Foreplays is a column that explores under-known short films by renowned directors. Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville's Liberté et Patrie (2002) is free to watch below. Mubi's retrospective For Ever Godard is showing from November 12, 2017 - January 16, 2018 in the United States.I. One of the most beautiful essay films ever made, Liberté et Patrie (2002) turns out to also be one of the most accessible collaborations of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville. The deeply moving lyricism of this short may astonish even those spectators who arrive to it casually, without any prior knowledge of the filmmakers’s oeuvre. Contrary to other works by the couple, Liberté et Patrie is built on a recognizable narrative strong enough to easily accommodate all the unconventionalities of the piece: a digressive structure full of bursts of undefined emotion; an unpredictable rhythm punctuated by sudden pauses, swift accelerations, intermittent blackouts and staccatos; a mélange of materials where...
- 12/11/2017
- MUBI
(Olivier Assayas, above.)
(I interviewed French filmmaker Olivier Assayas in early 2002 for his film Les Destinees over coffee in Beverly Hills, for this short article which originally appeared in Venice Magazine. Assayas went on to quite a decade with international hits such as Demonlover and Summer Hours.)
Les Destinees
With his new film, French filmmaker Olivier Assayas takes a trip back in time to examine the nature of love.
by Terry Keefe
“It was intimidating, but that’s what moviemaking is about. It’s really exciting to discover something new, something you have no experience of, and to just confront yourself with things you don’t know how to do,“ says French filmmaker Olivier Assayas in regards to the massive production of his new film Les Destinees, a big departure in terms of scale and setting from his previous work. In past films such as Cold Water (1994) and Irma Vep...
(I interviewed French filmmaker Olivier Assayas in early 2002 for his film Les Destinees over coffee in Beverly Hills, for this short article which originally appeared in Venice Magazine. Assayas went on to quite a decade with international hits such as Demonlover and Summer Hours.)
Les Destinees
With his new film, French filmmaker Olivier Assayas takes a trip back in time to examine the nature of love.
by Terry Keefe
“It was intimidating, but that’s what moviemaking is about. It’s really exciting to discover something new, something you have no experience of, and to just confront yourself with things you don’t know how to do,“ says French filmmaker Olivier Assayas in regards to the massive production of his new film Les Destinees, a big departure in terms of scale and setting from his previous work. In past films such as Cold Water (1994) and Irma Vep...
- 1/26/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
With exquisite craftsmanship -- the kind that can produce elegant porcelain or distill and age a fine cognac -- Olivier Assayas has fashioned an absorbing look at provincial bourgeois French society in the early days of the century in "Les Destinees Sentimentales". Adapting Jacques Chardonne's novel to the screen, Assayas focuses on the love story of a married couple, who are leading in the porcelain and cognac industries.
This strong competition entry with its fine eye for both the human story and period details should be an equally strong candidate for international success. Its stars, Emmanuelle Beart, Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert, take to their roles determined to uncover the many layers to these complex personalities.
The film thus pleases on many levels -- as a period romance, a drama of changing mores and values and even a commentary on economic globalism.
Jean (Berling) and Pauline (Beart) do not immediately take up the challenge of their "sentimental destinies" when they meet at a fancy ball in the Charente region of France. Jean has turned away from the family porcelain business to become a minister in the tiny Protestant community there.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage to Nathalie (Huppert), he nonetheless tries to rescue that relationship, which sends Pauline fleeing to Paris. But when his marital failure becomes clear, Jean gives up most of his inheritance to divorce his wife, abandons his daughter and resigns his ministry.
He marries Pauline and they live for a long while in genteel poverty in Switzerland. But the family business summons him to Limoges, the center of the porcelain industry. Service in the Great War intrudes on his grand plan to expand and modernize the plant and leaves him a changed and shaken man.
The couple's love is never quite the same after the war, but it refuses to evaporate. Love is what they cling to throughout their many trials. Jean will die with an image of that love in his head.
While Assayas is not willing to truly age the lovely Beart as he does Berling -- and who can completely blame him? -- the actors in their key moments together present a kind of scenes from a marriage, in which passion, tenderness, distractions, conflicts, shifting goals and viewpoints exert tremendous force but can never truly break the marital bond.
Nathalie's bitterness is never fully explored as whatever love existed between her and Jean has already collapsed by the film's opening scenes. But Huppert superbly plays a woman damaged and disappointed by life.
Assayas and his co-writer Jacques Fieschi understandably cannot import all of the novel's complexities onto the screen. But Jean's determined estrangement from the daughter he dearly loves ill fits the Jean one meets in the film version.
Production values are impressive, especially scenes in the old factory that demonstrate long-ago techniques of porcelain making.
While the industries of porcelain and cognac form the film's backdrop, they are depicted with such meticulous care that the film makes an impassioned plea for Old World craftsmanship in the face of globalization and increased profitability. As does this robust old-fashioned film in the frenzied marketplace that is Cannes.
Les Destinees Sentimentales
Arena Films/TF1 Films Productions/Cab Prods. with the participation of Canal Plus Cofilmage 11 Arcade and Eurimages
Director: Olivier Assayas
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Screenwriters:J acques Fieschi,
Oliver Assayas
Based on the novel by:
Jacques Chardonne
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Editor: Luc Barnier
Costume designer: Anais Romand
Music: Guillaume Lekeu
Cast:
Pauline: Emmanuelle Beart
Jean Barnery: Charles Berling
Nathalie: Isabelle Huppert
Philippe Pommerel: Olivier Perrier
Marcelle: Julie Depardieu
Running time -- 179 minutes...
This strong competition entry with its fine eye for both the human story and period details should be an equally strong candidate for international success. Its stars, Emmanuelle Beart, Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert, take to their roles determined to uncover the many layers to these complex personalities.
The film thus pleases on many levels -- as a period romance, a drama of changing mores and values and even a commentary on economic globalism.
Jean (Berling) and Pauline (Beart) do not immediately take up the challenge of their "sentimental destinies" when they meet at a fancy ball in the Charente region of France. Jean has turned away from the family porcelain business to become a minister in the tiny Protestant community there.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage to Nathalie (Huppert), he nonetheless tries to rescue that relationship, which sends Pauline fleeing to Paris. But when his marital failure becomes clear, Jean gives up most of his inheritance to divorce his wife, abandons his daughter and resigns his ministry.
He marries Pauline and they live for a long while in genteel poverty in Switzerland. But the family business summons him to Limoges, the center of the porcelain industry. Service in the Great War intrudes on his grand plan to expand and modernize the plant and leaves him a changed and shaken man.
The couple's love is never quite the same after the war, but it refuses to evaporate. Love is what they cling to throughout their many trials. Jean will die with an image of that love in his head.
While Assayas is not willing to truly age the lovely Beart as he does Berling -- and who can completely blame him? -- the actors in their key moments together present a kind of scenes from a marriage, in which passion, tenderness, distractions, conflicts, shifting goals and viewpoints exert tremendous force but can never truly break the marital bond.
Nathalie's bitterness is never fully explored as whatever love existed between her and Jean has already collapsed by the film's opening scenes. But Huppert superbly plays a woman damaged and disappointed by life.
Assayas and his co-writer Jacques Fieschi understandably cannot import all of the novel's complexities onto the screen. But Jean's determined estrangement from the daughter he dearly loves ill fits the Jean one meets in the film version.
Production values are impressive, especially scenes in the old factory that demonstrate long-ago techniques of porcelain making.
While the industries of porcelain and cognac form the film's backdrop, they are depicted with such meticulous care that the film makes an impassioned plea for Old World craftsmanship in the face of globalization and increased profitability. As does this robust old-fashioned film in the frenzied marketplace that is Cannes.
Les Destinees Sentimentales
Arena Films/TF1 Films Productions/Cab Prods. with the participation of Canal Plus Cofilmage 11 Arcade and Eurimages
Director: Olivier Assayas
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Screenwriters:J acques Fieschi,
Oliver Assayas
Based on the novel by:
Jacques Chardonne
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Editor: Luc Barnier
Costume designer: Anais Romand
Music: Guillaume Lekeu
Cast:
Pauline: Emmanuelle Beart
Jean Barnery: Charles Berling
Nathalie: Isabelle Huppert
Philippe Pommerel: Olivier Perrier
Marcelle: Julie Depardieu
Running time -- 179 minutes...
- 5/17/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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