LivraisonduCinémaReviews de cine

Sibyl by Justine Triet Somehow I wasn’t much impressed by Justine Triet’s much-revered Anatomie d’une Chute (don’t get me wrong, it’s a good one) - yet I utterly, unreservedly enjoyed Sibyl. A complex, not linear, erratic, and erotic Freudian play, a punch at reality where any shrink can be out-shrinked and any writer, director, and actor outplayed. Sensual and morally ambiguous - that’s what makes great cinema. P.S. … but that movie poster they created for this film is so much the opposite of what it represents, cheesy as hell. Ссылка скрыта

Possession by Andrzej Żuławski Wow. So sick. I don’t know how I missed it and haven’t even heard about this movie before. A masterpiece of gore and insanity - and of body horror, before body horror became one big trendy genre. Pure and distilled madness with Isabelle Adjani’s striking eyes, shiny and full of lightning. Ссылка скрыта

Drive-Away Dolls by Ethan Coen Part one of the “dyke” trilogy, Drive-Away Dolls is a redneck-meets-soft-intellectual lesbian road trip film, as B-movie as a B-movie can get, something more worthy of an early Tarantino or Rodriguez rather than Ethan Coen - but voilà, here it comes. Guns, gangsters, dykes, and dildos - what else? Popcorn-and-beer kinda thing. Part 2 Honey Don’t! is sure less intentionally trashy. Ссылка скрыта

Badkonake Sefid by Jafar Panahi The White Balloon is a quintessential Iranian New Wave film, a debut feature by Jafar Panahi made on the back of Abbas Kiarostami’s script, made after Kiarostami’s Grand Prix in 1990 for Close-Up, but before his Palme d’Or for Taste of Cherry in 1997. Like most Iranian cinema of the time, it is less political and more about simple kindness - the unexpected kindness of common people, the generosity of strangers, the good hearts of ordinary Iranians. And a family movie about young, very young kids. The winner of Cannes’ Caméra d’Or in 1995, the prize for debut feature films, previously awarded to Leos Carax, Jim Jarmusch, Jane Campion, and Danny Boyle - back at the time it brought more exposure to the then-nascent Iranian New Wave filmmaking, movies made in the tough, restrictive conditions of the Ayatollah regime, showing light, love, and compassion. Like one of my all-time favorites, Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s A Moment of Innocence from 1996, it is slow but perennial - and quite relevant in our drone-and-missile times. Ссылка скрыта

Honey Don’t! by Ethan Coen Oh wow, this fast-paced small-town crime dark comedy feels like an Elmore Leonard novel. Niiiice - a sizeable but still not too excessive piece of junk food, mouth-filling delight from Ethan Coen, with Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza setting this baby on fire. Yay. And I sure didn’t know it was part two of a trilogy. Ссылка скрыта

A House of Dynamite by Kathryn Bigelow Today is the best possible day to watch A House of Dynamite for the second time, Kathryn Bigelow’s fast-paced nuclear war drama from last year - a perfect, nail-biting, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-chair film, with ICBMs flying and U.S. civil and military brass totally puzzled about what to do. But what I did not understand is why Bigelow and her writer, Noah Oppenheim, didn’t reference anywhere Annie Jacobsen’s brilliant book Nuclear War: A Scenario - while it is clear as day for anyone who has read it that this movie couldn’t have happened without it. That alone feels insanely unfair. If you haven’t watched the movie at all, well, today is surely the day to do it. Ссылка скрыта

The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson A whirlwind of fun and action, The Phoenician Scheme is one absolutely classic Wes Anderson movie about a dysfunctional family on a long and winding, very twisty road to reunification. So good. Ссылка скрыта

Irma Vep by Olivier Assayas Finally found time to watch Olivier Assayas’s original Irma Vep from 1996 — well, to the extent it can be called original after Feuillade’s silent Les Vampires from 1915–1916, which started it all (and which I need to watch one day, despite its seven-hour length and all). I’m a fan of Irma Vep - Assayas’s series of the same name from 2022, starring Natalie Portman in Irma’s catsuit, is probably the only TV show I decided to dedicate a post to here (damn, I didn’t even make one for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Copenhagen Cowboy, a true piece of modern art), because I found it so fresh and so uniquely beautiful. The original ’96 movie is short, but it’s breathing - it’s a gulp of fresh air - and also a pun on French cinema overall, a take on French culture, a cynical yet precise view of the film director’s creative process, and a great role for Maggie Cheung. Lovely! Ссылка скрыта

Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes Bravo! Grand Tour, Miguel Gomes’s double travelogue in Asia - Rangoon, Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon, Osaka, Hong Kong, Shanghai, etc., revisited both at the beginning of the 20th century and today - is visually impeccable. It is an arthouse, multi-language road movie made with fantastic style and this timid grace, this slow-mo attitude, silent acceptance of troubles ahead, and a melting pot of various cultures and rites. The winner of the Best Director award at Cannes in 2024 - and indeed, this has its author’s vision ahead of the story. To tell you frankly, cannot brag that I’m a great scholar of Gomes, as I only watched Tabu more than a decade ago, and I remember little of it - other than it was visually beautiful and slow. Need to fill the gap now. Ссылка скрыта