Reviews

I saw the film as my last in the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, but it is not the only reason why i remember it so well. The first impressions I had during the screening were rather strange : the shoulder-lifted camera, very close to the characters, made me a little sea-sick ,and i couldn't figure clearly where the Dardenne brothers were going to lead us. And, slowly the story of Rosetta, the young girl that desperately looks for work, gets bigger and will never get down again. It's a treason that starts the dramatical side of the story, and from then on, the cinema of the Dardenne can handle perfectly the multiples scenes of moral tension, until the unforgettable, moving last sequence. The directors said that their film was "a war film": if a bit pretentious, nothing is more true than this assumption.

This is the second film of Kitano, but the first which is really his, since "Violent Cop" was not initially to be directed by him. What is striking is that in this first film, we can see the premises of the next ones. Though not a real 'yakuza' film, they play a great role in it, and many scenes, are they shot in a bar, on the beach or in a flower field remind us of what Kitano will shoot later for Hana-Bi or Sonatine. A very interesting film, very satirical towards the japanese society and the yakuzas that behave violently just to convince themselves they are tough guys; even if I personally prefer his other movies.

in the usual sense of the term. This is a show for your senses : view of course, but also hear (the music of Alan Vega), smell or touch. The characters are filmed so close you can actually feel them in their gestures, you feel the love, you smell the fear. The picture is very dark, often fuzzy, never stable. It keeps on jumping from the lights of the car, to children's' screams, to womens' hips and hands on their throats. The film has raised a critical debate, some defining it as immoral and almost pornographic, the others considering it a pure chef-d'oeuvre. To my mind, it is both, and more than that. A real experience of cinema.

The film begins with a series of views of NYC buildings, their windows reflecting like mirrors. A beautiful opening scene which let us feel beauty yet hostility. The same feelings as with Lcy, or should I say Claire (Katrin Cartlidge), a deluxe prostitute, working for a pimp she says she has a debt to. And Claire is really trapped in this glass prison, her world is full of mirrors which sometimes let us see the pimp's face and the scenes show the faces caught in close-ups. With the death of her mother, her meeting of a loving man and perhaps God's bless (given to her at the funerals), she will finally get to redemption.

The first film of Sandrine Veysset, "Y aura-t-il de la neige à Noël ?", was all sun and summer. With the second one, she plunges us into a winter world, all black and red. Black as the night, during which most of the scene were shot. Red as Victor's coat, lost kid in a fun fair. Let alone the script which is not very credible (the kid is helped by a good-hearted young prostitute), the film presents good scenes (the birth of the relation between the two main characters) opposed to scenes I found too mannered, especially in the first part (face on a black background, 'zoom' on the mary-go-round). Finally, Sandrine Veysset proves us she is very good at building universes; even if this one is not as convincing as the precedent

Based on the novel of Alberto Moravia, "L'Ennui" tells us the story of a philosphy teacher (Charles Berling) who, just separated from his wife, meets the young and buxom Cecilia, former model of a painter who died making love to her. As their relationship grows, we fall with Berling into despair (when he is unable to quit her even if he wants to) and even jealousy. The famous scholar cannot find relief in his knowledge, nor in his irritated former wife and is therefore condemned to wander alone, following this woman, directly out from a Renoir painting, he love and despise at the same time and his depiction is really living.