samo68 Reviews

Dans Paris (2006)

Great performances

[7/10 · 15 June 2006]

I saw many movies in Cannes last month and this was one of them. I was impressed by the performances of leads Romain Duris and Louis Garrel, who play brothers. Garrel narrates the story of his brother Duris who leaves Paris to live in the province with his girlfriend and her son.

I saw director Christophe Honoré's last movie Ma mère starring the always great Isabelle Huppert also in Cannes two years ago and was very disappointed, even if I liked all the actors in that movie. However, this was a much better developed movie that shows more promise. Dans Paris also reunites two actors from that last movie of Honoré, Louis Garrel and Joanna Preiss.

The influence of New Wave director Truffaut is obvious and sometimes, Louis Garrel reminded me of a young Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud). What I liked the most about this movie is that the plot is not like the typical Hollywood movie. It is about the emotions and relations of these brothers, their father and the other people in their lives. It will come out in France in October. I hope it shows in other countries too, because it is a worthy film. Maybe in the states it will come out on DVD at least.

The Backwoods (2006)

Full of clichés and very disappointing

[1/10 · 15 June 2006]

This was one of the movies I saw in Cannes last month during the film market (it was not part of the festival, which is different) and possibly the worst movie I've seen in a while.

The trailer showed promise. The only reason I went to the screening was because of star Gary Oldman. After the movie ended, myself and my colleagues wondered out loud why Gary Oldman decided to do this empty, shallow movie which was full of clichés and obvious homages to Leone and movies like Deliverance that don't amount to much. A chance to play in Spanish maybe ? That is the only mystery we have in this movie : why did Gary Oldman do it ?

The performances of most of the actors were good except for Virginie Ledoyen who still has not showed that she can play more than one style. I wished the producers had chosen a better actress who has depth and more chemistry with her co-stars. She was by far the weakest actor of the 5 main actors in this movie. Paddy Considine was good as her husband. I'm always impressed by Considine's performances and here he was the actor that gave the most impressive performance out of them all. Gary Oldman and Aitana Sanchez-Gijon were effective as the other married couple. Except for Homar, the rest of the supporting Spanish cast seemed like amateurs doing their first movie.

This is a movie about incommunication and the effects, but unfortunately that theme never gets fully developed. Besides the performance of Considine, the only other good point of this movie is the cinematography.

Everything else about this movie makes it more suitable for viewing as a direct-to-DVD instead of in the theatres. The people I work with did not buy the movie and no one in our company recommended it or felt it was worth it. I don't think Filmax sold it to anyone at the market. Oldman and Considine are good, but 2 good actors are not enough to save a bad film.

I miss seeing Gary Oldman in good films and hope he makes smarter choices in the future. Now I will have to wait for the next Batman to see Oldman in a good film.