Toronto International Film Festival 2024 Capsule Reviews (French Version)

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Saturday, 17 August 2024 23:16

Written by Gilbert Seah

MEET THE BARBARIANS (Les Barbares)(France 2024) ****
Directed by Julie Delpy

Actress Julie Delpy (star of films by Godard, Kieslowski and Linklater) directs her own film proving herself totally apt and a force to be reckoned with.  She centres her sights on comedy with a message with a film that matters that she delivers in style with lots of hilarity, drama and a bit of satire.  The story is set in Paimpont, a small town in France preparing to welcome a Ukrainian refugee family and is surprised when a Syrian family shows up instead.  Every town has its patriots, loyalists and racists all of whom show their influence on the Syrian family, but that is not perfect as well.  Delpy shows the good and bad of both sides with a touching romance between the young Syrian teen in the family and a local French boy to bridge the gap of racism.  It might be too obvious but the ploy works.  And the town actually exists.  Paimpont sits nestled in Brittany, content with its centuries-old heritage, its crêpes (the Brittany people cook everything with lots of butter, which is also disincorporated in the script), and its flattering self-image. A marvellous surprise from Delpy.

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Locarno Film Festival 2024

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Sunday, 04 August 2024 22:17

Written by Gilbert Seah

LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2024

The Locarno Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland.  It specializes in after-cinema, supposedly showcasing the best of auteur cinema,  Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, short, avant-garde, and retrospective programs. The Piazza Grande section is held in an open-air venue that seats 8,000 spectators.

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Film Review: Simple Comme Sylvain (Nature of Love)

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Thursday, 08 August 2024 17:43

Written by Gilbert Seah

SIMPLE COMME SYLVAIN (Nature of Love) (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Monica Choki

Simple like Sylvain is what being with Sylvain is like, as Sophia Magalie Lépine Blondeau) discovers.  Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) is a simple carpenter hired by Sophie to fix up her country home.  Sophia is a 40-something dissatisfied professor who teaches love relationships and hangs out with literary and art-loving folk who look down upon ordinary people.  Opposites attract here — she’s the brains and he’s the brawn — and they quickly begin a tumultuous affair.  But Sophia has a hard time reconciling the reality of their differences, especially when they introduce their family and friends to one another, and their disparate political leanings and varying viewpoints become comically apparent. As their affair continues, the tension between their different worlds comes to a very uncomfortable head.  The first major argument comes fast and furious and Sophie is distraught.  What follows too is fast and quick compared to the film’s slower pace in the first half.  Director Choki creates a credible somewhat angry fable of relationships that does not conform to the standard romantic drama.  The film opens on digital August 13th

Film Review: L’ÉTÉ DERNIER (Last Summer)

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Monday, 17 June 2024 15:32

Written by Gilbert Seah

L’ÉTÉ DERNIER (LAST SUMMER)(France 2023) ****
Directed by Catherine Breillat

Badass films are always worth a look.  And they are usually praised by critics who are pleased to watch something different, fresh and controversial.  Director Cathrine Breillat is one badass female director who makes badass movies.  Breillat is a Paris-based filmmaker and writer who became famous for her distinctively personal films on sexuality, gender trouble and sibling rivalry.  Accused of being a "porno auteuriste", Breillat allowed for an unbiased view of sexuality and extended the language of mainstream movies.  She is also a best-selling novelist and wrote her first novel, L'Homme Facile, at the age of 17.  Breillat acted in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (1972) and wrote the screenplay for Maurice Pialat's movie Police (1985).

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