it takes courage to make a stylish film nowadays, especially about a neglected -nearly obsolete today shall I say- political scandal. Through a clever use of newsreel footage, it brings us to a crucial thought: the 60s attended the birth of some major humanist leaders from Che Guevara, Ho Chi Min, Martin Luther King to Ben Barka who were mostly to be assassinated. Its highly-charged atmosphere and frantic pace reminded me of some Billy Wilder film noir pictures of whom the director must have definitely been under the influence,let's say the voice-off intro of Charles Berling talking about his story while we're seeing him lying dead on the floor of his apartment sends you directly to Sunset Bld. -without the bloody swimming-pool, the chaptered montage winks at Fortune Cookie,... which is overly rejoicing not only because of that Wilderesque presence but it shows that somehow some directors still bears in mind that movies -whatever their subject- have to be entertaining in a sense that they'll procure pleasure to its viewer. A lot could be said about the effort of historical reenactment: in spite of its obviously low budget -see Berling's mustache and fake scar, it's very efficient thanks to its brilliant casting - Jean-Pierre Léaud as a paranoid Georges Franju, an impressive Simon Abkarian as Ben Barka, only Josianne Balasko seems not very convincing in an obese Marguerite Duras who was still a gorgeous woman at that time- and very touching details of that times that goes from the cramped telephone booth to vintage cigarettes boxes.
Reviews
2 Reviews
the scent of disillusionment
19 September 2005
maybe I expected too much from the adorable Mystère De la Chambre Jaune sequel. The dull titles unlike the rejoicing Caro&Jeunet titles of the Rouletabille saga first episode foreshadow the major flaw of the picture: an overall disenchantment spreading to the screenplay and the actors. Gaston Leroux novels whose story lines are typically slowly-told and far-fetched must be hard to adapt yet they matched director Bruno Podalydès universe so far. However the blatantly clumsy dialogs create an uneasiness between the actors who miscommunicate with one another. And that's a sheer pity for the undreamed-of cast gathers not only the jolly almost-Pierre-Brasseur-like Bruno Podalydès and his skinnier and witty younger brother Denis but also a myriad of picturesque parts that goes from Claude Rich cameo to the imposing Oliver Gourmet performance. Indeed the breath-taking location shots invite the spectator to a stay in the wild and craggy island of Port Cros. Nevertheless I couldn't merge in the picture at all just like the touching, melancholic and mysterious Stangerson Professor embodied by the faultless Michael Lonsdale who sits on a chair facing the azure sea a palette in his hand wondering what he's longing to paint.
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