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jf-lagardere
Reviews
Cascadeur (1998)
One redeeming quality
The movie is weak, that's true and the plot far from being new.
It has one redeeming quality though: its main actress, Christin (Regula Grauwiller).
She is a gorgeous red and curly haired swiss girl whose good looks make worth the viewing. Mother Nature's daughter. And the good news is that the movie is essentially us following her. She runs a lot and she wears shorts so we get to see her legs a lot, at least in the first part while she's in Venezuela. In my opinion, the better part of the movie.
Dare I say, the original Indiana Jones movies, whose genre this one belongs to, aren't that better, both the intrigue and the acting. They have higher production values.
Hardy Martins is a decent third-grade Bruce Willis.
A final mention for the two hit men, Bull and Gonzo, whose acting efforts are liable to raise a smile.
Beau travail (1999)
Haven't seen this movie...
... but I guess I'd like it like other very personal Claire Denis movies. Mauvais Sang from Leos Carax and with Denis Lavant is also a personal favorite and I've seen it quoted somewhere. Just because a movie is stylish doesn't mean it's bad. Unstylish movies? Lots of them... Claire Denis succeeds in creating a very personal climax that makes for movies to be remembered long after you've seen them.
Beau Travail would translate literally as "Beautiful Work" but I think the best translation would be "Nice Job" as in "You did a nice job, here". With the ambiguity of job meaning both work and occupation. I don't think "Good Work" is a proper translation like I've seen here and there.
The Reflecting Skin (1990)
beautiful, eerie and haunting sad thing it can't be seen
Seen this movie in Rennes, Brittany when it came out. It made a very strong and lasting impression on me. It is not a vampire movie, not in a trivial way. I don't remember it well and I'd very much see it once more. It was beautiful, eerie, menacing, and haunting. Like the best fantastic literature, somewhat reminiscent of a Wyeth or Hopper picture, or in a different genre, the first movie of Vitaly Kanevsky (don't move, lie down, raise!) A recollection that when I was 10 or something, I also had a toad explode with my friends... was it using some firework? Was I sick then? I don't think so. I was young. I don't know if it is about growing up but about being young and seeing the world as such, full of strange threats, yes, it is for sure. The complaints about no plot are just irrelevant. This ain't a PI movie. So what?