As we say in French: "N'est pas Blier qui veut" *

When this film - in English OUR DAY WILL COME - came out in France, I was pretty reluctant and didn't go see it. The trailer - pretty comparable to M.I.A video clip for her song BORN FREE- made me uncomfortable, even though the cinematography seemed interesting. The music was unbearable and the story looked kind of "too much", in a bad way - a provocative but senseless story.

However, after hearing all the (pretty bad) reviews, I decided that I should watch it and build my own opinion. I've always been interested in Romain Gavras's father - Costa-Gavras -, and he appeared to be confident enough with a video camera, as I had noticed in his video-clips.

It's done now. I've watched it. And let me say this : what a shame I did. I think I'd rather have stayed in my evasive state of mind, because now, I can actually confirm what critics, reviews or inexperienced people had said about this feature: it's useless, empty, vulgar, gratuitous and the actors' direction is a shame, because it's non-existent.

To be short - even if I wanted to, it couldn't take long to write a summary - this film tells the story of a nerdy and redhead adolescent and of an embittered guidance counselor who go on a journey together and start acting rebellious, doing wannabe anarchic acts against anything they happen to dislike. It is set in the North of France - for Gavras' defense, the set is gorgeously interesting in its poverty and misery - and there is nothing else to add.

The art of portraying rebellious and anarchic behaviors is difficult and painful. And it is not given to every filmmaker. If some U.S reviews compared this film to Kassovitz's LA HAINE - I can see why, but I disagree -, the other "comparison" was made with Blier and his film GOING PLACES (in French LES VALSEUSES). But if Blier managed to give life to his story and his crazy, conceited and insouciant characters, Gavras failed: Olivier Barthelemy is transparent, and I've never seen Vincent Cassel that tiresome. The result is an hour and some of clichés, violent but inexplicable scenes, serving a very poor script with even poorer dialogues.

I found these images and thought it was fun to see how Gravras was inspired by Blier's GOING PLACES.

The beach scene

In a word: OUR DAY WILL COME or how to be simpleton instead of being provocative. Some should stick to what they're good at - in this case, video clips and commercials.

* The title means "Isn't Blier who wants to be", but it sounds better in French :)

MJ.

It is always due to CIRCUMSTANCE

Even if I haven't been totally convinced by this Iranian film called CIRCUMSTANCE, I think that it's still pretty important, considering what this country is experiencing, to talk about it, and to try to convince you to go see it at SIFF - because it's showing, yes! - .

Directed by Maryam Keshavarz - it's her first feature, and only for this reason, I must say that it's impressive - , CIRCUMSTANCE tells the story of two Iranian girls, Atafeh and Shireen, who experiment their first sexual affair together, in Tehran. They fall in love with each other, while living a dangerous underground night-life during which they, for example, do the dubbing in Persian of the film HARVEY MILK - some pretty funny and interesting moments emerge from this -. However, Atafeh's brother, who is back from rehab and has abandoned his former carrier as a classical musician, joins the morality police and starts watching the two friends very closely. He progressively becomes obsessed with Shireen, his sister's lover, and decided to do everything to save her from all the bad influences spread by his sister...

This triangle of suspense, betrayal, desire, obsession, freedom and love is wonderfully played by the three actors - Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy and Reza Sixo Safai - and the director paints an oppressed Iranian youth full of hopes and desires of change. In a very different way, it reminded me of a film I didn't like at all that I saw in Cannes two years ago called NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS - a film that was also dealing with youth in Teheran and the underground but very much alive scene that inhabits the city. What I appreciated with CIRCUMSTANCE is that you can see the moral fight within a family and within the individuals themselves - a wish for more freedom, but a fear of the authorities and a resignation sometimes.

The treatment is very sensual and aesthetic - sometimes too "video-clip" like and too slow - and this woman took many risks by making this film. She broke all the taboos established in her country, about sex, homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, freedom of speech, religion. And considering what is happening today in Iran with filmmakers - i.e Jafar Pahani's imprisonment - I really hope you'll get a chance to see this film - and if you are in Cannes, also see Mohammad Rasoulof BE OMID E DIDAR and Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb THIS IS NOT A FILM. A great wave of artistic protest is happening in Iran, and it's important to make it live, longer and abroad.

CIRCUMSTANCE won the Audience Award in Sundance.

MJ.

San Fran - Part One

Last week, I spent an amazing weekend in San Francisco with a friend who used to live there and who took me to the coolest places. There's no better way to visit a city you don't know.
Everything they say about San Francisco is true: European architecture, great food, super chilled and nice people, weed everywhere, open mindedness, awesome music and fog on the bridge.
Go and see by yourself!

The Fillmore - temple of Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead

AC.

Melrose Place? Oh no, sorry, Melrose Market

Because it's on Capitol Hill.

Because it's right in front of Bauhaus * see last picture - great cafe to work, enjoy the sun and watch cute guys.

Because they have a REAL butchery - with REAL butchers and tons of meat.

Because you could die eating a Turkey, Avocado, Bacon sandwich at Homegrown - healthy fast-food.

Because the cooks at Sitka & Spruce are stylish, tattooed and hot.

Because next to them, you can taste wine or buy flowers or cheese - your call.

Because it's a nice place to have lunch, hang out - and there's a floor, with a home décor store.

Here you go : http://melrosemarketseattle.com/

Time To Leave - or Time To Live?

On a very common and quiet Thursday night, as I was wandering with A. on Netflix, looking for a simple, easy, feel good movie, I found out that TIME TO LEAVE, a film directed by French director François Ozon, could be watched online. I had heard about this film, and knew that it was closer to a hard and disturbing drama than to a chick-flick. Nevertheless, I had seen many of Ozon's works, and I wanted to add this one to my list. Even if I believe A. didn't find it as powerful, extraordinary and true as myself, I still think that it is worth talking about for a bit in here. Because if you're a Netflix subscriber, maybe you'll want to take a look at it - even though it's not a light and entertaining piece of art.

Romain, a 31 year old gay photographer, has everything to be happy: a career, a gorgeous and young boyfriend, a life pretty enjoyable. One day, while shooting two models at the top of a Parisian building, he feels faint. After some medical exams, he meets with his doctor who's not carrying good news: Romain has a malignant tumor and lesions spread all over his body. He is dying. When? He doesn't know, as the disease could take a month or a year to kill him. With less than 5% chances to heal with chemotherapy, he decides to let time and life do their thing, and to take a last look at those he loves and the places he grew up in.

What can I say about such a film? Everyone - or almost everyone - is afraid of death. I am even having trouble to watch movies about it, when it's too obvious, too sudden, too unfair - put me in front of LOVE SONGS by Christophe Honoré, you'll see how anxious I'll get. However, Ozon treats it with such humanity, such power, such truth and such beauty that I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Melvil Poupaud is incredibly touching and fascinating as a dying young man who tries to accept his destiny and to leave life as peacefully as he can. He goes to all the love ones to tell them the truth, stops lying, wanders around looking for things that make him feel good: a visit to his grandmother (the great Jeanne Moreau), a vodka in the afternoon, a walk in a park, a swim in the sea - all the things he wants to enjoy one last time.

The familial relationships are so well treated - the dialogue in between the son and the father, the phone conversation between the brother and the sister, the confession between the grandson and the grandmother, the love scene between the woman wanting to be a mother and the dying man who wants to leave something behind- that I felt alive and inhabited by emotions and feelings during the whole film.

In the end, I believe that Ozon made a film that is as much about death as about life - and this is why you don't want to miss it if you get a chance to see it.

MJ.