Les Chansons d'Amour

Where “Umbrellas of Cherbourg” had long in our hearts become an iconic classic, “Love Songs” by the acclaimed director Christophe Honore is a modern take on romance and a play on the fluidity of desire and sexual expression entangled with strong emotions and difficulties in communicating them. Despite Christophe Honore’s fame for often shockingly and aggressively sexual scenes in “Ma Mere” or turns to darker side of human psyche in “The Beautiful Person,” this film offers the viewer a fresh perspective on Honore’s work. 

“Love Songs,” although still sensually edgy, is tender, sad and full of pure romantic magic. Its operetta quality of combining spoken dialogues with singing scenes keeps the viewer guessing and the music and songs by Alex Beaupain are a treat in itself! Three French films in a row for me…four including my recent trip to the movie theater for Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”…so many beautiful vistas of Parisian Streets that I am on a verge of booking a trip to the city of romance any second now! But I will not let any more details out. Enjoy the movie if not for anything then for the divine cast of Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni and Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet! Honore favors this cast given that every one of these actors has been featured in “The Beautiful Person” as well. 

Here is the song that truly touched me:

TRANSLATION:

The same winter sun

The same snapping twigs

Icy fingertips

Frost on the railings

The same smell of soil

Of earth gone to earth

It’ll all be there

Except for you

The Pepiniere Park at the week’s end

One more hour, one more hour if that

One more hour before nightfall

The same temperature

Down to freezing point

Melancholy beasts

At the gates of the zoo

The same hurried parents,

Their children wrapped up warm

It’ll all be there

It’ll all be there

Except for you

The Pepiniere Park at the week’s end

One more hour, one more hour if that

One more hour before nightfall

Even if I stay

And walk where we walked

Follow the same paths

At the same time of day

Even if I’m the same

Even if I’m beautiful

It’ll all be there

It’ll all be there

Except for you

The Pepiniere Park at the week’s end

One more hour, one more hour if that

One more hour before nightfall

Night will fall

And then

Nothing

The trailer does not do this movie justice, reducing it to stereotypical play on French erotic liberation whereas "Love Songs" is much deeper, touching on the universal themes of love, loss and human kindness:

The Beautiful Person

I am enamored with the work of Christophe Honore, judging by my captivation with his films “Ma Mere” and “La Belle Personne.” “The Beautiful Person” loosely adapted from the risqué 17^th century novel “La Princesse de Cleves” by Madame de La Fayette lets the camera zoom in on a modern day Parisian youth entangled by amorous liaisons in the prestigious High School. The viewer is introduced to Junie, a transfer student (Lea Seydoux) who's tragic air and mystery capture the hearts of not only her classmate Otto (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) but also her amorous Italian teacher, Mr. Nemour (Louis Garrel). Although the plot of the film falls short on substance, the clandestine emotions explored are intoxicating, giving the viewer a tingling reminiscent feeling of craving for the absolute possession in love...all defying fervor that is only palatable at the tender age of sixteen-seventeen…

Despite its technical shortcomings, “The Beautiful Person” is an intriguing film touching on the essence of adolescent infatuation. Young love – infinite, pure, sincere, sharp as a blade and fragile to the touch. The film screams of eternal state of human loneliness because no romantic love is absolute. One of the focal monologues in the film sets the mood:

JUNIE to MR. NEMOUR:

I am not ashamed to talk frankly.

I thought that’s one thing you liked about me…my openness.

Imagining you could no longer love me is far worse for me

Than what you call “the rules” I set for myself.

I know we are two people, and so like anyone, we could be together.

But for how long?

If we’re two ordinary people, how long will our love last?

Eternal love does not exist, not even in books.

So loving means for a finite time.

There’d be no miracle for us, we’re no different to anyone else.

The film also features a song “Comme La Pluie” performed by Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, which captures the essence of the film’s love for suffering and suffering for love:

TRANSLATION:

Sometimes we lack the rain

The storm gathers more pace

To cry out in our pain

These words throw in your face

Sometimes we lack the rain

As in the sun we die

From its heat we refrain

When love has gone away

Sometimes we strive in vain

To fight I would prefer

To beat her, give her pain

So no one would want her

Sometimes we strive in vain

Our arms they do betray

When love we would retain

Like sand, just slips away

Sometimes sobs we contain

Yet outpours have more class

A few tears would explain

But that’s too much, alas

Sometimes sobs we contain…

Sometimes the day’s a strain

The nights better express

Stars like crosses do ordain

A sky in mourning just for us

Sometimes the day’s a strain

The night is long to come

When it falls you feel the pain

…of every starry dome

TRAILER:

Fascinating Lina Milovich

I am hypnotized by this song...its choreography, setting and overall musical and visual presentation:

Ma Mère

«In an ideal world, a pure friendship would unite us. 
 But there is no ideal world»

To my surprise Cristophe Honore's «Ma Mère» only got 3.7/10 rating on Rotten Tomatoes as well as 3 star rating on Netflix. I cannot disagree more. Yes, we can criticize to no end how the movie is full of deranged explicit sexual scenes and incest and how immoral it is – but we are, thus, not judging the film as an art form, expressing an idea and doing it well, but integrating it into our moral code making us blind to unbiased criticism. The movie is exceptional – brilliant for the exact rawness that it is judged for. «Ma Mère» is supposed to raise anger, desperation and a certain sense of voyeristic guilt. Just like the characters are voyeurs of their own orgies so are we of this film. But one must look past the sexual content of this film to discover its true meaning – that of human desperation in the face of loss. The loss of husband to an accident, an abandoned child craving, begging for his mother's love and attention. At the end, the movie is not about the animal magnetism of the human libido but the helplessness of the human nature in the face of life and its difficulties, of everpresent universal loneliness. The servility with which the family sinks to sexual annihilation is the only source of liberation in the collapse, lack of ideals and aspirations. The critics have to steer away for once from their own meters of morality and see the film as a sole manifestation of obsession as well as peace, selfishness as well as selflessness, disfunction as well as psychological core, atheism and religious fanaticism, chaos and order. 

Tom Ford Documentary

An interesting article featuring multiple quotes from Tom Ford in regards to his upcoming documentary "Visionaries: Tom Ford" premiering 10 p.m. June 24th on Oprah Winfrey Network:

http://racked.com/archives/2011/05/31/tom-ford-documentary.php

1-hour intimate, behind-the-scenes, journey into the mind of the creative genius?! - Count me in!

And while we are all patiently waiting for the grand release, I suggest another two guilty pleasures:

     T.F.'s book on his work for Gucci/YSL 1994-2004

                               T.F.'s directorial debut 

Fashion Film

We have all noticed a new trend for fashion designers experimenting with the media of film. But what exactly is this new direction? Is it a way of promoting product via the marketing technique that with the birth of Vimeo and Youtube had made it number one source for making a trend/talent/
person go viral.  Many brands such as Agent Provocateur, Oliver Peoples and even J.Crew went the route of blending art with subtle self-promotion? How can you successfully integrate the two? How can you ever separate one from another? Can we say that Tom Ford's "A Serious Man" was just a smart way of showcasing Mr. Ford's genius designs and style vision? Or should we all forget that he is a designer first and filmmaker second and just embrace the picture as it is for all it has to offer in terms of deep emotional analysis of characters and complexities of social outlook in Cold War anxious LA? But the movie is not about that... it is about the superficial and the deep, about how colors, clothes and social graces all hide the feelings bursting inside.  "A Single Man" is definitely worth watching for its aesthetics alone but goes much deeper. I can talk about this film forever but I want to leave you with a video that provoked all of this rambling on my part in the first place - Karl Lagerfeld's new short film incorporating Chanel Cruise 2012 Collection. "The Tale Of A Fairy" is quite a provocative cinematographic treat! Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/23579845

Miss Representation

Finally I have seen “Miss Representation” as a concluding film in my SF International Film Festival journey.  And all I can say is – wow! The movie made me mad one minute, sad the next and positively inspired the following. It kept me completely absorbed – I swear I caught myself leaning forward in my seat a few times as if to get closer and catch more details emanating from the screen. The movie is a masterpiece – an educational provocation that touches your heart and mind by making you take a closer look at the media around you and how it shapes your perception. The main focus of the film, told in the first person narrative by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, zooms in on a national epidemic of media objectification of women and their absence in television and film as powerful role models and leaders. With the help of extensive statistical data, the film raises a number of serious questions. Why in Elementary School an equal number of boys and girls aspire to be the president of the United States but by the time they are in High School this desire is solely observed in boys? Why do women suffer from body dysmorphic disorders set against unrealistic and often photo shopped female ideals in magazines while men are allowed to disregard their appearances in favor of social status? Why are women still paid 70 cents on a dollar for an equivalent work with men?

The main question, however, remains in what do we as a society do to prevent our daughters from suffering the societal pressures of being both powerless and perfect in a world run by an often archaic patriarchal system? How does a woman raise her voice when she often feels that it will fall on deaf ears? Recognition of the symptoms of illness is the first step in its treatment and “Miss Representation” does just that – it points out the indifference and placid acceptance with which our society embraces the new forms of entertainment. The reality TV catfights, boarder-line pornographic rap videos and tabloids that dare to call many women in power: “bitch” (Hilary Clinton), “ditz” (Sarah Palin) and “dominatrix” (Condoleezza Rice) – all kinds of names that distract and hide the powerful women by enveloping them in horrendous gender stereotypes and robbing them of their power to be mentors and leaders to the growing generation of girls. You cannot be what you cannot see and our young girls are deprived of the examples of women in leadership positions to have as inspiration. There are plenty of magazines discussing the next drunken party or plastic surgery of a given Hollywood celebrity and far fewer articles noting the road to success of distinguished female CEOs.

The numerous interviews of the highly accomplished women as well as teenagers' emotional experiences make this movie a must see for every woman and every man who want our society to grow and progress to a state of equality and intellectual enlightenment and not resemble a never ending episode of “Jersey Shore.” For me the quote by Alice Walker, a talented author and poet, not only summarizes the main idea of “Miss Representation” but also acts as a subtle call for immediate action:

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”

Please support the cause and follow the development of Jennifer Newsom’s future work by joining the movement at http://www.missrepresentation.org/welcome.html

For a more detailed review of the film, please visit The Hollywood Reporter article at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/sundance-review-representation-96532