-Interviewer: Its been 8 years since 'Les Amants Du Pont Neuf'. Where did you go?
-Leos Carax: ...To Hell
While I was in Toronto for the film festival (make sure to read my reviews from TIFF), I picked up some books from the gift shop on Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis & Leos Carax. I breezed through the Claire Denis book because i already knew 50% of the content and now I'm in the middle of (slowly) reading the book on Leos Carax which inspired me to do one of these explorations on him. This one was a bit difficult to do because, like Todd Haynes, even though Carax's career spans over 3 decades he only has 4 features, one joint movie ('Tokyo') and a few random shorts to show for. Nevertheless, all of his films share common themes and feature some very memorable images (that you will see have inspired everyone from James Cameron to Johnathan Glazer...whether they want to admit it or not!). Hope you all enjoy. I tried my best not to make this too much of a repeat of my lastLeos Carax blog entry...
OPENING CREDITS/HOMAGE TO CLASSIC FRENCH DIRECTORS/CAHIERS DU CINEMA:
Carax, who use to write for the iconic french magazine; 'Cahiers Du Cinema' (where future directors like Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffout and Eric Rohmer use to write for), always makes sure to acknowledge the era of french cinema that inspired his work with the somewhat stereotypical black screen & big bold white titles. Even though Carax's work is modern, the opening and closing titles from his films look like they're out of the 1960's...
Leos Carax (1984)
Jean Luc Godard (1960)
Carax (1991)
Jean Pierre Melville (1970)
Carax (1986)
Melville (1972)
Carax (1999)
Robert Bresson (1959)
ADDITIONAL INFLUENCES...
Boy Meets Girl/Band Of Outsiders (Godard)
Holy Motors/Eyes Without A Face (Georges Franju)
Boy Meets Girl/A Woman Is A Woman (Godard)
Holy Motors/Friday Night (Claire Denis)
BREAK-UPS, JILTED LOVERS, INTIMACY & ROMANCE:
Outside of the recurring character "Alex" (who we'll get to later), romantic relationships are the most commonly explored theme in Carax's work. In every one of his films we see one of our main female characters dumped for another woman, which usually leads them down a dark and destructive path (like "Mirielle" in 'Boy Meets Girl' and "Michele" in 'The Lovers On The Bridge'). And even though Carax often explores the dark side of romance, he still creates many memorable, intimate and "cute" moments...
Mirieille holding back tears after her boyfriend breaks up with her at the beginning of 'Boy Meets Girl'
Alex watches 2 lovers enviously in 'Boy Meets Girl'
Alex breaks up with his girlfriend in 'Bad Blood'
Michele gets revenge on her lover who left her in 'The Lovers On The Bridge'
a cute moment in 'Bad Blood'
'Bad Blood'
'The Lovers On The Bridge'
'Pola X'
MUSICAL SEQUENCE:
Music is KEY in his films. This sounds like a generic statement that could be made for any director, but Carax always makes it a point to create a pivotal sequence set to everything from David Bowie (who he's used in 2 different films) to Public Enemy. The music is always relevant to how the character feels. He doesn't just throw in a hip song for the sake of it like so many other directors do. In 'Bad Blood' when Alex realizes he's in love with Anna, he dances through the streets to express his emotions. In 'Boy Meets Girl', Mirielle tap dances in order to put herself in a good mood after her boyfriend just dumped her and so on...
David Bowie sequence in 'Boy Meets Girl'
Alex dances to David Bowie in 'Bad Blood'
Michele dances in the streets in 'The Lovers On The Bridge'
Band rehearsal in 'Pola X'
Music break in Holy Motors
DENIS LAVANT/"ALEX":
Most great directors have their regular set of actors or that one actor or actress they always use. Scorsese has Deniro, Herzog had Kinski, Denis has Alex Descas, Cassavetes had his gang of actors etc. But with the exception of 'Pola X', Denis Lavant, who's kind of like an alter-ego of Carax on screen, has been in every film directed by Leos Carax. The 2 are pretty much synonymous with each other, much like how Kurosawa was with Mifune (although their body of work is much larger than Carax & Lavant, but still...). Outside of a small handful of directors, no one has used Denis Lavant to his full potential like Carax has (his amazing physical ability, his humor and his overall acting ability). I don't want to repeat myself too much in this blog, so please read my previous entry on Carax & Lavant...
'Boy Meets Girl'
'Bad Blood'
'The Lovers On The Bridge'
'Tokyo'
Holy Motors
CARAX'S INFLUENCE:
The Lovers On The Bridge/Mulholland Drive (David Lynch
Sometimes you don't realize how influential a film is. 'The Lovers On The Bridge', which was made in 1991 but didn't reach U.S. audiences until almost a decade later, is one of the most quietly influential films. No one seems to ever talk about it, but Lovers has inspired some famous shots from some of the biggest recent movies ('Titanic') and popular music videos ('Rabbit In Your Headlights'). Whats also interesting is that directors like Johnathan Glazer and Claire Denis, who have been influenced by certain aspects of Carax & Lavant's work together, actually use Denis Lavant himself to recreate scenes and shots he was originally in...
Lavant in rear view mirror shot from
'the lover on the bridge' (1991)
Lavant in rear view mirror shot from
'rabbit in your headlights' (1998)
lavant in 'the lovers on the bridge'
lavant in 'rabbit in your headlight'
'The Lovers On The Bridge'
'Rabbit In Your Headlights'
'the lover on the bridge' ending (1991)
iconic shot from 'Titanic' (1997)
Denis Lavant caught in drivers
headlights ('lovers on the bridge')
Denis Lavant caught in drivers
headlights in 'beau travail' (1999)
Juliette Binoche in 'Bad Blood' (1986)
'Amelie' (2001)
skydiving scene in
'Bad Blood'
skydiving scene in 'Mister Lonely', co-starring Leos Carax (2008)
TRAGIC ENDINGS:
Even though romance is a common theme with Carax, almost all of his films end with someone dying or some tragedy. Oh shit, wait *SPOILER ALERT*
Hopefully you guys have been checking out my reviews for the flud watches website in addition to this blog. The content from the old flud website is gone, but thankfully i saved everything. Here's the 6th installment of older reviews that aren't up anymore. And make sure to check out the flud site if you haven't already: http://www.fludwatches.com/, featuring even more movies reviews from myself.
For those of you not familiar with Henri-Georges Clouzot, he was one of the most renowned pre-french new wave directors, most famous for ‘Wages of Fear’ (which was later remade by William Friedken as ‘Sorcerer’) and the classic thriller ‘Diabolique’ (which was also remade, but wasn't that good). In between what would be his last film, he started but never finished a film (L’Inferno), which was supposed to turn the film world upside down, and introduce something new. It was set to be his his masterpiece. This documentary explores the circumstances surrounding the unfinished film and the difficulties Clouzot ran in to while trying to make it (ranging from his bad health to constant script changes. The director of this doc sifted through over 30 hours of footage Clouzot filmed, and ultimately never used, to paste together a collage of movie clips, present day interviews with the living cast & crew of the unfinished film as well as re-enacted scenes from the script of L’Inferno. As much as I loved this film, I don’t think everyone would enjoy it as much as I did. Fans of classical film genres like; Italian neo-realism, pre-new wave and Italian romanticism will find this an enjoyable look in to the art house world. People who aren’t in to art house will probably find this boring. Even if this documentary doesn’t sound appealing, I recommend; ‘Wages of Fear’ and ‘Diabolique’ which are probably two of the most influential films ever made.
This twisted family crime drama is one of the best things to come out of Australia since 'The Proposition'. Similar to how 'Copland' (Sylvester Stallone’s shinning moment as an actor) was looked upon as a modern-day western, i’d look at 'Animal Kingdom' the same way. In fact, Its like a cross between a Los Angeles crime drama mixed with a western. A lot of the recent films to come out of Australia all seem to share the same moody atmosphere, missing from a lot of US crime dramas. Ever since the great Australian directors like Peter Weir and Nicholas Roeg moved away from the Australian film scene, there haven’t been to many classics to come out of that continent. In fact, Alex Proyas, the only somewhat recent Australian director to show some kind of promise in the late 80’s and early 90’s (Crow and Dark City) went on to make typical Hollywood films like 'I Robot' and 'Knowing'. But it looks like over the last couple of years Australia has been making its presence known in the film world (especially the crime genre). Animal Kingdom will surely be a classic (at least to the Australian film scene) later on down the road. It's is loosely based on real life events that took place in Melbourne Australia in the late 80’s. In 'Animal Kingdom', our character (Josh) goes to live with his family of criminals after his mother OD’s. His new family situation is quite strange. All of his uncles and cousins seems to be very open about their criminal lifestyle. All but one of his uncles seems to be normal/level-headed. And they all seem to be under the lead of their mother; Janine (played by Jacki Weaver) who not only exhibits some serious incestuous undertones towards her sons but doesn't seem to care that they’re criminals. After one of them is murdered by the police, the oldest brother gets revenge by murdering two random patrolmen. Josh gets caught up in the middle, and struggles with weather or not to be loyal to his family or to testify against them for the murder of the two police. Things get complicated when his family suspects he will testify against them, and they set out a plan to silence him. A lot of the moodiness in the film comes from dark, ambient soundtrack, similar to the films of Michael Mann (Collateral, Miami Vice, Heat, etc). Animal Kingdom has great acting all around, but the standout performance comes from Ben Mendelsohn (who plays the eldest brother and Josh’s uncle). Fans of movies like The Last Wave and Walkabout will surely enjoy this.
I wouldn’t call Ironman 2 bad or anything like that, but I sure found it disappointing. I mean at the end of the day, you wont feel like you’ve wasted your money. You’ll be entertained. But if you allow yourself to get caught up in the hype of “the big sequel” as well as this new renaissance of comic book-based movies, chances are you’re going to be disappointed. I sure was. In the latest Ironman movie, not only does Tony Stark do battle with the crimson dynamo/whiplash hybrid played by Mickey Rourke, but we also delve a little deeper in to Tony Stark’s personal life like his battle with alcoholism, his relationship with his father, and the damage the ironman suit is doing to his body. My main issue with this movie was that it had WAY too campy parts, and too much corny humor. I’m not one of these people who hold these new “dark” comic book movies up on a pedestal (dark knight, sin city, history of violence, etc), and think all further superhero movies should follow suit. The first ironman had its share of funny moments, so it’s not like I wasn’t expecting the same from the sequel. But it was just a bit much in this one. The worst example of this is the birthday party scene, which treads very closely to that awful club scene in Spiderman 3, where peter parker does that cringeworthy sing & dance routine. The next problem was that it seemed like more people in this film were doing that fast, witty, Robert Downey Jr-ish speak. That type of delivery works when its JUST Robert Downey Jr., but when half of the cast is talking like him, it gets annoying. And Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance as Nick Fury in this movie was a too long, because apparently Samuel L cant go 2 minutes of acting without slipping out of character and just acting like himself. And the final fight scene, is a HUGE letdown. All 90 seconds of it. Even with all that said, there are still some positive things about the movie. Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke give good performances. Also, if you’re as excited about the Avengers movie as I am, there are a couple of nice connections to the other Avengers. Anyway, I don’t know why I’m even writing all of this, because everyone saw the movie, and it made a shitload of money, so whatever. But it still could have been better.
After watching the HORRIBLE movie; 'Black & White; (which also starred Mike Tyson), i was almost certain that director James Toback had lost it. He went from directing one of Harvey Keitel’s best performances in 'Fingers' to making one of the worst movies ever. In fact, i had no idea Toback directed 'Tyson' until the surprise Q & A he gave before the screening i went to. Watching 'Tyson' in a crowded theater made it even MORE sad than it already was. In this documentary, Mike Tyson lets us in on many personal issues ranging from; his depression, almost getting killed as a kid, being taken advantage of, and his time in prison. However, all through out the movie all i heard from in the theater was laughter. I swear, if you closed your eyes and listened to the audience, you'd think they were watching a comedy. I guess its come to the point in Mike Tyson’s life that even when he’s at his most personal, no one can take him seriously. James Toback’s approach to this autobiography was slightly different than most documentaries. Instead of the Errol Morris-like face-to-face interview format like in “The Thin Blue Line”, Toback sat behind Tyson, asking a series of questions, similar to the psychiatrist/patient relationship. This type of questioning clearly worked, because Tyson really opened up. The most heartbreaking scene in the movie is the footage of his final post-fight interview, where loses to a sub-par fighter, and then proceeds to apologize to his fans for his performance. Fans of “Fat City”, “Raging Bull”, “Beyond the mat” and “The Wrestler” will love this.
It was a breath of fresh air to get a straight up thriller from a country like Sweden as opposed to the typical “art” films that we usually get over here. It’s hard to believe that the country most famous for Ingmar Bergman produced this much talked about film full of motorcycle chases, explosions, sex and violence. The film starts with the trial of protagonist and journalist; Mikael Blomkvist who’s been sentenced to a short prison term for the defamation a big time CEO. Before Blomkvist starts his prison sentence, he’s hired by a wealthy CEO to find out who murdered his 16 year old niece almost 40 years ago. The CEO hires Blomkvist for the job not only because of his journalistic skills, but as it turns out Blomkvist has a connection to the CEO’s dead niece. At the same time, as it turns out a young punk/goth female by the name of Lisbeth has been hacking in to Blomkvist’s computer remotely for months out of curiosity. When Lisbeth finally pieces together what he’s investigating, she contacts him, the two link-up and form an oddball team who work together to try and uncover this 40 year older murder. Early on in the film we learn that not only does Lisbeth have emotional and anger problems, but she’s also been to jail. We’re able to piece together that she was abused as a child, which may explain why she so emotionally attached to the murder mystery case of a young girl. I went in to this with no expectations, but ended up seeing it twice. The film is very well paced, and you don’t even realize that it’s well over 2 hours long. I imagine anyone who’s a fan of anything from the Jason Bourne movies to later Roman Polanski like; Frantic and the Ninth Gate will most definitely enjoy this. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is part of a trilogy, with the next 2 movies to be released by the end of this year. I will say that the other 2 parts don’t look nearly as good, but I’ll still give ‘em a shot. And yes, you guessed it, there’s already an American remake in the in the works, so I suggest seeing the original before the inevitable shortened 110 minute, PG-13 version.
We all know the behind the scenes stories surrounding certain horror & Halloween-themed movies like The Twilight Zone (a freak helicopter stunt caused the death of Vic Morrow and 2 child actors), The Exorcist (William Friedkin would constantly do dick-ish things on set to keep his cast and crew on edge) & Brandon Lee's death on the set of The Crow. But those aren't the only shocking and/or disastrous production stories surround horror films. Lets take a look at a few more...
THE BROOD: David Cronenberg's crazy-ass first wife
Interviewer:Pretty widely documented as a very personal film, a reflection of a difficult divorce, The Brood feels the most bitter of your films to me.
David Cronenberg:Yes, it's the only movie that I've done that has no humour in it. I can't recall one joke--I'll have to look at it again to be sure, but no, it was a very personal film in a way that most of mine aren't.
David Cronenberg is kind of downplaying things a bit in this interview excerpt. Before the filming of The Brood, a horror movie that partially deals with a man's wife going off to be treated by a radical psychiatrist in a cult-like environment, Cronenberg was going through an unusual divorce/custody battle with his first wife. In fact, what was going on with his wife kind of reflected some of the plot in The Brood. The former Mrs. Cronenberg got involved with a religious cult and wanted to take their daughter with her on a permanent retreat. In an effort to stop that, David had to rush to his daughter's school so he could get to her first and essentially "kidnap" his daughter from his wife. This kind of makes The Brood semi-autobiographical.
CLOWNHOUSE: The term "CinePHILE" takes on a whole new meaning...
Director Victor Salva's creepy mugshot
Imagine you're a young kid about to act in your first horror movie. Even though it's just a movie there's still a lot of pressure. You don't wanna mess up and you're filming scenes where crazy clowns are chasing you through the woods trying to kill you. But imagine if when the director (Victor Salva) yelled "cut", the REAL horror was just beginning because you were being molested by the very same director. The late 80's horror movie Clownhouse will always be infamous for the rape case surrounding it. Before Victor Salva blessed us all with the Jeepers Creepers saga, he was a convicted sex offender that served a little over a year in prison. After his release, his friend/mentor Francis Ford Coppola kinda took him under his wing and Salva went on to eventually direct Powder (a film some look at as a double-meaning for pro-pedophilia) which was produced by a subdivision of Disney. People always find it odd that Disney hired David Lynch to direct a movie (the straight story) yet a lot of people don't even realize Disney hired a convicted sex offender before him. That's weird. Clownhouse actually isn't bad. It came out during the minor "creepy clown explosion" of the late 80'-early 90's (clown house, IT, killer klowns from outerspace, etc). I remember watching it on HBO in the 4th grade and being scared. And now that I'm older and know all the stuff that went on behind the scenes, it just adds an extra level of creepiness...
THE SHINING: Stanley Kubrick is a dick to Shelley Duvall
Stanley Kubrick and Shelley Duvall argue on the set of 'The Shining'
I was in this phase a few months ago when I was watching Robert Altman's 3 Women a lot. On the commentary track Altman admits to being mean to Shelley Duvall during a lot of their collaborations. When I heard this I thought about all the shit she went through working with the great Stanley Kubrick during the filming of The Shining. What is it with great directors always fucking with her? Obviously I don't know Shelly Duvall personally, but i know enough from watching her in movies & interviews that she gives off the vibe of a Kindergarten teacher. Why would you yell at someone like her? Being on the set of The Shining was hell for her. Stanley Kubrick yells "ACTION" and Jack Nicholson is chasing you through a hotel with an axe. Then he yells "CUT" and he starts belittling you in front of the crew (I find directors manipulating their actors to get a good performances to be a little corny)...
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU: "Heart Of Darkness Part Two"
John Frankenheimer (Director):I will never work with Val Kilmer again
David Thewlis on working with Marlon Brando: he would be in the middle of a scene and suddenly he'd be picking up police messages and would repeat, 'There's a robbery at Woolworths'
Marlon Brando to Val Kilmer:You're confusing your talents with the size of your paycheck
OK so maybe this isn't a horror movie, but it involves freaks, mutants and monsters. Close enough. It was almost like Marlon Brando brought the aura of Apocalypse Now with him to the set of The Island Dr. Moreau. Both movies went through major production problems yet the main difference is that one movie (apocalypse) turned out to be a classic while the other turned out to be pretty much the opposite. The original director, Richard Stanley, was fired and replaced by John Frankenheimer who didn't get along with Val Kilmer (like a lot of directors), Marlon Brandon was just as eccentric as he was on the disastrous set of Apocalypse Now and once the film was wrapped, co-star David Thewlis distanced himself from the movie. Richard Stanley also tried to sabotage the production once he was fired.
But the funny thing about all of this is that let's say there were no production problems and everyone got along. The movie would have still been pretty bad (at least that's how I see it). The one positive thing that came from this disaster is that it spawned one of the greatest reccurring characters on Southpark (Dr. Mephisto)...
ERASHERHEAD: David Lynch's fear of fatherhood and another connection to David Cronenberg
David & Jennifer Lynch on the set of 'Eraserhead'
David Cronenberg & David Lynch are often compared to each other. After reading a few books on both Cronenberg (cronenberg on cronenberg, david cronenberg interviews, the cinema of david cronenberg) and Lynch (lynch on lynch, beautiful dark, david lynch interview), I've come to learn that the comparison really stems from Lost Highway (Lynch) and Crash (Cronenberg). Both films involve elements of existentialism, fetishism, violence, sex, cars, and they were both released in theaters around the same time. Naturally Lynch & Cronenberg have other similarities in their filmmaking styles as they've worked with some of the same actors (Jeremy Irons & Naomi Watts), both of their films are sometimes surreal, and they've both adapted cult-ish books. But Lost Highway & Crash will always be their strongest connection. ...Until now.
For two directors who are always compared to each other, I'm surprised I've never read anyone make a connection between Eraserhead (Lynch) and The Brood (Cronenberg). Both films are warped, twisted, semi-autobiographical tales about the fears that sometimes come along with fatherhood. We already discussed The Brood's connection to Cronenberg's real life, but the story of Eraserhead is in the same ballpark. A few years before the famous midnight movie was made, David Lynch became a father. At the time of his daughter's birth he was broke, living in a bad part of Philadelphia and just wasn't ready to start a family. That's essentially what Eraserhead is about - A man ("Henry") forced in to marriage & fatherhood after getting his girlfriend pregnant.
I've been watching this movie for YEARS and just recently found out that some of the events in the film are based on real murders. Claire Denis' often forgotten about mid-90's film 'I Cant Sleep' takes on a whole new meaning now that I know this. I guess because here in America we have enough trouble keeping track of our own serial killers that we don't realize the same shit is going on in other countries (part of 'I Cant Sleep' was based on a real french serial killer). I still feel like this is something I should've known, given all the random info I know about Claire Denis and her work. It just goes to show how much I pay attention (or don't pay attention in this case). Denis' early-mid 90's work is becoming more and more obscure in the U.S. There's still no DVD release of 'No Fear No Die' or 'U.S. Go Home' and the U.S. DVD of 'I Cant Sleep' has gone out of print (thankfully I own it).
'I Cant Sleep' is an underrated movie that got lost in the midst of so many other independent, multi-character, multicultural, similarly structured films of the mid-90's. Not that it has anything to do with 'Pulp Fiction' (a movie that Claire Denis once refereed to as "verbal diarrhea"), but it still came out at the HEIGHT of that period in the 90's when every other independent movie seemed to be one of those multi-character/interwoven plot films like Jarmusch' 'Night On Earth' ('92), Haneke's '71 Fragments' ('94), 'Go' ('95), '2 Days In The Valley' ('96) and plenty more.
'I Cant Sleep' is set in Paris in the midst of a serial killers rampage. It's centered around 3 characters who briefly connect or cross paths with one another:
"Camille"
Camille is a quiet, somewhat shy, gay, soft spoken drag queen. And he's also an unsuspecting serial killer who targets old women (the newspapers have dubbed him "The Granny Killer"). This was the first movie Richard Courcet ever appeared in. Non-professional actors can be a gamble sometimes and even though his performance may be slightly rough around the edges, he gives off a perfectly creepy vibe as the quiet guy you'd wanna watch out for.
Like I mentioned at the beginning, the character of Camille and the murders he commits are based on real life serial Killer Theirry Paulin, who also performed as a drag queen and murdered elderly women
the real killer, Theirry Paulin,
performing in drag (1989)
Richard Courcet performing in drag
in 'I Cant Sleep' (1994)
real news article on Paulin
fake news article on the murders
Camille has committed
"Theo"
Theo is Camille's 1/2 brother. Even though they aren't close, they still see each other on a regular basis (Camille often crashes at his brothers apartment). Theo doesn't seem to approve of his brother's life style and wants nothing to do with him (and has no idea, like everyone else, that he's a serial killer), yet they're both performers/entertainers. Camille being a drag performer, while Theo is a violinist. Denis sets up a few shots (some subtle & some not-so subtle) to symbolize their relationship with each other...
at the beginning of the movie Claire Denis introduces the 2 brothers separated by a wall which is a more than obvious metaphor
when Camille finally admits to the killings and his family has to come down to the police station, Theo makes a profound statement about his brother. In true Alex Descas fashion, he plays this role with the same calmness and composure that anyone familiar with his work should expect.
"Daiga"
Daiga, a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to Paris with dreams of becoming an actress, is essentially the "main character" who kind of plays the role of a voyeur. After having her dreams of being an actress shattered, she ends up working at the hotel where Camille lives. Before realizing that he's is the serial killer everyone's talking about on the news, she grows fascinated and starts to follow him. She eventually realizes who Camille really is after seeing a police sketch of the suspected serial killer...
the police sketch from 'I Cant Sleep' that catches Daiga's attention
Claire Denis made 'I Cant Sleep' and 'U.S. Go Home' in the same year. Like I've pointed out in just about all of my blogs about her (most recently 'Friday Night'), almost all of her films have a relationship, connection or a similar shot with one another. 'Friday Night' and 'Beau Travail' are connected through similar cinematography. 'U.S. Go Home' is like a prequel to 'Nenette & Boni' (the 2 lead actors in both films play brother and sister in both movies). 'I Cant Sleep' has a similar vibe to 'U.S. Go Home' and even features some of the exact same shots...
'U.S. Go Home' (1994)
'I Cant Sleep' (1994)
The most interesting connection that the 3 main characters have with one another is that they're all "foreign"/non-Parisians. Daiga is from Lithuania and Camille & Theo are from an immigrant family (their mother is from the Caribbean). 'I Cant Sleep' is essentially an "outsiders" view of Paris (something Claire Denis often explores). At no point do we see Paris through the eyes of a native "Parisian". Even the supporting characters are made up of mostly eastern Europeans (Daiga's family & associates) or people of Caribbean/African descent (Theo & Camille's family & friends).
'I Cant Sleep'
And on a much sadder note, I'd like to say rest in piece to Katerina Golubeva (the actress who plays 'Daiga' in 'I Cant Sleep'). She died at the age of 44 this past august. Her filmography may not be that extensive, but she co-starred in one of my all time favorite movies; 'The Intruder' (also directed by Claire Denis) as well as other great modern french films like 'Pola X' (directed by her partner 'Leos Carax'), the highly debated about '29 Palms' and the Russian film '977'. Naturally I hold any actor that's part of a circle of people consisting of Claire Denis, Leos Carax and Bruno Dumont near to my heart as these are films that I love very much and watch all the time. Her face was a regular fixture on my TV screen for many years. And she was more than just a good actress. She seemed to be one of the few women that was very secure and confident about her body and filming candid sex scenes on film (pola x and 29 palms). Its a shame. She was so beautiful and died way too young. If you aren't familiar with her work you should get familiar...
Whether you're secure or not, 'Water Lilies' is kind of a dangerous movie to watch. It's about curiosity and discovery among a group of high school teenagers (both gay & straight) and at times it can get a little TOO sexual. It invokes the spirit of everything from 'I am Curious' to 'A Nous Amours' or any other (mostly European) film that shows underage, pouty, promiscuous teen girls. 'Water Lilies' is the story of a love triangle (or "love SQUARE" if you wanna get technical about it) between 4 high school teens: "Marie" (a shy unpopular lesbian), "Anne" (another unpopular teen who's also Marie's best friend), "Floriane" (a popular, attractive girl and captain of the swim team with a reputation for sleeping around) and "Francois" (one of the popular kids like Floriane and the only boy in the scenario). Marie is in love with Floriane. Floriane has feelings for both Marie & Francois. And Francois has a secret crush on Anne, but is kind of in a relationship with Floriane. Its like an entire R-rated season of saved by the bell captured in a 2 hour movie. Each of the main characters in 'Water Lilies' almost represents a famous character from past coming of age films that deal with the same basic plot...
Marie is a somewhat depressed
teen coming to terms with her
sexuality and has a crush on a
popular (straight) teen in 'Water
Lilies' (2008)
Just like Marie, Cam is also a
depressed high school teen with a
crush on one of the popular kids who's
also straight in 'Wild Tigers I have
Known' (2007).
The 2 actors even kind of look
like each other
Floriane (water lilies) & Suzanne
(a nous amour) are attractive,
detached, sexually open high school
girls
Suzanne in Maurice Pialat's
'A Nos Amours' (1983)
the relationship between Anne
& Francois is very similar to Dawn &
Brandon in 'Welcome To The
Dollhouse' (1996)...
In both films, Francois (water lilies) &
Brandon (dollhouse) are popular,
while Anne (water lilies) & Dawn
(dollhouse) are unpopular, so their
relationships are secret
I enjoyed this film very much. The only reason I rented it was because it co-starred one of the actresses from 'House Of Tolerance' (Adele Haenele), but it turned out to be a great movie. I'm always a fan of a good coming of age film that shows youth as the complex human beings that they really are. 'Water Lilies' has quite a few touching and/or heart warming scenes (Floriane setting the record straight about her so-called sexual reputation to Marie and the scene towards the end when Marie and Anne make up after fighting with each other are just a few stand out moments).
My one complaint about 'Water Lilies' is that there's a lot of obvious sexual innuendos or scenes that show teenage girls as sexual objects that I don't think are always necessary. Like I said earlier, watching this movie could seriously make someone feel uncomfortable (especially if you're a man). There's all these scenes of the girls showering together, barely clothed or the one scene where Floriane is eating the banana. Sometimes its like i wanna ask the director (who is a woman); "are you making a movie about the sexual exploration of young teens? or are you trying to make these young girls out to look sexy for the audience?"
If you look at 'Water Lilies' a certain way, it kinda plays in to that "hot lesbian fantasy" that we discussed in "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown". But this film takes it to a whole other level because unlike all the movies we touched on in that write-up (persona, black swan, mulholland drive, 3 women, la ceramonie, etc), the girls in 'Water Lilies' are GIRLS. Children. You gotta be careful with that. When I was searching the net for images to use in this blog almost every other image result was one of the scenes where Marie and Floriane kiss. Obviously this means that an image of 2 underage girls is a popular search on google. Not very surprising, but at the same time that kinda says something about our society doesn't it?
'water lilies' (2007)
'persona' (1966)
'water lilies'
'black swan' (2010)
even this promotional picture for the
movie looks like it was inspired by
images from 'Persona'
'Persona'
'Water Lilies' also features a really great soundtrack by French producer Para One...
