Fifidou Reviews

Don't Worry, I'm Fine (2006)

A dramatical story showed with sweetness and tenderness.

[10/10 · 20 September 2006]

This is a very low budget movie. There is no very famous french actor starring in it, the director is not really famous. I went to see the movie with a friend who had already seen all the movies I wanted to see at that time. The most famous actor is Kad Merad, but he is not famous for is acting talents, but is famous for a show he presented on French TV. Nevertheless, I hope he will be famous one day for his acting talent. And I hope Melanie Laurent and Julien Boisselier will also be too. Because in such a low budget movie, you cannot hide the mediocrity of the actors or of the script behind great visual effects. And this movie fully complies with the " good actors and good script" thing. It is the story of middle class family with two kids living an ordinary life. Everything will be changed when the son, a musician leaves the house after a argument with his father. The daughter is completely moved by this. As we watch the movie, we'll feel a profound empathy with the actors. I hardy seen a movie where one can feel the subtle changes of feeling of the characters. It is so extraordinary that I wanted to applause at the end of the movie, as if there were comedians on a stage. It lost the kind of unreal thing that rises from the fact that it is a picture on a screen and sounds coming out of speakers. One last thing I'd like to mention is the main song of the movie. I was a little chocked by the fact the voice doesn't sound like a song made by a 20 year old boy. but it is really a magnificent one. it sounded to me like the best song Nick Cave had ever written, it is really a great one.

Tsotsi (2005)

What on earth can reach a gang's leader heart ?

[9/10 · 9 August 2006]

I went to the cinema on the advise of one of my friends. In France, this movie had an award from the watchers only a few movies in a year have and my friend voted for it. In the first minutes, I thought that it will probably be exaggerated, this will be a excellent movie on the ghettos, full of violence and empty on spared lives, showing the gears pushing a sensitive man towards cruelty, violence and death. This kind of movie really tears me apart, but i really enjoy in movies originality rather than seeing a good movie but made up with all recipes and kind of boring. And I already saw good movies on ghetto violence (in particular Cidade de Deus). But this movie isn't about that really. It is a kind of learning process when he discovers that life is not only hiding his feelings behind a gun, and moreover that holding the gun isn't the only way to power. But everything is only shown in a simple way, there is nothing like a great speech of one character about virtues in life, as you would find in casual Hollywood movies. Everithing is transmitted through little things, a look, a tone of voice, it's delicate, it's bashful. To support that, the actors do the job, to say the least. Presley Chweneyagae is wonderful, such as Terry Petho. Every face to face between the two is a great instant of the seventh art. The only thing I didn't quite like in this movie is the soundtrack. It is rap music, and i do not like that kind of music. But for a movie in the favellas, there is no other choices.

Nos jours heureux (2006)

A merry movie about a merry period of many people's life.

[7/10 · 5 July 2006]

This is not a pretentious movie, but it appeals to the memories we have from childhood, so we all have this kind of sympathy for the subject. Vacation camps. I don't know whether this concept is popular in the US, but in France, every child has attended to one of those. And everybody can find out some stuff in this movie closely related to what was the vacation camp when he was young. And this is what makes this movie work, it appeals to one's nostalgia. This is not a great movie though, the story is not different from the real story that happened for many people. It could have been a documentary on vacation camps, anyone would have seen the difference. The actors are quite good, and the dialogs are often funny, when they are not really funny. I do have a particular tenderness for the one where the director of the vacation camp, Vincent, spends several minutes explaining to the parents on the station platform that they must sever the link with their children, and 20 seconds later doesn't manage to have his father hang off the phone. Everything is like that, and as a movie made to make us laugh, it comply well with this definition. So make your choice if for you this movie is who the price of the ticket, but the audience when I saw it exited with a big smile on their face...

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

OSS 117, has to face a big spying imbroglio in Le Caire. The only problem is that he is bloody stupid, but sure of the contrary...

[8/10 · 8 May 2006]

What a pleasure. This is really a parody. Only french people can do that kind of thing without being coarse. And as a result, you spend a really good time watching Jean Dujardin playing the dumb. Most of the movie stands on his shoulders, and he has them wide enough to make this movie a good one. He has the perfect way of overdoing the James Bond kind of guy that he is no match for Mike Meyers in Austin Powers for example. The dialogs are also good enough to keep up the attention of the spectator, with a lot of stupid jokes, that's really perfect. Both of the women having the main parts in the movie bear the comparison with the main character, and that was a challenge. There is no really plot in this movie, but that's not what is expected in this kind of movie. You just wish to laugh one hour 40 minutes, and that's precisely what the movie manage to do. It deserves the success it has in France

Life Is Beautiful (1997)

How to laugh within a concentration camp.

[10/10 · 18 December 2004]

It's something rather difficult, that can offend the jews if it is not done with enough tact. In this case, this is perfect : All the situations are so sweet and Roberto Begnini and Nicoletta Braschi make us feeling both the joy and the pain of the characters that this becomes one of the best movie ever. This movie is a profoundly humane story, because this is the simple story of a man, who fall in love of woman who is engaged, and then succeeds, and when the bad times comes, uses all his courage to protect his child from the reality of a concentration camp. In this movie, I find the character of the doctor very interesting : He's a man who loves riddles and in his job sends people to the chamber gas, and I love the way Begnini draws his personality.