The Messenger by Oren Moverman, 2009 (R)

with Ben Foster (Contraband, Pandorum), Woody Harrelson (The Hunger Games, Game Change), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Steve Buscemi (Fargo), Jena Malone, Eamonn Walker, Yaya DaCosta, Peter Francis James, Lisa Joyce

An injured soldier is paired with a by-the-book captain to notify families of their loss — a job that bonds them as they debate differing views on serving America. At odds at first, the two find common ground while facing life's variety of battles.

A different perspective on the army, after so many movies trying to portray the coming back of soldier after Irak, their disconnection to the "real" world, the distance in creates for good with  friends back home, the bound they have with other soldiers and the addiction the army somehow creates among its people, the rupture, the traumas, and finally death. How to deal with death and in this movie in particular, how to deal with the families of their deaths, how to relate without feeling responsible, how to behave when one is having a serious breakdown, how to not get attached, affected. It is a heavy movie, where nothing happy can happen. Still, they live again, they continue in this life, carrying each others, caring for each other. Very troubling.

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Summertime (Summer Madness) by David Lean, 1955 (NR)

with Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Isa Miranda, Darren McGavin, Mari Aldon, Jane Rose, MacDonald Parke, Jeremy Spenser, Gaetano Autiero

Dreams of romance for American spinster Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) become a bittersweet reality when she meets a handsome but married antiques dealer (Rossano Brazzi) while vacationing in Venice, Italy. David Lean directed this sensitive portrait of an independent woman who finds that, even in a beautiful European city, her sense of loneliness is unavoidable, and her initial disgust with the idea of an illicit love affair doesn't last.

It was a strange thing to watch that movie. It a very stretched way, I felt I experienced a similar journey, but when I was 18. I went to the south of Spain, on my own, and realized soon enough that the beauty of the country and region couldn't help me forget how lonely I was. I met a lot of random people, and a man that really seduced me. But at my age, I wasn't ready to do anything with a stranger. There stop the comparison, only the loneliness. Then the movie goes on with the relationship she has with this Italian man, making her feel young again, alive, beautiful, seductive. But the movie made me uncomfortable in the sense of what to expect at the time of Italy, the snob attitude of wanting so badly not to be the typical American tourist, but falling inextricably into the cliché, with shots of the canals, stones, monuments, behaviors. Venice was indeed beautiful anywhere you would look. Perhaps it is just how Katharine Hepburn plays the woman facing the wonders, almost like in a silent movie, alternating in a very non-subtle way smile and sobbing... Exasperating...

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Granny's Funeral (Adieu Berthe ou l'enterrement de mémé) by Bruno Podalydès, 2012 (NR)

with Denis Podalydès, Valérie Lemercier, Isabelle Candelier, Bruno Podalydès, Samir Guesmi, Michel Vuillermoz, Pierre Arditi, Catherine Hiegel, Vimala Pons

In this offbeat comedy, Armand operates a pharmacy in Paris with his wife, Helene, but is carrying on an affair with the more sympathetic Alix. When Armand's grandmother dies, the distractions mount as he tries to plan an appropriate funeral for her.

I really do not know how to review this movie. Perhaps with more preparation, I would have been able to be more open to the surreal moments, but it took me by surprise and I didn't see the point in them, except to give the movie an edge it didn't need. The acting for the first half is excellent, with a great sense of humor, so irony and touches of absurd which were very well integrated. Even when we come to the most stylized funeral home you can ever imagine. Because it is part of the story. But when we come to see a circus show that do not bring anything to the story, as an exercise of style that failed, I disconnected. It is not that the fairy-absurd elements of the ending are not cute, and wrapping up the story in an elegant way, but sadly, it has lost a bit of the touch. And I am not talking of the bright full-screen text messages... My best moments really are the dialogues between Denis Podalydès and Valérie Lemercier, which recalled us all of the visitors undoubtedly when she makes fun of the bourgeois accent, and besides absolutely hilarious. I also enjoyed the mature relationship of Armand with Helene, who are seen by the mother-in-law are two kids, but definitely are very evolved in their emotions. So, to me, it is a matter of cutting the useless scenes to make it a perfect comedy.

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Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne) by Guillaume Canet, 2006

From the director of Little White Lies and Blood Ties

Eight years ago, pediatrician Alexandre Beck (François Cluzet) was the prime suspect in his wife's murder. He's put all that behind him, but now that two dead bodies have been found near his home, he's suspected of wrongdoing once again. The case takes an unexpected turn when he receives an anonymous e-mail showing his wife alive -- and eight years older -- instructing him to "tell no one."

This movie is great: interesting, intelligent, with an amazing cast including the best actors of french cinema, and not too french either, with a rhythm that reminds me more of American cinema. It is well structured, creating a great suspense, with an outcome that is unpredictable. All we expect from a thriller.

with François Cluzet (Little White Lies - Les Petits Mouchoirs, Paris), Marie-Josée Croze (Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon, Korkoro - Liberté), André Dussollier (On connaît la chanson - Same Old Song, Aïe, My Worst Nightmare - Mon Pire cauchemard), Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer, Bel Ami, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, Partir, Sarah's Key - Elle s'Appelait Sarah, Nowhere Boy), François Berléand, Nathalie Baye, Jean Rochefort, Marina Hands, Gilles Lellouche (Anthony Zimmer, Little White Lies - Les Petits Mouchoirs), Philippe Lefebvre, Florence Thomassin, Olivier Marchal, Brigitte Catillon, Samir Guesmi (Anthony Zimmer, Granny's Funeral - Adieu Berthe ou l'enterrement de mémé) 

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Bringing Up Baby by Howard Hawks, 1938 (NR)

with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Fritz Feld, Leona Roberts, George Irving, Tala Birell, Virginia Walker, John Kelly

Love runs wild for a hapless scientist and an unstoppable heiress in Howard Hawks's classic screwball comedy that ranks high on the American Film Institute's list of the funniest Hollywood films ever made. With her eye on paleontologist David (Cary Grant), heiress Susan (Katharine Hepburn) lures him to her home. But the hilarity begins when Susan's dog steals David's prize dinosaur bone and her pet leopard, Baby, is mistaken for a zoo escapee.

I believe this was a movie to fail from the reviews point of view, that had a huge success with the audience. I was a bit terrified to see that Cary Grant was again in this movie, after the experience of "The Philadelphia Story" but he turns out to be good and goofy in the clumsy scientist, probably slightly inspired by Charlie Chaplin. She is exuberant and tiring, as well as most of the cast. Everything goes very fast, people speak at the same time into a blurry loud noisy, but it turns out that I actually laughed a lot, it was refreshing and cute.

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Morning Glory by Lowell Sherman, 1933 (NR)

Not to confuse with Morning Glory (2010)

with Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Adolphe Menjou, Mary Duncan, C. Aubrey Smith, Don Alvarado, Fred Santley, Richard Carle, Tyler Brooke, Geneva Mitchell, Helen Ware

Stagestruck but unseasoned actress Eva Lovelace (Katharine Hepburn) heads for Broadway's bright lights, where she eventually gets her break with help from a paternal thespian (C. Aubrey Smith), an ambitious playwright (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and a womanizing producer (Adolphe Menjou). Hepburn's luminous performance in this showbiz drama resulted in the first of her four Best Actress Oscars and became the launching pad for her stellar film career.

It was an interesting film debut for an actress to start in a movie about young ambitious girl who starts a flourishing career, to fall into what could be called a Morning Glory, or perhaps not. I wonder how close it was to the reality, all I know is that later on, she was never that kind of person, wanting to be glorified (or perhaps a little, deep inside) by the press, the fans, the success didn't seem to change her so much. She was brilliant, perhaps knew it, allowed herself not to format to the conventions of Hollywood, and after some good and back luck, became one of these female heroes of the 20th Century. Impressive. About the movie, I felt they needed to deliver the lines so fast I got a bit stressed out. The character of Eva evolves from the naive opportunist to a talented opponent to the major stars of her time, the evolution being a bit overacted, just as the other actresses of the film, but the casting surrounding her, made of men of the Broadway industry, still stereotypes, are being much more sensitive in their acting, tempering the high energy of the women. I remained a bit clueless to whether I enjoyed the movie or not...

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My Fair Lady by George Cukor, 1964 (G)

with Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfred Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Brett, Theodore Bikel, Mona Washbourne, Isobel Elsom, John Holland, Alan Napier, Marni Nixon
From the director of The Philadelphia Story, Pat and Mike, Adam's Rib, Keeper of the Flame...

In this classic cinematic version of the Broadway smash, Audrey Hepburn is at her most radiant as Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl transformed into a poised duchess by Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison, reprising his Broadway role). The film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

When I was in school, the English teacher (I am French), to make us work out our British accent, put us to learn "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak" and as a demonstration, the entire movie for several classes. No complain, since we didn't have homework in the meantime. I really liked the songs, the style, Huggins' house, the costumes for the race, the stiffness of the education, perhaps was a bit displeased with her being so predictably in love with her teacher, but the sense of humor was good enough it made me very happy Higgins had to change his macho attitude to get her. Anyway, refreshing, witty, a little bit deranging in the way social classes are depicted, but after all, a very good musical, specially looking at its competition. Definitely one of my favorite.

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