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Monkeyfist251
Reviews
À ma soeur! (2001)
Counter-Culture Masterpiece
This is a response to those who hated the film:
If you like films that generate zero debate then avoid it.
Clearly, however, if you subscribe to the notion that art should generate a complex emotional response in the viewer, Fat Girl delivers.
Fat Girl is not designed to be easily digested and those who are not seasoned travelers in the world of their unconscious may be horrified. That is the response the filmmaker wants. Her goal is to create a work that melds tenderness with horror. I feel a great deal of sympathy for the lead character. To be perfectly honest, this film is a perfect depiction of childhood. The world of the adolescent is not some hallmark teen flick. It is banal, seedy, desperate, violent and senseless with a few fleeting moments of tenderness.
The filmmaker wants to show what others block out of their youth. She wants to shine an un-blinking gaze on the tragedy of failed sex and communication in our society. In her interviews she discusses how lovemaking should be simple, normal and healthy between two people that love each other; but the reality is that it's not. It's fraught with complexities, revulsion, need, identity, pushing, pulling, definition. This act we are so quick to hide from the public eye, is what defines our most intense flaws and hopes.
That is why the deflowering scene is the set piece. The length of it is meant to underscore the simple, ineffable horror of a girl forced to watch her sister giving up her virginity and her personality to an act of degradation.
The multiple murders at the end are not a random ending. It is meant to juxtapose the sex scene. To counter it. She is comparing the acts. She is revealing how to her, there is not that vast of a difference between the horror the main character experiences when her sister is deflowered, and the end when her family is killed.
In fact, Anais prefers the later. Getting raped is actually less horrific for her, then the sex scene which is supposedly a "normal, healthy act". The Fat Girl is a true outsider in that respect. If she were reading this post chances are she would wish destruction on all of you. She is a tyrant in her own mind. But her outsider status was thrust upon her in the form of her superior intelligence and unconventional body.
You may not understand this film, and that may anger you. You may hate the filmmaker for causing you to confront issues you would have rather ignored. But keep in mind that this film was not intended for you. It was made for a very select segment of the population, and in that way it is an elitist work. In many ways, it was made in spite of you, and so I can understand your anger.
Le pont des Arts (2004)
The Real Star of the Film: "Lament of the Nymph"
A film that despite its complete unabashed intellectual minimalism has some surprisingly humorous and emotionally affecting moments. The film seems at first to be a Bresson inspired Antoine Doinele-esquire sojourn... but at a certain point of the film the real leading star of the picture emerges... in a recital for a new Baroque record... the film showcases an unbelievable transcendent and mournful version of Monteverdi's "Lamento Della Ninfa"... sung by one of the characters... the song is so arresting that it causes everyone who hears it to weep tears of malaise... and to your surprise as you sit in the half empty art house theater eyes half lids you start to feel your chest clench up... your eyes tear and before you know it the combination of the incredible recording by a group called "Le Poeme Harmonique" I believe... and the acute, mournful acting by Natacha Regnier punctuates an otherwise sparse film on an obscure subject with a great burst of emotion...
Having said this... I have been desperately trying to find the recording of "Lament of the Nymph" used in this film, but so far to no luck... it seems that "Le Poeme Harmonique" either has not recorded it for release... or else I'm looking in all the wrong places... I found a version by Cantus Colln but it pales in comparison to the version in the film...
Can anyone help me out? I'm am desperate to find this recording, and you will be too if you see the film...