'Renoir' with Michel Bouquet, Christa Theret, and Vincent Rottiers. Directed by Gilles Bourdos, 107 minutes long. In French with English subtitles.
"Among the French Impressionists," writes the British art critic John Berger, "Renoir is still the most popular painter."
In the film 'Renoir' director Gilles Bourdos shows us why. In 1916 France is besieged by World War One as German and Allied troops kill each other in merciless trench warfare. But here's Auguste Renoir, living peacefully in the south of France, waited on by five women. Now Renoir's life is going downhill. He's widowed, wheelchair-bound, old and arthritic. Still, he paints beautiful pictures of naked, slightly overweight young women frolicking in green pastures.
Enter Amadeee, a young female model played by Christa Theret, and then Jean Renoir, Renoir's son, played by Vincent Rottiers. The young Renoir has been wounded in the war and hobbles around on crutches. Fireworks should ensue but they rarely do in this movie.
The Renoir family is your average dysfunctional family, full of rivalries, fueds and frustrated loves. But director Gilles Bourdos doesn't probe too deeply here. His camera and script stay mostly on the surface of things as Renoir paints and talks.
Renoir tells his son Jean who in real life later becomes a famous film director, that painting is about painting naked ladies and not "poverty, despair and death."
Fair enough and the film sticks mostly to that rule. It can bore you at times. but lovely shots of the south of France and Renoir's estate can enchant you also. 'Renoir' is not a great film but it has its charms.
Sunday 28 April 2013
Monday 15 April 2013
Three Stories Don't Add Up To A Great Film
'The Place Beyond the Pines' A film starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes.Running time 141 minutes. Directed by Derek Cianfrance.
'The Place Beyond The Pines' is three heavy male stories that hinge on the man who sets the film in motion. Ryan Gosling, the blonde, blue-eyed, jut jawed hunk from Cornwall, Ontario, dominates the film's first part. He's a motorcycling stunt man, who travels with a carnival and maybe he's scattering his seed among many women.
Then he meets a special woman named by Romina, played by Eva Mendes who lives in Schenectady New York and bears their son Jason. Soon Luke Glanton, played by Gosling takes up robbing banks and with dire results.
Enter Avery Cross, played by Bradley Cooper. Cross is an honest cop who ends up working with a bunch of crooked policemen.Targeted for murder by his one-time pals, he survives and then prospers. He and his wife have a young child too, just like Luke and Romina.
"I'm a cop," Avery tells his wife after a brutal encounter. "That's what I am, a cop." But flash forward 15 years and Avery is now an aspiring attorney-general running for office in the state of New York. Meanwhile, his son AJ played by Emory Cohen meets up with Luke's offspring Jason in the cafeteria of a Schenectady high school.Jason is played by Dane DeHaan.
Jason never did find out how his father died. Soon he tries to turn up his roots, and this means danger. "You're a liar," a beaten up Jason tells his mother Romina as he lies in a hospital bed after discovering the truth.
Well what does all this add up to?
Despite some fine acting , maybe not too much. The heart of the film, directed by Derek Cianfrance, lies in the wonderful, sometimes hair raising rides and chases through forests and tree-lined roads in a very green, nearly always sunny New York state. These scenes seem based on American critic Leslie Fiedler's idea that most of American literature is based on the theme of escaping from civilization into the wilderness.
At movie's end Jason takes off on a motorcycle to head out west on a blue-skied fall day, just like a latter day Fiedler might predict. He flashes past trees tinged with orange and yellow. Like his dad he's on the road roaring away from the troubles of the past, on a motorcycle. It's a lovely peaceful moment in a film racked by violence.
At this point, most viewers might whisper "Enough" and wish Jason a peaceful future and good luck wherever he ends up. After all Schenectady has been through in this film and everything Jason has felt, he deserves a rest . Hopefully he'll find what he's looking for out west. 'The Place Beyond The Pines' in the end disappointed me, but cheapskate that I am, I didn't hobble away from the theatre feeling cheated. It only cost me eight or nine dollars. At that price it was a good bargain.
'The Place Beyond The Pines' is three heavy male stories that hinge on the man who sets the film in motion. Ryan Gosling, the blonde, blue-eyed, jut jawed hunk from Cornwall, Ontario, dominates the film's first part. He's a motorcycling stunt man, who travels with a carnival and maybe he's scattering his seed among many women.
Then he meets a special woman named by Romina, played by Eva Mendes who lives in Schenectady New York and bears their son Jason. Soon Luke Glanton, played by Gosling takes up robbing banks and with dire results.
Enter Avery Cross, played by Bradley Cooper. Cross is an honest cop who ends up working with a bunch of crooked policemen.Targeted for murder by his one-time pals, he survives and then prospers. He and his wife have a young child too, just like Luke and Romina.
"I'm a cop," Avery tells his wife after a brutal encounter. "That's what I am, a cop." But flash forward 15 years and Avery is now an aspiring attorney-general running for office in the state of New York. Meanwhile, his son AJ played by Emory Cohen meets up with Luke's offspring Jason in the cafeteria of a Schenectady high school.Jason is played by Dane DeHaan.
Jason never did find out how his father died. Soon he tries to turn up his roots, and this means danger. "You're a liar," a beaten up Jason tells his mother Romina as he lies in a hospital bed after discovering the truth.
Well what does all this add up to?
Despite some fine acting , maybe not too much. The heart of the film, directed by Derek Cianfrance, lies in the wonderful, sometimes hair raising rides and chases through forests and tree-lined roads in a very green, nearly always sunny New York state. These scenes seem based on American critic Leslie Fiedler's idea that most of American literature is based on the theme of escaping from civilization into the wilderness.
At movie's end Jason takes off on a motorcycle to head out west on a blue-skied fall day, just like a latter day Fiedler might predict. He flashes past trees tinged with orange and yellow. Like his dad he's on the road roaring away from the troubles of the past, on a motorcycle. It's a lovely peaceful moment in a film racked by violence.
At this point, most viewers might whisper "Enough" and wish Jason a peaceful future and good luck wherever he ends up. After all Schenectady has been through in this film and everything Jason has felt, he deserves a rest . Hopefully he'll find what he's looking for out west. 'The Place Beyond The Pines' in the end disappointed me, but cheapskate that I am, I didn't hobble away from the theatre feeling cheated. It only cost me eight or nine dollars. At that price it was a good bargain.
Wednesday 10 April 2013
Douglas Coupland Looks At Loneliness
'Eleanor Rigby: A Novel by Douglas Coupland. Random house Canada. 249pp.
Douglas Coupland is my favourite novelist. His novels often take place in North or West Vancouver, places I've often gone to. It's nice to read a novel that happens near where you live. Also his novels are easy to read. So you don't have to stress your mind wading through some incredibly dense work. Last but not least they remind me of t.v. dramas, but they're so much deeper, funnier and sadder than most stuff on the box.
'Eleanor Rigby' published in 2004 takes off from the Beatles' song of the same name. "Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where her wedding has been," sang the fab four about fifty years ago. "Lives in a dream." And the song's chorus asks "All the lonely people/ where do they all come from?" Coupland's novel like the Beatles' song is about loneliness.
When the novels opens, Liz Dunn a very lonely middle aged person is living, sort of, in a North Vancouver condo. Then the Hale-Bopp comet lands on the north shore and signals better things to come. Liz takes us back in time to a distant trip she took to Italy with one of her high school classes. Here, she ended up in a party that took place on a roof, and met a man. Then something happened.
"I'm overweight and my clothes are serviceable," Dunn explains to us. "They're usually loose fabrics because they conceal my roundness. Men af all ages don't notice me, period. To them, I'm a fern." So life looks grim for this plain Jane.
And her family is not very supportive. But then a stranger intrudes and transforms her life.
The novel here, I think, goes astray. The Beatles' song 'Eleanor Rigby' ends on a depressing but realistic note. Coupland's novel gives us an old-fashioned Hollywood style ending where all of Liz's problems vanish.
But in the end so what? The novels entertains and also Coupland drops all sorts of observations on life into the story. Now that I've unplugged my t.v. I'm going to keep reading Coupland's work. It beats watching the dramas on the box anytime, unless they're written by Dougals Coupland, that is.
Douglas Coupland is my favourite novelist. His novels often take place in North or West Vancouver, places I've often gone to. It's nice to read a novel that happens near where you live. Also his novels are easy to read. So you don't have to stress your mind wading through some incredibly dense work. Last but not least they remind me of t.v. dramas, but they're so much deeper, funnier and sadder than most stuff on the box.
'Eleanor Rigby' published in 2004 takes off from the Beatles' song of the same name. "Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where her wedding has been," sang the fab four about fifty years ago. "Lives in a dream." And the song's chorus asks "All the lonely people/ where do they all come from?" Coupland's novel like the Beatles' song is about loneliness.
When the novels opens, Liz Dunn a very lonely middle aged person is living, sort of, in a North Vancouver condo. Then the Hale-Bopp comet lands on the north shore and signals better things to come. Liz takes us back in time to a distant trip she took to Italy with one of her high school classes. Here, she ended up in a party that took place on a roof, and met a man. Then something happened.
"I'm overweight and my clothes are serviceable," Dunn explains to us. "They're usually loose fabrics because they conceal my roundness. Men af all ages don't notice me, period. To them, I'm a fern." So life looks grim for this plain Jane.
And her family is not very supportive. But then a stranger intrudes and transforms her life.
The novel here, I think, goes astray. The Beatles' song 'Eleanor Rigby' ends on a depressing but realistic note. Coupland's novel gives us an old-fashioned Hollywood style ending where all of Liz's problems vanish.
But in the end so what? The novels entertains and also Coupland drops all sorts of observations on life into the story. Now that I've unplugged my t.v. I'm going to keep reading Coupland's work. It beats watching the dramas on the box anytime, unless they're written by Dougals Coupland, that is.
Thursday 4 April 2013
Review of 'Tea With Hezbollah'
'Tea With Hezbollah: Sitting at the Enemies' Table. Our Journey Through the Middle East' by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis. Doubleday, 245 pp.
What happens when a Canadian author and an American author get together? Well if the Canadian is best-selling novelist Ted Dekker and the American is Middle East specialist Carl Medearis you get an interesting book. They don't spend their time arguing about Americans' know nothing take on Canada or the high price of American-made goods on this side of the border.
Instead off they go to the Middle East to find out whether the top honchos over there obey Jesus's injunction, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."
This is a dangerous journey. And as the twosome touch down in six countries, death, despair and violence lurk everywhere, as do many cups of tea.
Dekker, an experienced novelist, describes the lands they pass through. Medearis, with a background in the Middle East, helps track down the leaders of movements like Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Sami Awad, the leader of non-violent resistance to settlers in Israeli's West Bank. Canada and the U.S. governments , by the way, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
Most of the men interviewed agree with Jesus's saying. Others are not so sure and who can blame them? "I've stood in front of moving bulldozers and Israeli jeeps many times," says the Palestinian leader Sami Awad, "to try to prevent them from destroying farmland. I've been physically assaulted more times than can be counted by Israeli troops who use their rifles, boots and batons."
Awad has been denounced by Israeli leaders and by other Palestinians as a CIA tool. But he agrees with Jesus.
This is a male-dominated book. The only woman who shows up in the book is Nicole, who Dekker invents. And Israeli leaders don't show up in the book at all. Nor do U.S. politicians who launched invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But the book contains an interesting history of the Samaritans, one of whom inspired Jesus's injunction.
'Tea with Hezbollah' doesn't probe too deeply but it's an enjoyable read. "A simple teaching," Dekker concludes, "made 2,000 years ago may bring agreement and hope."
What happens when a Canadian author and an American author get together? Well if the Canadian is best-selling novelist Ted Dekker and the American is Middle East specialist Carl Medearis you get an interesting book. They don't spend their time arguing about Americans' know nothing take on Canada or the high price of American-made goods on this side of the border.
Instead off they go to the Middle East to find out whether the top honchos over there obey Jesus's injunction, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."
This is a dangerous journey. And as the twosome touch down in six countries, death, despair and violence lurk everywhere, as do many cups of tea.
Dekker, an experienced novelist, describes the lands they pass through. Medearis, with a background in the Middle East, helps track down the leaders of movements like Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Sami Awad, the leader of non-violent resistance to settlers in Israeli's West Bank. Canada and the U.S. governments , by the way, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
Most of the men interviewed agree with Jesus's saying. Others are not so sure and who can blame them? "I've stood in front of moving bulldozers and Israeli jeeps many times," says the Palestinian leader Sami Awad, "to try to prevent them from destroying farmland. I've been physically assaulted more times than can be counted by Israeli troops who use their rifles, boots and batons."
Awad has been denounced by Israeli leaders and by other Palestinians as a CIA tool. But he agrees with Jesus.
This is a male-dominated book. The only woman who shows up in the book is Nicole, who Dekker invents. And Israeli leaders don't show up in the book at all. Nor do U.S. politicians who launched invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But the book contains an interesting history of the Samaritans, one of whom inspired Jesus's injunction.
'Tea with Hezbollah' doesn't probe too deeply but it's an enjoyable read. "A simple teaching," Dekker concludes, "made 2,000 years ago may bring agreement and hope."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)