Reviews
Les Paradis de Diane (2024)
A pseudo-deep movie that fails to deliver
The premise of the movie is exciting to say the least. I was eager to see it and how they handled this quite interesting and fairly unusual topic of post-natal depression (and/or all other possible mental conditions of the mother right after birth).
Unfortunately the movie fails to make the protagonist even slightly relatable. At the start there were a few attempts of showing things through her perspective but afterwards we left her realm and were just mere observers. As a result her actions seem very random and downright stupid at times (even when seen as mentally unstable). You keep waiting in vain for at least some sort of meaningful access to her inner world.
We follow her around in very prolonged meaningless scenes, there is almost no text in the whole movie and the little text is pseudo-deep.
So what disappointed me the most is that there is no true exploration of the topic. We follow her through all these different episodes but it feels random and contrived. Many scenes feel like they are only there to make the film artsy.
The actress is not bad per se but it seems she wasn't given anything to work with which ends up making this movie void of any emotion other than you wanting to leave the theatre. I was also at the Q&A at the Berlinale screening and the main actress basically admitted that she didn't know what she was doing and that no one knows what the character was supposed to feel.
So while the team seems nice and the project was surely with good intentions, it was a failure to portray the topic properly or of any lasting impression.
L'empire (2024)
A failed parody with lazy writing and lacking any originality
TLDR: Don't waste your time unless you often find trite tasteless sexist jokes (for both sexes) extremely funny and original.
I don't know what I am more shocked and appalled at: how the director got such a budget for this piece of crap or that it was actually shown on a film festival (Berlinale) AND it is in the Main competition category. Blows my mind.
The movie's plot is a pretty clear allegory for the supposed ^battle of the sexes^. Also supposed to be a comedy. A parody. I have one memory of the crowd actually laughing out loud at something in this movie. So well, a very successful comedy it wasn't.
For a brief moment I thought it might be more than that - like for example satire of French teenage villagers and their forming worldviews. The Goths against the Mainstreams. Or something of this kind - slightly more fun. No. It is as banal and onedimensional as it looks - from start to finish.
Men's team is the monarchy represented by machos who grope women but also all women love them. Women's team are democratic warriors fighting for equality and solidarity but who also get emotionally attached to machos instantly.
Other than establishing such novelty cliches, the movie does literally nothing else. Oh, there is a joke about French police being useless. That was funny for a moment. But then it also quickly got boring and repetitive.
I am giving it more than one point because it is possible to sit through the movie without wanting to hurt yourself. Although on a side note, I watched it in the cinema and the extremely loud screechy music and sounds (which are so on purpose, I think) made me often have to tone it all down by covering my ears.
La famille Bélier (2014)
A refreshing family movie
I watched this movie on a Sneak preview and I must admit that I was sooo relieved by its existence. And by the fact that such a movie will actually launch in the big cinemas (at least here, in Germany). Finally – a movie far from a blockbuster, obscene, moronic comedy or anything too pretentious. It is a family movie that you simply enjoy watching and relax while doing so.
The idea is quite original actually, as far as my knowledge of things goes. And honestly, I feel like we need more films like that which explore these ideas and the life of such families and people, but explore them exactly that way - so naturally, with such humour and gentleness. No mega-drama, life is sad and the world is a cruel place for people with disabilities stuff. Everything in the movie is realistic, from the characters to the crises and the conversations. I liked also very much the fact that I didn't find any of the characters especially attractive or better than the rest. They were
hello, normal!! And interesting and different and funny in their "normalness". Here I am talking for both character and looks.
So yeah, basically
I've never been good at reviewing a movie I like, so I can simply recommend it to everybody who wants a breath of fresh air after all the action-visual-effects-little-script stuff that Hollywood is showering us with.
Ps. I didn't know the main character has been a star in a singing show, but the songs and the music in the movie were truly enjoyable.