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dragoness_ov
Reviews
La fabrique des sentiments (2008)
French outlook on speed-dating - a repetitive circle in human behaviour
I saw this movie yesterday at the Berlin International Film Festival. Not only was the main actress there (Elsa Zylberstein in a red dress), but also Bruno Putzulu (playing Jean-Luc), the director, the writers, and some of the producers came on stage afterwards as well and answered a few questions.
The movie is about a part of society which seems to become more and more common. We have very successful women - great job, great flat, good looking, ... - who are realizing in their thirties that they are missing out on love and family. They feel lonely and begin searching for this part as well.
The movie follows Éloïse in very turbulent part in her life. She is a successful carrier-woman. She works in a nice big office as a property lawyer, where the seniors listen to her and she seems respected in her work. The senior partner offers her a great opportunity to become a partner as well.
Unfortunately she is very lonely. So she signs up for speed-dating. We experience the main character as a diverse woman with many different layers. It depends on her opposite how she behaves - and it changes almost instantly. As does it usually in real life as well. During this dating event she meets Jean-Luc. He seems perfect: good-looking, sincere, successful, a lawyer like her. Unfortunately he turns out to be a fake and a liar. So the obvious choice for perfection is not always the best.
In a bookstore she meets another guy from the dating event. This guy seemed strange and awkward during the 7 minutes in the club. He had an outburst and I don't think the woman would have ever considered calling him. Which she didn't. But after this chance meeting they go out, they talk. They meet up more. When she invites him into her flat after the museum he goes too fast. He is clumsy and when she refuses he half threatens her. Éloïse shouts at him and he accuses her of leading him on. André leaves in anger and she doesn't expect to see him again. Which happens when she goes to another speed-dating event.
She also suffers from increasingly frequent dizzy spells. The doctors discover a tumor in her head which needs to be removed. We see her fear - what happens with her body and of losing fertility. During the second speed-dating she loses consciousness and needs to go into hospital where she is operated immediately. André sits with her in the ambulance and when she wakes up - without the tumor after the operation - he is waiting for her (flowers, ..) Here we could think the movie will end - with a happy ending. But no, it's a French movie .... We see a scene a few years later - a seemingly happy family with a twist.
The German movie "Shoppen" has the same subject: speed-dating. It is interesting how different the German and the French film makers tackle the subject. This was part of my interest in this movie in the first place. My answer? Very different.
I have noticed a few years ago that a lot of french movies have a repetitive circle in the story. So does this one. My interpretation of the last scene: There is this statement in the movie of people not changing versus people mature and change. In my opinion the movie is about the first: people mature, the environment, the circumstances change - but the people themselves do do not. Take André for example: he spied on Éloïse the very first time he met her after the speed dating encounter. After the bookstore he follows her to work. So does he when he checks her computer. She left her first long relationship after 7 years. While her previous partner was quite contented she was looking for more ("This can't be all.") So does she again. I think her grandmother also played a role. She told Éloïse that she and her husband had a very happy marriage. They were chosen for each other but came to love each other out of habit. While the physical love didn't play a big role the children were all their love. What comes around, goes around ........
The Astronaut Farmer (2006)
pretty boring and it gets annoying after a little while
The movie itself is pretty dull and predictable. You've got almost every cliché here - and in such an exaggerated way, that it becomes annoying. Happy family supports a father who threatens to take their lives away by endangering their very financial existence. They are trying so hard to pretend the "normal" average (nuclear) family: 3 kids, married, moral-driven, sometimes church-going, dream-seeking, hero-like, etc, etc ... Small farmer being frustrated by the size of the government, the official restrictions, pursuing an unobtainable dream, striving so hard it makes him a "hero" .... it is just boring after a while.
The impression of a republican, small government ideal family as an advertisement can't be missed.
The Billy Bob Thornton (main character) acts incredibly wooden. Has he had a botox-injection? It certainly seems so. His lips hardly move - and his other films show that he can do this. His performance here is not believable. This picturesque family is a make-believe ideal. The wife doesn't seem to have a life of her own. She plays well: the supporting, yes-saying, passive, not-having-wishes sidekick of somebody selfish.
That Bruce Willis - and he does have a not-so-small speaking role and shows up quite a few times - isn't credited is understandable. I don't know the reason for this but he might not want to be officially associated with the movie.
Moreover, there are so many laws of physics and engineering just plainly ignored and broken that you start wondering, if the makers haven't at least shown any interest for the reality of rocket launches. Not to mention the sand and dust in any kind of barn in the desert would make the mechanisms and electronics of a device like this fail utterly. Additionally, the whole area would be incinerated - not just the barn, but the surrounding area and probably the house as well. The ground would be glazed! Silicon oxide (sand) turns into glass at severe heat. The timing is also not correct and the ridiculous re-entry into the atmosphere (haven't they heard of air friction, heat, etc) just tops the scientific ignorance.