Dog Pound

So, this will probably my last post. It is 8 :20 and I am already at school, I feel like I fell from my bed, but whatever.

I woke up this morning an felt like I forgot to talk about a recent Canadian movie. So, I made some researchs, and BAM ! Now I remember : Dog Pound, directed by Kim Chapiron. First, I thought it was a coproduction between France and England, consideering that Kim Chapiron is a french director, and Ludivine Sagnier’s boyfriend.

Anyway, « Dog Pound », released in theaters in 2010 takes place in a youth detention center named Enola Vale, in the United States, where we follow the first steps of three characters : Butch, Davis and Angel.

Of course, the other young people that are already in the detention center are not angels. And some day, Butch is attacked by a group of jerks, who start to steal him his shoes, then to punch him and to make him suffer. Of course, Butch finally takes his revenge, but some other events makes the situation getting worse, to the point of no return.

Even if this is a really violent film, I actually loved the way Kim Chapiron treated youth and the everyday life of young defenders. The story is never pathetic or overrated, this is always very realistic, with the accurate tone to treat this stange period during which each young boy in this detention center has, more or less, the choice of redemption, or sinking deeper and deeper in violence and lawlessness.

A dog pound is the place where you put abandonned dogs that nobody wants, and this is probably one of the dominant sensations of this film. Indeed, we feel, in the background, that many of these teenagers are completely abandonned to themselves, because at some point of their lives, they made bad choices and their family took them away.

For « Dog Pound », Kim Chapiron receiver the award of the Best New Diector of Narrative Movie in Tribeca Film Festival in New York in 2010.

Who saw this movie ? Did you like it ?

Last but not least...

Since the beggining of this blog, I only talked about French Canadian cinema, because I thought I didn’t know any English Canadian movies. Actually, this is because most English Canadian movies are often associated with American movies. Indeed, many canadian directors succeeded in beeing famous in Hollywood, such as Armenian director Atom Egoyan, who directed « The Adjuster », in 1991, « Exotica » in 1994 or « Ararat » in 2002. We can also talk about the really famous David Cronenberg, known for « The Fly » in 1986, « A History of Violence » in 2005 or the very recent « Cosmopolis » presented in this year Cannes Film Festival, with the super hot Robert Pattinson. (ROOOOOOOOOOOOOB!)

But one of the most famous is certainly James Cameron, who made the two masterpieces « Titanic » and « Avatar ».

Moreover, we shouldn’t forget that many actors, even if they started their career in Los Angeles, are from Canada, such as Keanu Reeves, Kiefer Sutherland, Michael J.Fox or Jim Carrey !

So, after all this information, I can notice that maybe if I didn’t know any English Canadian movies, this is because they cannot cross borders, and are completely exceeded by their American neighbours. Maybe this is also because the French Canadian culture is closer to the European culture, whereas English Canada really looks like America.

Nevertheless, it is important to know that France has recently developed some conventions to encourage French-Canadian coproductions, both in cinema and animation. Indeed, there is a real expertise in animation and videogames in Canada, and this is really interesting for French producers and directors to work with Canadian producers. Some examples : the two cartoons « The mysteries of Alfred » or « Totally Spies ». Does any of you know some other Canadian movies ? Do you want, as future producers, to coproduce with Canada ?

The Barbarian Invasions

Today, I would like to introduce another Canadian movie, that is actually a Franco-Canadian coproduction :  The Barbarian Invasions.

This is a 2003 comedy-drama film, directed by Denys Arcand. This is actually the second film of a triptych directed by Denys Arcand, with "The Decline of the American Empire" in 1986, and "Days of Darkness" in 2007, which was chosen to close the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

So, "The Barbarian Invasion" narrates the story of Rémy, who is fighting against cancer. His ex-wife Louise asks their son Sebastien in an emergency to come back from London to Canada to visit his father. Sebastien (Stéphane Rousseau), who barely had any contact with his father for years, hesitates a little bit, before finally agreeing and coming with his French fiancée.

As soon as he arrives, he meets all the doctors to know exactly and understand his father’s health. In Canada, Health Services can be a little deficient, just like in the USA, depending a lot on your complementary health insurance, itself depending on your earnings. So, Sebastien, who had a successfull career in England, uses his power, relations and influence to overcome this unfair and discriminant health system, in order to provide his father with the best care and a little bit of happiness.

In the meantime, all his friends, family and ex-lovers come to visit Remy, knowing that he is about to live his last days. They all move into the cottage where the first film took place, and discuss what changed during these seventeen years, what they all became, did they all succeed to deal with their past problems and start to be happy and enjoy life… In a very comic way, they also talk about philosphy and past sexual exploits, in order to accompany Rémy in these last days with the best memories of his life, and make him smile until death.

I remember that this movie was such a shock. I really loved it, being both amusing and tragic. All the characters are extremely appealing, each one participating, in his own way, to helping Rémy to feel better and to overcome his fear of pain and death.

The film won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress Award for Marie-Josée Croze, who plays Nathalie. It also won the 2004 César Award for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

Has anyone seen it ? What did you think about it ?

Some news from Denis Villeneuve

Hi guys,

After the last article about « Incendies », it is time to give a little update about Denis Villeneuve. You may have heard that he was working on a new movie, but Denis Villeneuve actually has two movies in development. The first one is titled « Prisoners ». In this thriller, the main character named Keller and played by Hugh Jackman is a good father that decides to pursue the man he thinks is his daughter’s kidnapper. 

For some unknown reason, the shooting is postponed to next year. That is probably the reason why Denis Villeneuve is working on a second project, named « An Enemy », with Jake Gyllenhaal. This is an adaptation from the novel « The Other Like Me», by Jose Saramago, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. The main character, M. Alfonso, is a History teacher, in the middle of a huge depression after his divorce. In order to overcome the restless nights, one of his colleagues suggests that he rent a special movie. He watches it, and understands that the main character is no one but himself, five years ago. He can no longer sleep, and decides to go to look for himself… So, Denis Villeneuve seems to like these kind of twisted stories, and these two projects with major sexy actors like Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are good omens. 

I’ve also heard that our new Frenchie actress Mélanie Laurent joined the cast as Gyllenhaal’s mistress. As we can see in the first pictures from the shooting, that just started in Toronto, Jake has a nice biker look, with a big beard and a leather jacket. We do not have a release date yet, but we can hope to see it in the first mid-2013.

Borderline

Hi everyone,

Today, I would like to introduce a new Canadian film: Borderline, which was directed by Lyne Charlebois in 2008. This film, adapted from the two books « Borderline » and « La Brèche », written by Marie-Sissi Labrèche (what a f****** name), is the story of Kiki, played by Isabelle Blais, a thirty-year-old woman, that suffers from borderline troubles. 

As you might know, borderline people suffer from a personality disorder that is associated with bipolar troubles. It means that people can be very sad, very depressed one minute, and the next minute, they could do anything, they are over-excited, and overly motivated about everything. So, « Borderline » explores the everyday life of this woman, Kiki, who has some troubles dealing with this disease, making her go deeper in a nonsensical relationship with a married man, having extreme behavior with many people, drinking too much, having too much sex with strangers, etc. Most of all, she tries to deal with a heavy past: her depressed mother that spent a part of her life in a psychiatric hospital, her father that she never knew, her aging grandmother that will soon no longer be there … With a lot of humor and emotion, Lyne Charlebois succeeds in following this lost young woman, creating an appealing character, who tries so hard to love herself. The movie won a lot of awards in France and Canada, and is, so far, the only feature film of Lyne Charlebois, who is mostly known as an advertising and videoclip director. Does anyone know this movie? What did you think about it?

Oh Cannes...ada!

Hello guys,

So, I’ve come back from Cannes, where I spent six amazing days, trying to discover and to understand these two very special weeks, dedicated to cinema, famous actors, awesome parties and heartless bouncers. But let’s focus on Xavier Dolan, of course, who was in the race for his new feature film « Laurence Anyways », selected in « Un certain regard ».

 

Ok, this tuxedo is waaaaaaaay too tight...

So, I’m coming in the theater with all my friends, all wearing our best dresses, high heels and tuxedos… And here we go for 2 hours and forty minutes. « Laurence Anyways » tells the story of a man named Laurence, who is in a relationship with a woman named Frederique, played by the amazing Suzanne Clement. Suddenly, Laurence confesses to Fred that he can no longer be a man. Inside, he is a woman, and he always felt like one. So, very naturally, Laurence starts to wear dresses and makeup, goes to work as usual, and faces everyone’s reaction with strength and bravery.

The film is composed with a lot of sequences similar to music clips, using music masterpieces such as "Fade to Grey" by Visage, "A New Error" by Moderat, or "The Chauffeur" by Duran Duran.

 

 

Over-aestheticized, Dolan’s last movie may discourage more than one, because he keeps going on beautiful slow-motion images, like in « Heartbeats ». Lovers of the genre will appreciate it, but for the others, these almost three hours will probably be too long.

I was a bit disappointed at first, but after having listened to the original soundtrack of the movie, and thought about it, I think that Xavier Dolan just tried to go deeper than he did in his previous movies, and took risks. « Laurence Anyways » may need a second view to be appreciated at its true value.

C.R.A.Z.Y

For this new article, I would like to introduce a film that I saw a few years ago, which might be one of the most famous Quebec films. I am talking about C.R.A.Z.Y, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée in 2005.

So, C.R.A.Z.Y tells the story of a 15-year-old boy named Zac, who is the 4th boy of a five child family. The movie takes place in the 1960s and the 1970s in Quebec, between a conservative father names Gervais, and a very understanding mother named Laurianne.

Zac is a gay boy that tries to define himself, stuck between, his homosexual desires and his absolute admiration for his father.

The beginning of the movie shows how very early, Zac had some behavior that showed that he might preferred boys to girls. For example, at the age of 6, his mother gives Zac at his request, a baby carriage. But his father disagrees and says that playing with this would “turn him into a fairy”. The whole film shows how Zac tries to deal with his homosexuality, trying to repress it and dating women.

I really loved the 70s atmosphere, the incomprehensible Quebecker accent and expressions, the 70s haircuts and bellbottom pants. I also loved the young actor Marc André Grondin, who plays Zac, and who has now turned into a pretty handsome man, that you might have seen in “Bus Palladium”, two years ago.

Just to add a few words about the director, Jean-Marc Vallée directed the recent “Café de Flore” with Vanessa Paradis, which I haven’t seen.

So, what did you think about C.R.A.Z.Y ? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Has anyone seen “Café de Flore”?

Denis Villeneuve and Incendie

Hey guys,

Today, I would like to talk about another Canadian director: Denis Villeneuve.

Denis Villeneuve did not direct a lot of films. He started in 1998 with “Un 31 août sur la Terre”, or An August 31st on Earth, and then directed Maeström in 2000, and Polytechnique in 2009. But he is mostly famous for his last film “Incendies”, adapted from the very famous Wajdi Mouawad drama.

I am extremely surprised to know that this movie has only had about 300,000 entries in France, because I actually loved this movie, it might be my favourite film of 2011, and it has been considered as one of the ten best films of 2011 by the New York Times.

The film tells the story of a middle-eastern Christian woman named Nawal, who dies after a stroke at the swimming pool. In her final requests, she asks her son Simon and her daughter Jeanne to go back to Lebanon, where she comes from, to find their lost father and brother.

The movie follows Jeanne’s journey in Lebanon, where she tries to understand what her mother’s life was like twenty years before, and why she has a hidden brother and a lost father.

The movie contains a lot of flashbacks that explore Nawal’s past during the Lebanese civil war, when Muslims and Christians were fighting.

I really loved the way that the story and its resolution are progressively distilled in the film. It both takes the viewer to the past, with Nawal, and explores the present, with Jeanne and Simon. Villeneuve succeeds in making us being closer and closer to each of the characters, to get attached to them, and when the twist arrives at the end of the film, there is a real emotional discharge that we have to face.

I know that many of the people who had read the play or seen it staged by Wajdi Mouawad were a bit disappointed by Denis Villeneuve’s film. It made me want to read the play as soon as possible (which I haven’t done yet) and, if I am lucky, to see Mouawad’s staging when it is rescheduled.

So, what did you think of this movie? Did some of you read the play before or after having seen the film?

Xavier Dolan is back!

Hello everyone.

For this first post on a blog since my 14 years old, I am going to talk to one of the best discoveries of the canadian cinema of these last years : Xavier Dolan.

I know some of you hated his last film, Les Amours Imaginaires, but we will come back on this topic later.

Today, I would like to introduce some news about Dolan, who’s new movie, Laurence Anyways is strongly sensed to be presented on Cannes’ festival, in may.

Let’s remember that Xavier Dolan had already presented Les Amours Imaginaires in 2010 in the category « Un certain regard », and in 2009, his first film J’ai tué ma mère presented at « La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs » obtained three prices.

Will Laurence Anyways be selected in the official competition ? It is too early to know, but a first teaser is available on the internet since the beggining of the week. In this new story written by our favorite canadian hipster, Melvil Poupaud (grrrrr !) is playing a man who wants to become a woman… Nathalie Baye is playing Melvil Poupaud’s mother, who will have to accept this sexual transformation, and see his son becoming his daughter…

Even if this teaser is, in my opinion, way too long (three minutes), and tells too much of the story, this is still a good overview of Xavier Dolan’s talents.

Let’s hope that Thierry Frémaux will soon announce the selection of the film in this 2012 official selection, chaired by Nanni Moretti.

So, what do you think about these first images, and do you expect this Dolan's new masterpiece as much as I do?