lerelieurfou Reviews

Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt (2012 TV Movie)

very good continuation of the series

[9/10 · 3 July 2012]

I have to say i disagree about most comments : this is a VERY good movie. It is to be seen in continuation as a series. We follow the lives of the characters : Suitcase, Rose, Hasty, Thelma, Dr. Dix(the shrink)... They are all important in Jesse's life. The benefit of doubt is in fact also for Jesse to prove for himself, that's the fine twist. He progresses psychologically in this instalment more than many of the other movies we could see, being stuck in his sorrows... Even the dog, Reggie improves his relation with Jesse(is it a spoiler???) to enforce his progression... Don't look at these movies as fast paced action flicks. There a lot of them around. BUT, good reflexive, intelligent, deep, meditative movie about a -yes- archetypal detective : lonely, divorced, alcoholic, sometimes violent(he often kills instead of arresting the culprit)...- such a good a series is very rare to find. THOSE a little jewels. Good music, superb Nova Scotia landscapes, and a good cop intrigue. GO ON, please, JESSE, we follow you .....to PARADISE!!!!!!!!!!

The Light at the Edge of the World (1971)

good 70 style giallo style gore and adventure

[7/10 · 16 March 2007]

it is a quite slow pace face-to-face Brynner/Douglas...i found there was some pretty heavy violence/gore but you know, seventies giallo style : (maybe some spoiler ahead) a little bit phony and fake but the image is there : the monkey torn apart, the flesh torn from the mechanic, etc...

i don't remember if it is alike the novel...but overall i think it is a OK action flick, hero flick : he stands all alone at the end, all the bad guys are out..........

and nice images too : a small rocky island, the sun over the sea

but not a typical Verne's story-on-cinema : subs, sci-fi; but the adventure seen in a lot of Verne's novels tough

Kingdom in the Clouds (1969)

very fine traditional and unusual fairy tale

[29 May 2003]

i saw this movie dubbed in French as La Clé d'or... Elisabeta Bostan got friends with Quebec film maker and distributor Rock Demers. Faroun films is a Rock Demers distribution company he created in 1965 and wich distributed La Clé d'or in Quebec TV at the time. Rock Demers created then films La Fête, and together with other european film makers produced quite a big series of 'contes pour tous', still classics in Quebec (La guerre des Tuques, Opération beurre de pinottes, Aventuriers timbre perdu, etc....

But this here movie was made in 68 in romania... and has the european coloration of fairy-tales produced at the time by Alexander Rou, and other russian and czech producers... It's is a great tale about the Truth and the PureHeart always winning over the King of Liars, and all that is against us in life : Time, Nature, etc... The sets are just artificial enough for a fantasy...that's what so good about these movies, no big fuss about special effects and all...

the overall impression is just a litte 60's-kitsch tone with a very good scenario and great casting and makeup : ahhh the witch is so....a witch!!!

a mustsee musthave movie....but very hard to find i would think

Kingdom in the Clouds (1969)

very fine traditional and unusual fairy tale

[29 May 2003]

i saw this movie dubbed in French as La Clé d'or... Elisabeta Bostan got friends with Quebec film maker and distributor Rock Demers. Faroun films is a Rock Demers distribution company he created in 1965 and wich distributed La Clé d'or in Quebec TV at the time. Rock Demers created then films La Fête, and together with other european film makers produced quite a big series of 'contes pour tous', still classics in Quebec (La guerre des Tuques, Opération beurre de pinottes, Aventuriers timbre perdu, etc....

But this here movie was made in 68 in romania... and has the european coloration of fairy-tales produced at the time by Alexander Rou, and other russian and czech producers... It's is a great tale about the Truth and the PureHeart always winning over the King of Liars, and all that is against us in life : Time, Nature, etc... The sets are just artificial enough for a fantasy...that's what so good about these movies, no big fuss about special effects and all...

the overall impression is just a litte 60's-kitsch tone with a very good scenario and great casting and makeup : ahhh the witch is so....a witch!!!

The Barbarian Invasions (2003)

the only one missing was elvis gratton

[26 May 2003]

yes it's one thing to make irony and satire...but this buffon-type humour should me kept for our 70-80 local comedies(scandale, j'ai mon voyage), inexportable and funny only the the Michel Tremblay's style theater characters....we still find living in quebec!!! The casting is as bad as a Tarantino movie in wich every jackass wants to play...finding ourselves in a kind of soap-opera 2 hour special...we have to endure Lavie,Lavie...and all that s*** with sophie lorain, and roy dupuis...what a shame....haven't we other actors in Qc!!! The analysis arcand makes is very simple : 1-money can all 2-culture is just blabbing some big philosopher's citations around good wine and bourgeois-food!!! At least woody allen eats ordinary chinese!!!

the only hint of satire is when Rémy says he doesnt find meaning in his life...despite all the fucking money-throwing of humorist-made-actor-Rousseau(no, you wont see him in his undershirt!!!)...imagine death of a poor guy, that's bad

and by the way, hospitals are not that bad in Quebec...not all nurses looklike lanctot or boies (the nicest ones are in Laval's Cité de la Santé!!!) But unions, yes,they are that bad...and their presidents all look like JMP (They all play with your lightswitch!!!)

And the worse is that being in simultaneous screening with the Matrix2 : both films are compared???!!! and we all know that the MATRIX is much much a better movie......... That's irony, that's satire!!!NO....it's the truth!!!

The barbarians in history sometimes brought change, often for better. The barbarians of the 20th are those ''isms'' : maoism, constructivism,etc....they talk in the movie. The boomers ARE the barbarians :they leave us only RUINS, DEBTS, and no money, no spiritual heritage. Us generation X build ourselves our mythology : X-men (like generation X), Matrix, all the fads for gypsies, all threads that were woven before the boomers, that we have to find back and reanimate

So, shoot all yourselves like you want, you boomers, but please stop wasting our money, our present... Some say Arcand wanted to talk about that in his movie, well he missed his goal. It's just another movie about bourgeois, made by bourgeois, for bourgeois-intellectuals.

The Fair Barbara (1970)

much better than other kid movie

[5 May 2003]

yes those kind of fairy tales (he produced a lot) brought up by Alexander Row are very so funny and surrealist in a sense...i saw this movie and some other of his on tv, french-dubbed in family-oriented programs but his casting and humour is so odd... Could compare almost to Svankmajer. And in bonus, the movie is stuffed with russian songs, kinda traditionnal russian folk type of music. Much more authentic than modern pseudo-gypsy movies... not to miss 8/10

Long Live Women! (1984)

very alike Reiser universe

[17 March 2003]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** one of the very good point for this movie is that it is very alike Reiser universe from wich it is inspired. The sex is as French as it can be, lots of bare chests, and more... The scene in the class, as the teacher flashes her panties to the little boys in front of her is so a happy view...It's the way i think sex should be viewed most of the time : as a happy, rejoicing thing. it is so sad all the paranoia about pedophilia. That scene is certainly not to be seen that way. The problem with american movies is that the little sex we see is always tainted with a bad-moral-orientation. e.g. : photo 1h.(W/Robin Williams) : the guy has a mistress : he is punished. The nakedness we see in the movie is associated with the punishment, the big knife.

Spoiler** In Vive Les Femmes, the nakedness is natural, the sex is funny, Pauline Lafont is georgeous although not enough present, she could have had an affair with Mammouth, poor guy, he finally gets her at the end...The director himself plays a blind guy, catching the undies of Lafont, lucky guy... Giraud is very good as the macho guy, becoming a submitted lover...the punch is marvelous(in both senses) as her mate yells at him, telling him he changed, he is too nice, too good for her, and...wham!!! he socks her in the eye....and she's glad!!!...That's Reiser humour...the inspiration for this movie (a comics-artist) So a 10/10...because so underrated movie

Queen of the Gypsies (1976)

best gypsy movie, translating so well their thirst of freedom

[17 March 2003]

it is simply the best gypsy movie, translating so well their thirst of

freedom, for 'the road'...i saw it on tv as 'Les Tziganes s'en vont

vers les cieux, in a children-family program, but i think it surpasses

all the Kusturica-Gatlif spoofs depicting Gypsies. This one here depicts all the tragedy of the gypsy people, torn

between materialism and freedom. The opening is a piece of anthology as the old sage predicts

Zabor his near future and warns him : Dont trust any woman...and

remember that freedom is the most important value...' And ahhh....Svetlana!!! so marvelous dancing and saying to Zabor

: 'Dont look at me this way, it's forbidden...' To see for the proudness, the height of the feelings, the friendship,

the love, so pure....but leading to tragic endings in a gadjo world... a must for gypsy-movies lovers as much as : Autrefois, nous étions des oiseaux, from Garri

Bardine