The Homesman.

Tommy Lee Jones is a clever individual, ostensibly an actor he can direct, write and produce and in the case of his latest project – all four at the same time. Although he did have the support of the great French filmmaker Luc Besson in the production of what has been called a feminist western by some commentators. The Homesman (2014) takes place in the 1850’s and is set in the Midwestern United States in Nebraska and Iowa. It’s based on the 1988 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout who was also responsible for the source novel for John Wayne’s very last film The Shootist (1976) which had a screenplay co written by the novelist son Miles Hood Swarthout, which is coincidently about the last days of a dying gunfighter, played by the then dying Wayne.

 

Mary Bee Cuddy is a 'good woman'.

As well as Tommy Lee Jones the movie features a great performance from Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy a proud strong middle aged spinster women who is an integral part of the Nebraska farming community, a women with land and “money in the bank” but who is unable to find her self a husband, accused of being “too bossy” and “too plain”. But when three poor women are deemed to have lost their minds it is decided to take them back East to their families to see if they can be ‘cured’. It’s Mary Bee who gets the job to transport the women on what is only expected to be a five-week journey! She rescues a man from being hung and enlists his help to drive the prison type coach and horses across a barren and treacherous country side, battling not only the weather and Indians but her ‘press ganged driver’ George Briggs (Jones) and three dangerously deranged women. 

 

It's a hard journey for Mary Bee and George.

Admittedly not the normal subject for what is an unusual type of western but one that is certainly different.  As well as depicting the harsh life of the early settlers the movie illustrates the effect this life it has on women and how it can not only result in physical bodily damage but also influence their mental well-being. The pressures of a forced marriage and the need to give birth to healthy children on a regular basis do nothing to help this problem.

 

George Briggs come to the rescue of the three women.

The movie features an ensemble cast that includes Meryl Streep, Hailee Steinfeld, John Lithgow, and James Spader. Cinematography is by the celebrated Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto who won an Academy Award for his camera work in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain. Marco Beltrami is responsible for the films exceptional score. At times the film can be a disturbing watch but its real strength’s are the growing relationship portrayed on the screen between Mary Bee and George Briggs and Jones’s exploration of the ‘female condition in the mid 19^th century American West’[1].

Would you rescue this man from the rope?

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[1] Press Kit Interview with the director.

Lucy.

Luc Besson rarely lets the viewer down, a French director, producer and writer who is best known for thrillers and action films like Nikita (1990) through Leon (1994) to Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) and the badly received The Family (2013) - which I thoroughly enjoyed.  His latest directorial outing, of which he also wrote the screenplay and produced, is Lucy (2014) a movie that is in a class of its very own and defines what entertainment should really be about. But if Besson ‘is the man’ then Scarlett Johansson ‘is the woman’, how I love a women with a gun!

 

I love a women with a gun!

Johansson is Lucy a young American living in Taipei, Taiwan who is conned by her boyfriend Richard (Danish actor Pilou Asbaek whom you may have seen in A Hijacking 2012) into delivering a briefcase to Mr Jang (Choi Min-sik, the star of two classic S Korean movies 2005’s Lady Vengeance and 2003’s Old Boy) who turns out to be a notorious South Korean gangster. He kidnaps Lucy and forces her, and three other men, to become drug mules, operating on them and inserting bags of CPH4 into their stomachs. While waiting her turn to deliver the drugs she gets beaten, kicked in the stomach, which in turn releases the drug into her system with very dire circumstances. The drug is a synthetic version of the chemical that stimulates brain growth in foetuses, but in the large dose that Lucy imbibes in to her body it can escalate the use of the human brain from the 10% we generally use to a level unknown to Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) who specialises in brainpower. Our heroine gradually develops psychokinetic abilities that according to Mr Besson result in supernatural powers. With the help of Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked - Winter of Discontent 2012) of the French police force Lucy set’s out to track down the remaining drug mules with Mr Jang and his gangsters in hot pursuit.

 

Lucy passes on the secret of life to Professor Norman.

Another visually rich film, head and shoulders above many other action thrillers, a film without a single dull moment, of course it’s a exaggerated load of hocus pocus but to get the best from this exciting film just ignore the nonsensical plot, sit back and enjoy 90 minutes of complete escapism – and Scarlett Johansson!

http://youtu.be/MVt32qoyhi0

Leon

What can you say about a film that has as its main character a man whose best friend is a houseplant and takes under his wing a 12-year-old orphan and teaches her the intricacies of ‘cleaning’? Think Luc Besson at his violent best, think La Femme Nikita (1990) and the role Jean Reno played in that film, move the location to New York where Reno plays the American based equivalent of Victor – Leone ‘Leon’ Montana a professional hit man, a job generally referred to in the trade as a ‘cleaner’, but one with ethics, he refuses to kill women and children.

 

The Hit Man....

....and his Apprentice.

Here we have an English language French relationship drama between a sad eyed lonely hit man and a 12 year, played in her feature film debut by the young Natalie Portman, who wants nothing more than to avenge her 4 year old brother’s death at the hands of the psychotic killer Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman) one of cinema’s great villains. It’s when Stansfield, a very bent police officer, visits Mathilda’s family apartment to resolve a problem with some missing drugs that he and his men kill her father, stepmother and sister, and her wee brother during a particularly bloody confrontation. The only reason she is not in at the time of the visit is that she is out shopping. On her return she continues past her flat, that is now full of bodies and gunmen, to Leon’s apartment on the same floor, after some debate he lets her in and consequently saves her life and changes his.

 

A really nasty piece of work!!

Luc Besson wrote and directed Leon (1994) as an affecting comic book type fantasy crime thriller where every body involved is in top filmic form. This movie that has lost none of its appeal since its original release over the 20 year’s ago. I can’t imagine that most film lovers would have never have seen the film but I can assure you that this riveting action movie is well worth your revisit.

The Family.

When I recently ‘blogged’ Kenneth Branagh’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2013) I stated that complete nonsense can be fun and that Branagh’s film committed the greatest sin in the action genre in that it was tediousness! Now I can give you another example of an action drama that the critics hated, but in this case it was, at least for me, a great deal of fun which in turn made it a very diverting watch. 

Luc Besson is a prolific movie director capable of making some very watchable movies from the seriousness of The Lady (2011) to the quirkiness of his comic book adaptation of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) and the Cinema du look of Subway (2010), The Big Blue (1988) and Nikita (1990) and The Family (2013) or to give it its French title Malavita, is certainly no exception. Described as a dark action drama it involves an ex-Mafia boss, Robert De Niro, and his wife, the still very attractive Michelle Pfeiffer, and their two teenage children Dianna Agron and John D’Leo who are relocated to a small Normandy village in France under a Witness Protection Program after ‘grassing up’ their Mafia connections. Assigned to keep the Manzoni family in line is FBI agent Tommy Lee Jones. Most of the ‘humour’ comes from the fact all four members of our ‘family under cover’ have problems forgetting their old Brooklyn way’s. We witness mum blowing up the local Supermarché when a shop assistant insults her; dad has his own unique way of dealing with the problem of brown water and the two kids are not long making them selves known at the local school. But as you would expect it’s not long before their former Mafia cronies’ track them down and all hell breaks loose.   

 

Making a 'bang' at the local supermarche!

Made as a tongue in cheek tribute to the gangster movies of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola this English language French film is based on the novel Malavita by the award winning French crime fiction writer Tonino Benacquista, and has been adapted as a screenplay by Besson and Michael Caleo. The real strength of this film is in its splendid cast who along with Besson’s direction really highlight’s the clash of comedic cultures between the Americans and the parochial villagers. The chemistry between De Niro and Pfeiffer is well worth the cost of a DVD on its own. Prime entertainment for politically incorrect people.

The Big Blue (Le Grand Bleu)

Another example of the Cinema du look movement that was established in France in the 1980’s was Luc Besson’s 1988 movie The Big Blue. Besson was credited with two other films made under the movement’s heading, Subway (1985) and Nikita (1990). This method of filmmaking is said to favour style over substance with spectacle taking preference over narrative The Big Blue is certainly no exception to this rule.

The films title refers to the sea, which we are told is a mysterious, magical but dangerous place where two friends since childhood, Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari, take part in the extreme sport of competitive Free Diving where competitors attempt to attain great depths, times or distances while suspending their breathing. Besson’s screenplay, although fictional, was inspired by real life Frenchman Mayol and an Italian diver called Enzo Maiorca. Jean-Marc Barr, an actor who has appeared in six movies by Danish director Lars von Trier, plays Mayol while Moroccan born Jean Reno, who has had a long and successful professional relationship with Luc Besson, plays Enzo. American TV and film star Rosanna Arquette play the romantic interest.

Much of the film was shot on the beautiful Greek island of Amorgos and coupled with Carlo Varini’s cinematography makes it a stunning watch. Although this English speaking French film was not very successful in the USA it was the most financially successful film shown in France in the 1980’s where it played continually for a year. This lightweight, but enjoyable comedy, is something that the French do very well. But it certainly divided the critics see what you think!

The beautiful Island of Amorgos.