Next time someone wistfully insists, “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” why not point that nostalgic cinephile to the work of Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon? The Belgium-based creative couple are almost single-handedly keeping the classic burlesque tradition alive on-screen — if the word “single-handedly” can fairly be used to describe a near-silent comic duo with four hands between them, plus a growing company of collaborators (including dancer Kaori Ito) and a prosthetic arm with a mind of its own.
In “The Falling Star,” Abel and Gordon bring their old-school comedic sensibility to what could loosely be described as a detective story, told in a film noir style punctuated with flashes of color: a red dress, a tiny green car, a bright yellow scooter. Centered on a tiny Brussels bar, the pair’s relatively minor new project features a missing persons investigation, a sorta-kinda kidnapping, a fugitive couple...
In “The Falling Star,” Abel and Gordon bring their old-school comedic sensibility to what could loosely be described as a detective story, told in a film noir style punctuated with flashes of color: a red dress, a tiny green car, a bright yellow scooter. Centered on a tiny Brussels bar, the pair’s relatively minor new project features a missing persons investigation, a sorta-kinda kidnapping, a fugitive couple...
- 8/3/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
“Lost in Paris” directing duo Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon have shared a first look at their new film “The Falling Star,” which premieres at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.
Abel and Gordon also star in the film, which follows Boris (Abel), a former activist who works at a bartender at the Falling Star. According to the film’s official synopsis, Boris’ “guilty past resurfaces when a victim finds him and wants revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom (Abel), provides Boris, his resourceful partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan. But they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife (Gordon), a suspicious detective on their trail.”
The new clip sees Gordon, as Dom’s ex-wife Fiona, going to great lengths to transport a tall sunflower stalk. She arrives at a graveyard and, after delivering the sunflower to a particular grave,...
Abel and Gordon also star in the film, which follows Boris (Abel), a former activist who works at a bartender at the Falling Star. According to the film’s official synopsis, Boris’ “guilty past resurfaces when a victim finds him and wants revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom (Abel), provides Boris, his resourceful partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan. But they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife (Gordon), a suspicious detective on their trail.”
The new clip sees Gordon, as Dom’s ex-wife Fiona, going to great lengths to transport a tall sunflower stalk. She arrives at a graveyard and, after delivering the sunflower to a particular grave,...
- 8/3/2023
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
Title: The Fairy Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten Director: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy Screenwriter: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy Cast: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy, Philippe Martz, Vladimir Zorano, Destiné M’Bikula Mayemba, Wilson Goma Cast: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Philippe Martz, Bruno Romy Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 2/7/12 Opens: February 24, 2012 No cinephile could possibly watch this movie without thinking of Jacques Tati (1908-82), a French director, who may well have been the inspiration for the Belgo-Canadian-French directors of “The Fairy.” Tati’s theme, like that portrayed by Buster Keaton, is that individual personality is warped by unfeeling organizations–which the principal characters try to...
- 2/9/2012
- by Brian Corder
- ShockYa
Cannes Film Festival Critics Week
Why change a winning team? Such is the argument underlying "Rumba", the follow-up by Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel and Bruno Romy to their critically successful but commercially underperforming slapstick comedy "The Iceberg", which played at Cannes two years ago.
The winsome threesome will be hoping for better returns from their latest foray into gentle whimsy and physical comedy whose style is usually associated with silent movies. However, there is no more evidence now that the general public is ready for a revival of Tati-esque humor, the trio's trademark. Festivals and arthouse circuits appear to be the natural home for "Rumba".
Fiona and Dom (played, of course, by Gordon and Abel) are a married couple who teach at a rural school in northern France and share a passion for Latin dancing. Driving back from a weekend competition, they swerve to avoid a man (Romy) on a suicide mission and crash into a wall. Fiona loses a leg and Dom his memory. They are then separated following a fire in which their house burns down.
This simple narrative serves as a peg on which Gordon, an Australian-born Canadian, and her Belgian partner Abel hang what is essentially a series of sketches and visual gags. Many of them are wordless -- as with "The Iceberg", dialogue is at a premium -- and take place within a fixed frame.
There is much in "Rumba" to please discerning audiences. Pre-title sequences are particularly inventive. Gordon and Abel make imaginative use of back-projection, notably during the hectic car journey in which they rush back home to fetch their dancing clothes, and of overhead shots and shadow-play to highlight their dance routines. There is plenty of slapstick, too, but the couple's humor is mostly deadpan. Responses will range from guffaws to a twitch of the lips, according to taste.
Perhaps the movie could best be considered a family entertainment -- a little of something for everyone. One admires the commitment of the filmmakers and freshness of much of the material, but the rarified nature of the humor means that the movie never fully engages.
Production companies: MK2, Courage Mon Amour, RTBF
Cast: Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Bruno Romy, Philippe Martz, Clement Morel.
Directors/screenwriters: Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Bruno Romy.
Executive producers: Claire Dornoy, Abel & Gordon.
Produces: Marin Karmitz, Nathanael Karmitz, Charles Gillibert, Abel & Gordon.
Photography: Claire Childeric.
Production design: Nicolas Girault.
Costumes: Claire Dubien.
Editor: Sandrine Deegen.
Sales: MK2 Diffusion.
No MPAA rating, 77 minutes.
Why change a winning team? Such is the argument underlying "Rumba", the follow-up by Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel and Bruno Romy to their critically successful but commercially underperforming slapstick comedy "The Iceberg", which played at Cannes two years ago.
The winsome threesome will be hoping for better returns from their latest foray into gentle whimsy and physical comedy whose style is usually associated with silent movies. However, there is no more evidence now that the general public is ready for a revival of Tati-esque humor, the trio's trademark. Festivals and arthouse circuits appear to be the natural home for "Rumba".
Fiona and Dom (played, of course, by Gordon and Abel) are a married couple who teach at a rural school in northern France and share a passion for Latin dancing. Driving back from a weekend competition, they swerve to avoid a man (Romy) on a suicide mission and crash into a wall. Fiona loses a leg and Dom his memory. They are then separated following a fire in which their house burns down.
This simple narrative serves as a peg on which Gordon, an Australian-born Canadian, and her Belgian partner Abel hang what is essentially a series of sketches and visual gags. Many of them are wordless -- as with "The Iceberg", dialogue is at a premium -- and take place within a fixed frame.
There is much in "Rumba" to please discerning audiences. Pre-title sequences are particularly inventive. Gordon and Abel make imaginative use of back-projection, notably during the hectic car journey in which they rush back home to fetch their dancing clothes, and of overhead shots and shadow-play to highlight their dance routines. There is plenty of slapstick, too, but the couple's humor is mostly deadpan. Responses will range from guffaws to a twitch of the lips, according to taste.
Perhaps the movie could best be considered a family entertainment -- a little of something for everyone. One admires the commitment of the filmmakers and freshness of much of the material, but the rarified nature of the humor means that the movie never fully engages.
Production companies: MK2, Courage Mon Amour, RTBF
Cast: Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Bruno Romy, Philippe Martz, Clement Morel.
Directors/screenwriters: Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Bruno Romy.
Executive producers: Claire Dornoy, Abel & Gordon.
Produces: Marin Karmitz, Nathanael Karmitz, Charles Gillibert, Abel & Gordon.
Photography: Claire Childeric.
Production design: Nicolas Girault.
Costumes: Claire Dubien.
Editor: Sandrine Deegen.
Sales: MK2 Diffusion.
No MPAA rating, 77 minutes.
- 5/18/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
First Run Features
NEW YORK -- This Belgian slapstick comedy combines elements of silent film-style physical humor and clown theater to less than hilarious effect. While there are some undeniably well-crafted and amusing moments in "L'Iceberg," the film is ultimately undone by its air of overly mannered preciousness. It is currently playing an exclusive theatrical engagement at New York City's Cinema Village.
Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy wrote, directed and also acted in this wacky effort, featuring a plethora of sight gags clearly influenced by such filmmakers as Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati.
When fast-food restaurant manager Fiona (Gordon) gets locked overnight in a freezer, she returns home only to find that her hangdog-faced husband (Abel) and children haven't missed her. More to the point, she finds that the experience has instilled in her a fascination for all things cold and icy. Hitching a ride in the back of a frozen-food delivery truck, she heads to the frozen seas, pursued by her husband and aided by a deaf-mute sailor (Philippe Martz), in the hopes of having a close encounter with an iceberg.
Featuring minimal dialogue or music and plenty of lengthy wide-shot takes, the film is ultimately more fussy than amusing, though it well displays the considerable physical comic talents of its performers. The gangly Gordon, looking and acting somewhat like Shelley Duvall in her "Popeye" days, is a gifted physical comedienne, and Abel delivers a series of hilarious deadpan reactions that would make Keaton envious.
NEW YORK -- This Belgian slapstick comedy combines elements of silent film-style physical humor and clown theater to less than hilarious effect. While there are some undeniably well-crafted and amusing moments in "L'Iceberg," the film is ultimately undone by its air of overly mannered preciousness. It is currently playing an exclusive theatrical engagement at New York City's Cinema Village.
Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy wrote, directed and also acted in this wacky effort, featuring a plethora of sight gags clearly influenced by such filmmakers as Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati.
When fast-food restaurant manager Fiona (Gordon) gets locked overnight in a freezer, she returns home only to find that her hangdog-faced husband (Abel) and children haven't missed her. More to the point, she finds that the experience has instilled in her a fascination for all things cold and icy. Hitching a ride in the back of a frozen-food delivery truck, she heads to the frozen seas, pursued by her husband and aided by a deaf-mute sailor (Philippe Martz), in the hopes of having a close encounter with an iceberg.
Featuring minimal dialogue or music and plenty of lengthy wide-shot takes, the film is ultimately more fussy than amusing, though it well displays the considerable physical comic talents of its performers. The gangly Gordon, looking and acting somewhat like Shelley Duvall in her "Popeye" days, is a gifted physical comedienne, and Abel delivers a series of hilarious deadpan reactions that would make Keaton envious.
- 6/15/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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