, Alison Elliott

Music by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis 

    Jesse James [BRAD PITT] was one of the country’s first bona fide celebrities. 
    There have been countless books written and tales told about America’s most famous outlaw—all of them colorful and fascinating, all focused on his larger-than-life public persona and daring exploits, and most of them bearing only incidental reference to the truth.   
    To those he robbed and terrorized, and to the families of those he admittedly killed, he may have been just a criminal, but in the sensational newspaper articles and dime novels chronicling the James Gang throughout the 1870s, Jesse was the object of awe and admiration.  He was a Robin Hood, they suggested, targeting railroad owners and banks that exploited poor farmers.  He was a man with a tragic cause, a wronged and wounded Confederate soldier striking back against the Union that had ruined his life. Most importantly, to an increasingly buttoned-down and citified population leading ordinary lives, he was the last frontiersman—a symbol of freedom and the American spirit, a charismatic rebel who flouted the law and lived by his own rules…by all accounts, a legend. 
    Foremost among his admirers was Robert Ford [CASEY AFFLECK], an idealistic and ambitious young man who had devoted his life to the hope of one day riding alongside his idol.  He could never have imagined that history would ultimately mark him as the "the dirty little coward" who shot Jesse in the back. 
    But who was Jesse James, really—behind the folklore and the selling of newspapers?  And who was Robert Ford, just nineteen and a member of Jesse’s inner circle, who was able to bring down such a formidable figure when lawmen across ten states had tried and failed?  How did they come to be friends and what happened between them in the days and hours leading up to the gunshot that would end one man’s life and become the definition and sum total of another’s?    
    No one will ever know the whole truth. 
    Based on the novel by Ron Hansen, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" delves into the private lives of America’s most notorious outlaw and his unlikely assassin to offer a new perspective on a legend and address the question of what really may have transpired in the months before that infamous shooting. 
    The year is 1881 and Jesse is 34 years old.  As he plans his next great robbery, he continues to wage war on his enemies who are trying to collect the reward money and the glory riding on his capture. But the greatest threat to his life could come from those he would trust the most.   

 

Text taken from the official website.

 

 Jesse James

 

Robert Ford 

 

It would be impossible to continue this website without saying a word on this film. Quite a bit late when I finally went to the cinema, but better later than never. No doubt, the best film of this year, and far from the others. Of an absolute poetry, 2h40 of beauty. A beauty so pure and perfect. The landscape, the sound of the wind, a rocking chair, the silence and a bird, the time passing, a never ending sky with undefined colors. You completely sink into the atmosphere, its beauty and immaterial. Brad Pitt & Casey Affleck are astonishing. No other words come in my mind. The introspection in Jesse's mind is wonderfully transcribe by Brad, his gesture, his look, his acting. The character of Robert Ford is incredibly deep so that at the end when the later murders the former, it is not so simple to qualify Robert as a coward. Was that a kind of suicide? Why Jesse gave the opportunity of being murdered?

The whole story goes along with the music which is the miror of the deepness of each character.

 

A wonderful film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eastern promises / Les promesses de l'ombre

Directed by David Cronenberg

Official website 

Casting : Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jerzy Skolimowski, Sinéad Cusack, Donald Sumpter, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Raza Jaffrey, Peter Rnic, Olegar Fedoro, Tereza Srbova, Michael Sarne 

An intrusion into the Russian mafia in London today. Who is really Semyon, the respectable owner of a Russian restaurant? Anna, a nurse, trying to translate the diary of a 14 years old girl who died in her hospital while giving birth. And Nikolai, trying to protect her and her family while working for the Vory V Zakone mafia organization as a driver. 

Vincent Cassel, a French actor, and Viggo Mortensen are both incredible. Viggo is so scary, looks so dangerous and at the same time so attractive. The story relates perfectly the atmosphere of the Russian mafia and the way they rule their family. The first scene is violent but there are not so many others violent scenes during the film. One that must be underlined in the one at the sauna, where Viggo is fighting against two other guys. David Cronenberg and Viggo gave to the script a reality without giving the feeling of being at the cinema. No exageration, no emphasis of the situations, no useless dialogues, David let the actors improvise the text in order to lead to something natural. This way of directing and acting create the perfect balance between a script and the reality. A very surprising film, worth to be seen both for the acting than for the story. A successful result.

 

 

Cassandra's dream

Directed by Woody Allen

 

Casting : Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, Hayley Atwell, Sally Hawkins, Mark Umbers, John Benfield, Phil Davies, Clare Higgins

'How far will you go to make your dreams come true' is the theme of Woody Allen's new film. In London, two brothers from the working-class tried to escape their problems with the help of their uncle, which will lead them to experience guilt in two different ways.

Never ask me to criticize a Woody Allen's film, I will not be able to. As always, a film of Allen is a jewerly, precious, complete, intelligent, sarcastic, and tragic. This time there is no jokes on the script, just irony of life. The duality between two brothers, so similar at the beginning, so close, that they could be twins, a miror one to another. Are Ewan & Colin one and same character? 

Woody Allen explains that 'Cassandra's Dream is simply a story of some very nice young people who get caught up because of their weaknesses and ambitions in a tragic situation. (...) I have always felt that life itself is a tremendously tragic event, a real mess. It has comic moments in it. There are moments of pleasure and moments that are amusing but basically it is ... tragic. (...) I have always wanted to be a tragic writer – a writer of tragic material. (...) It just so happened that my most obvious strengths have been comic. I was always one of those comic people who – not that I wanted to play Hamlet – but I always wanted to write tragic things. I am finally getting the chance to do so now that I am getting older.'

London, quite an unusual place for an Allen's film. Even if the film is still so good to discover as each and every of his film, I must admit that he transmits ineluctably a higher pleasure when the plot takes place in New York, a city that is so close to him, a city that he knows so well.

 

Death at a funeral / Joyeuses funérailles

Directed by Frank Oz

Official website 

Casting : Matthew MacFadyen, Rupert Graves, Alan Tudyk, Daisy Donovan, Kris Marshall, Andy Nyman, Jane Asher, Keeley Hawes, Peter Vaughan, Ewen Bremner, Peter Dinklage, Thomas Wheatley, Peter Egan, Angela Curran, Kelly Eastwood, Gareth Milne, Brenda O'Hea, Jeremy Booth

The story can be summarized in the only title : the whole film took place in a single day when a family has to burried one of them. One funeral for an irreverent British comedy, where pills accidently move from hand to hand, where brothers finally have a talk about their responsibilites and future, and where the life and sexuality of the deceased is revealed in an amazing way.

With so much impressive films that comes out every week, you must choose this one if you have still not seen it: the best way to entertain yourself and have a good and real burst of laughter. Even if the film seetles quite slowly (need to know the characters, the plot...) after a while, the film starts and nothing could stop it. Jokes and comic situations are succeeding one to another with such a rhythm that you can hardly take your breathe between two scenes. 

The actors are absolutely incredible. To start first with Alan Tudyk who realises a real performance all along the film. Matthew MacFadyen, not well known in France, is as always, perfect. One of my favourite British actor, to add a personal comment. And not only for Pride and Prejudice. All the cast is really amazing : a perfect mix between the script and the choice of the actors. The boys team is excellent and will make you laugh from the beginning til the end of the film.

Death at a funeral is a comedy, extremely delightful, especially between all the dramatic and political films that comes out at the moment.

L'âge des Ténèbres

Un film de Denys Arcand
Festival de Cannes - Sélection Officielle - Hors Compétition

Site officiel Studio Canal

Casting : Marc Labrèche, Diane Kruger, Sylvie Leonard, Caroline Neron, Rufus Wainwright, Macha Grenon, Emma de Caunes, Didier Lucien, Rosalie Julien. Avec la participation de Thierry Ardisson, Laurent Baffie, Bernard Pivot, Donald Sutherland

 

Jean-Marc Leblanc, marié, deux enfants, mène une vie ordinaire, dans une banlieue perdue quelque part au Québec. Il prend la voiture, le train, le métro tous les matins pour se rendre à un boulot inintéressant, où une foule lui déverse tout au long de sa journée ses malheurs qui sont encore plus tragiques que les siens. Sa femme ne vit que pour sa carrière et la communication est inexistante avec ses deux filles.

Dans une société lugubre et totalitaire, où il est interdit de fumer, où l'on craint de mourir à chaque instant d'un cancer autant que de la morosité ambiante, Jean-Marc s'échappe par une imagination débordante. Il rêve d'une autre vie, pétillante, pimpante, où il serait aimé, écouté, avec simplicité, mais aussi une vie où il retrouverait le plaisir de l'amour physique, simplement.  

 

 

Le film repose principalement sur Marc Labrèche. Attendrissant et attachant, le film expose une vie classique, faite de déceptions. Le personnage principal rêvait d'une autre vie, comme nous en rêvons tous, où il compterait pour quelqu'un, où on penserait à lui. Il incarne à la fois le 'sans les autres, on n'est rien' et 'l'enfer, c'est les autres'. Ses tentatives de communications échouent constamment, jusqu'à ce qu'il finisse par s'affirmer entièrement, comme existant, être vivant ayant des besoins. Il faut souffrir pour être vu et entendu.

La réalisation est touchante, drôle parfois, triste à d'autres. Réaliste, le film pose des questions existentielles, auxquelles nous nous confrontons dans nos vies. Il dépeint les espoirs de tout à chacun : être aimé pour soi, reconnu, attendu. Marc Labrèche incarne avec brio Jean-Marc Leblanc et lui donne une épaisseur touchante. Alors qu'on le connaissait drôle et rieur, le voici dans un rôle dramatique, qu'il interprète avec modestie et coeur. On sent qu'il est touché par le rôle, il est Jean-Marc, et on l'aime comme ça.

 

Félicitations à Denys Arcand pour ce nouvel opus, humain, réaliste, romantique à l'introspection des sentiments, de l'amour, et de la liberté.

 

Spider-man 3

Directed by Sam Raimi

Casting: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, James Cromwell, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Theresa Russell

A strange black entity from another world bonds with Peter Parker and causes inner turmoil as he contends with new villains, temptations, and revenge.

Probably the most perfect Spider-man of the trilogy. The heroe has a real consistence as well as all the other characters. They finally exist in their feelings of fear, deception and love (that is not exactly the best part but plays an efficient role). It was good to discover the hero selfish, egocentric, unable to understand M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) or the world which surrounds him ; all that gives the story a depth.

But what is the more delightful is the pleasure for the eyes. You are just flying two hours between the towers and streets with Spider-man with a captivating swiftness. This fight between good and evil will end in a wonderful fight - just have to forget the very end and the moral of the story stated the very last minutes, which does not really bring something to the story nor the characters.

Fantastic, if you have not been yet, just go. And enjoy : it's just all good.