An homage to Eric Rohmer?

Margot at the Wedding is a 2007 tragicomedy written and directed by Noha Baumach. It is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed, Academy-Award nominated film The Squid and the Whale.
Where the family is also very disfunctional. Although fans of The Squid And The Whale may be disappointed as Noha Baumbach couldn't top or equal the earlier film, which was very promising, taking us to a new wave of films about intellectuals, in the league of Woody Allen work.

Noah Baumbach has mentioned that Margot at the Wedding is influenced by the style of French writer-director Eric Rohmer, who is known for his character-driven, relationship-based dramas like Ma Nuit Chez Maud, Le Genou de Claire, Pauline a la Plage and Le Rayon Vert . Many of Eric Rohmer's films also deal with tensed family relationships and awkward love relationships, and often involve summer vacations. The original title was Nicole at the Beach, but had to be changed when Nicole Kidman signed on.

We are very far from Eric Rohmer work, despite similar elements as family life, sisters, husbands, children, history, secrets, jealousies.
Margot at the Wedding doesn’t make place for subtlety, but more for casuistry.

Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her teen son, Claude, travel from Manhattan to her family's Long Island home, occupied by sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Pauline's daughter, and Malcolm(Jack Black), the scrounger, Pauline will marry.
Sourness marks family discussion, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets while Margot is repressed, bitter, insecure, taking out her frustrations on anyone and everyone around her, especially on her son Claude. She dislikes Malcolm and constantly drains him down. Margot also has marital problems and a lover nearby. Cruelty is everywhere, inside and outside their families. It seems there is no refuge for anyone.
A film about extreme insecurity that generates insecurity. But also, tumbles into a grotesque comedy, with a lot of useless scenes as Margot can't stop herself from trying to show off by climbing a tree in whose branches she gets stuck .
Conversations would have been more appropriate than the non-stop catty comments which leaves you squirming with embarrassment, we could define Margot at the Wedding as a comedy of bad manners.

To the contrary, Eric Rohmer's films consistently question the nature of the cinematic. It is shocking sometimes to see these long conversations and not be bored by their simple, often static representation. How can so much talk be cinematic? But these conversations are more than just talk. This isn't radio, or screaming. Neither is it an interview or televised debate. This is talk visually represented. Word and image work together to create a third thing, cinema.
The hallmarks of Eric Rohmer work is the contemporary setting, the philosophical discussions, the intimate nature of the crisis of well off, self-absorbed characters.

Margot at the Wedding never fully coheres or convinces as the Eric Rohmer’s genre.

What save the film are, the cinematographer Harris Savides using old lenses and shooting mostly in natural light to get the film a wintry colors look, and the first-term performer : Zane Pais (Claude), who is the real star of the film, he manages to be mocking, teary and other-worldly at the same time.

A film that could be seen on DVD for whose who love dysfunctional family drama.

Published in www.artnouveaumagazine.com

Marion...Marion...et encore Marion!

Marion Cotillard's win was a major shock to the US. Very few Americans had seen the movie, and hadn't even heard of her until that night. Facing accusation of "conspiracy" against the U.S, with 9/11 and moon landing theories.
I've been asked to write about her and her fantastic success,
in La Vie En Rose for an American magazine.
Despite all the fuss, and without concealing my pride, here it is!

Marion Cotillard born in 1975, began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays. Her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s, with the production of Luc Besson, in Taxi (1998) which was a huge success in France.
She followed on with more than 20 various French film as Furia, Lisa, Taxi 2, Taxi 3… proving her ability to play a complex yet appealing modern romantic lead.
Although more widely known in France, Marion Cotillard was building an international presence.
In 2003, she had a small role in Tim Burton's film, Big Fish, which introduced her to English-speaking audiences. It was also her first both critically and financially successful film. She appeared in two critically acclaimed films in 2004:A Very Long Engagement, where she further demonstrated the range of her abilities by playing the murderous Tina Lombardi (garnering the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), in the drama mystery Innocence. In 2006, she appeared in Ridley Scott's A Good Year.
She was chosen by director Olivier Dahan to portray the iconic French singer Edith Piaff in the biopic La Vie En Rose, before he had even met her, saying that in the eyes of Édith Piaf he noticed a similarity with Marion's own. Her portrayal was widely praised, including by the eminent English theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn, who described it as "one of the greatest performances on film ever." It was dubbed "the most awaited film of 2007" in France, where critics said that she had reincarnated Édith Piaf to sing one last time on stage.
According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf’s voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother’s brothel,and her father’s circus.
According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf’s voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother’s brothel and her father’s circus. While singing on the streets of Paris as a teenager, Piaf is discovered by club owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), and this chance encounter changes the woman’s life. Her powerful voice takes her all over the globe, but it can’t save her from the pain and suffering she can’t avoid.
As Edith Piaf, Marion Cotillard is mesmerizing. She fully inhabits the singer’s ivory skin. Like Walk The Line and Ray, this biopic creates a fascinating picture of an artist whose songs only begin to reflect the singer’s painful life.
But director-writer Olivier Dahan doesn’t take the traditional biopic way with La Vie En Rose. With such an eye for detail and created a wonderful, caring homage to Edith Piaf. The chemistry between Olivier Dahan and the hearted performance by Marion Cotillard is what made the story fascinating and visually stunning. Piaf's "memories" are just what the film examines as she starts to analize and remember fragmented moments in her life, and characters, relationships, lost loved ones are suddenly shifted and gone from one's perspective without being noticeable. Marion Cotillard is just as brilliant at playing the teenage Piaf as she is on her deathbed at the age of 47.
The amount of music, was done superbly as to not just make this a musical biography but an exciting picture of an era.
By the time the credits were rolling both of my shirtsleeves were damp with tears of sadness and tears of admiration in discovering much more about such a remarkable, true modern day, diva.
I highly recommend this film, and it’s Marion Cotillard amazing performance that makes La Vie En Rose so worth seeing.

-Laure Brosson-

Life Through a Lens

« Annie Leibovitz…Annie Leibovitz…Annie Leibovitz… »
The documentary has started. Admiring contributions from friends, relatives and subjects ranging from Hillary Clinton to Mick Jagger seems to have one big obsession : Annie Liebovitz !
Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens (2006) is a celebratory documentary of the 58-year-old photographer, directed by her sister.
It shows her progress from a military family obsessed with recording itself.
Through her start at the Rolling Stone magazine,she quickly came to attention with a unique style by her close collaboration with the subject. She followed bands on tour like the Rolling Stones, giving us lot’s of very memorable iconic images.
Then, she found herself trapped into the drug-fuelled years of the rockn’roll era.
In 1983, Annie Leibovitz joined Vanity Fair and was made the magazine's first contributing photographer,with the celebrity culture served by the magazine, her portraits became more provocative which could be describes sometimes as 'pretty shallow'.
The obvious look of the Blues Brothers faces painted in blue seems to have paid off, from simplicity to very detailed choreography when she gets George Clooney to take off his jacket in front of a ring of half-naked models shivering in the sea.
Her current position of a portraitist refers to the work of Joshua Reynolds, who was the most important and influential of 18th century English painter, specialising in portraits, with paintings like « Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney, The Archers » (1769), or « Robert Clive » and his family with an Indian maid, (1765).
Life Through a Lens is also revealing about her long-term relationship with Susan Sontag, an American literary theorist, novelist, filmmaker, and political activist.
Losing her partner and her father in a short space of time has obviously affected her profoundly and some of the film’s most moving scenes are when she talks about her loss and expresses it through her work. With a gentle humility, it shows us that Annie Liebovitz is a woman first.
A noble documentary telling us an extraordinary life achievement.

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com