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sonnenberg
Reviews
La captive (2000)
Oh, God, the other reviewer ain't lyin! This was AWFUL!
I'm currently studying Proust, and so looked forward to this. I figured the other review HAD to be wrong about how bad this was. But they weren't! I love slow, ponderous French movies. But this one absolutely killed me, bludgeoned me with a big fat dull fence post and left me by the side of one of the many long roads I'd watched the actors drive interminably and wordlessly down. I finally had to watch it on fast forward, because NOTHING HAPPENS time and time and time again for minutes at a stretch. I don't envy a director/scriptwriter who takes Proust on, because so much of the richness of his characters and stories is interior. But, God! You've got to at least TRY to convey those depths by something other than static shots of actors doing and saying nothing. Boo. Hiss. Just awful.
Les parapluies de Cherbourg (1964)
Great film. One minor continuity error
Boy, I love this movie! I saw it on the big screen last night.
I noticed a minor continuity error: At one point Genevieve approaches the shop door dusted with snow then enters snowless in the next shot.
I love how Demy brought a character (Roland Cassard) forward here from his earlier film Lola. I'll have to watch Lola again to fully appreciate his appearance here. Apparently he brought Lola's story itself forward in his 'Model Shop' film, but I haven't managed to see that one (dreadful by all accounts, but how bad could it be, really?)
I've also enjoyed Demy's films "Bay of Angels", "Young Girls of Rochefort" and Donkey Skin. I also recommend Agnes Vardas semi-Demy-biographical film "Jacquot de Nantes" for some interesting references to "Umbrellas" in the scenes that take place in his father's auto repair shop.