French double-feature

But first! ....

TWO MORE OBSERVATIONS about "THE DARK KNIGHT"

1. I never visualized Gotham City as looking like Chicago before -- it has always been New York City, only scarier. (I even thought that in "Batman Begins"). But Chicago it is this time, unmistakably.

2. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is one tough old guy! (standing up to The Joker like that!)


Tell No One (2006)
The French have always had a knack for creating unsurpassed mystery/thrillers: foreboding visual style, impeccable acting, serious and thoughtful movies for adults. [But when you have the entire oeuvre of the prolific Georges Simenon to choose from, you already have a head start. He wrote the Maigret mysteries and the story that was turned into 1989's Monsieur Hire, for example.] The classic example of the genre is Les diaboliques (the 1955 version directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and starring Simone Signoret, of course). That plot was so good not even Sharon Stone could ruin it!


Notable recent examples in the genre include "Under the Sand" (Sous les sable, 2000), "Red Lights" (2004, also based on a Simenon story) and L'homme du train (2002, with the great pairing of Jean Rochefort and pop icon Johnny Hallyday).

What the French have proved to me in the last two films I've seen is that they can even make gems out of material that is decidedly below par. Witness the previously-reviewed Roman de Gare, and now, Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One" -- even the title sounds better in French: Ne le dis à personne. [I refuse to include Francois Ozon's "Swimming Pool" in this category -- that ridiculous movie still makes me mad!]

The film has a great cast and compelling plot: a supposedly-dead wife begins sending emails to her husband seven years after her murder, and the police continue to suspect the husband in her death. The action and suspense is non-stop, I will admit. The actors, especially in the roles of the couple (Francois Cluzet and Marie-Josee Croze) and her father (Andre Dussollier in a triumphant return to the screen) are totally invested in this plot, and it shows in their performances. I wish they had something better to invest in: the plot takes them (and us) to places I just find preposterous. The movie trumpets the author of the source material: "Based on the best-selling novel by Harlan Coben." My reply: "Who is this hack Harlan Coben??"


La France (2007)
The French also have pioneered a decidedly different genre: the grim and depressing World War I movie. It is given a new twist in La France, courtesy of actor-turned-writer/director Serge Bozon, whose last film was in 2002. One could call him a 'Gallic triple-threat,' since he also wrote all the songs in the movie. Yes, I said 'songs,' for this is a grim and depressing (the French don't make any other kind) French WWI musical!!

"A Very Long Engagement" this is not!! For one thing, it does not feature Audrey Tatou as the long-suffering war bride who goes to look for her husband. That role is taken by the boyish, but still gamine-like Sylvie Testud (last seen in La Vie en Rose) as Camille. The movie follows her as she pretends to be a boy in order to get to the front, where she soon joins up with a ragtag company of French soldiers, under the command of a gruff but loveable lieutenant (Pascal Greggory). Whether they are advancing or retreating is one of the many questions left hanging, supplanted in your mind by 3 or 4 unexpected musical interludes, featuring the soldiers singing and playing homemade instruments. Bozon deliberately makes no attempt at verisimilitude here: the music, obviously coming from real instruments, is not of the period; the songs, while connected in theme, appear to have no relation to the plot. I interpret this device as a clue from the director that what we are witnessing should not be taken literally. (Another clue might be the readings and discussions about the lost city of Atlantis among the foot soldiers). Through a series of close calls, the men bond with Camille and become her guardian angels.

Regardless of how you interpret Bozon's intentions, he succeeds in bringing this story to a beautiful and satisfying conclusion that makes sense of everything you have seen.
* No spoilers here!

Sure, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" had an unusual tone for a musical, but it didn't take place on the front lines of World War I! Without a doubt, this is the most-depressing musical ever made. And that's a high recommendation indeed from moi!