Mea Culpa.

To be fair this latest outing from Fred Cavaye is the standard fodder we have come to expect from this French director/writer following such movies as Point Blank (2010) and Anything for Her (2008). We either get stubble laden Vincent Lindon (Bastards 2013, Mademoiselle Chambon 2009) or stubble laded Gilles Lellouche (Little White Lies 2010, Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec 2010) in his latest movie Mea Culpa (2014) we get both actors i.e. double the stubble! Then add a beautiful lead actress Nadine Labaki (Caramel 2007), lots of leather jackets, guns, high speed chases and violence and some really mean looking East European gangsters who do more killing than talking. If you have been following Olivier Marchal’s French TV series Braquo you’ll know exactly what I mean!

Fast, gritty, with lots of graphic violence for violence sake and totally unbelievable were both the good guys and the bad guys are equally thuggish and prepared to kill their fellow human beings at the drop of a hat.  Lindon plays Simon an ex policeman following a drunken driving incident where three people including a young child are killed. Separated from wife Alice (Labaki) and young son Theo he now works for a security company but is still friends with Franck (Lellouche) who is still in the force. Bringing the action back up to date the East European gangsters are driving around Toulon bumping off various low lifes in their sordid drug-dealing world. While at a bullfight, yes that’s right a bullfight, with his mum and her man Simon’s son Theo witnesses our Serbian gangster’s dispensing of a chap in the gents toilet, they see him and give chase.  You’ve probable guest by now that the rest of the film involves Simon and his ex cop partner trying to stop his son being killed and you would not be far wrong!  A film for lads of both sexes!

 

Basterds (Les Salauds).

A very enjoyable discussion took place following the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club screening of the French film Bastards (2013). A great deal of time was spent trying to analyse the films non-linear narrative and work out what the film was about. And although the plot was not absolutely clear none of the Film club actually disliked the movie!

Claire Denis.

Introduced by Brendan Kearney, recently returned from ‘down under’, who gave us a brief account of tonight’s director. Known as the dark queen of French cinema Claire Denis was born in Paris in 1946. She was an assistant director from 1974 until 1987 and during this period worked along side Wim Wenders on Paris Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987). Her own directorial body of work has dealt with themes of colonial and postcolonial West Africa (White Materials 2009) as well as issues in modern France (35 Shots of Rum 2008[1]). She is said to pay more attention to the characters than the narrative, and is reputed to ‘shot fast and edit slowly’.

 

Vincent Lindon in the ice blue Alfa. 

Her films have often proved challenging and confrontational viewing and tonight’s film was no exception. It concerns tight-lipped Marco Silvestri (Vincent Lindon, Mademoiselle Chambon 2009) a captain of an oil tanker who has too return to Paris to help his sister Sandra (Julie Batalle). Her husband has committed suicide because of the failure of the family shoemaking business and his debts to a sinister businessman.  Sandra’s daughter Justine (Lola Creton, Bluebeard 2009, Something in the Air 2012) has been injured in mysterious circumstances involving a cornhusk! Brendan went on to say that to give away any more would spoil the movie. But he did inform us that that this was the fifth soundtrack that the English indie band Tindersticks had produced for Denis and that Bastards would not be quite be as atmospheric without their pulsating score.

 

Chiara Mastroianni as the mistress.

Michel Subor as the businessman.

The film is prominently dark and with her regular DOP Agnes Godard placing her camera up close and personnel gives it a macabre noir feel. A film that can be described as a tragedy, which like any good tragedy involves suicide, murder, car crashes and revenge, but mainly it is shrouded and deeply imbedded with sex: normal, abusive and incestuous. Similar to Miss Violence (2013) its a harrowing, but slightly laboured film, one I’m glad I had the opportunity to see, I’m not sure if I would want to see it again, although it certainly may be clearer on repeated viewing’s?

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[1] Narrative by eye and not by ear, gestures and looks 35 Shots of Rum has little or no dialogue. The story is a tender but uncomfortable, almost incestuous relationship between a father and his daughter. The viewer may not realise that Lionel and Jo are actually father and daughter until its confirmed 20 minutes into the film. Based on the directors grandfathers relationship with her mother Claire Denis 2008 film is set in high rise blocks of flats in a suburb of Paris.

Mademoiselle Chambon

Veronique and Jean

Veronique Chambon leads a quiet, unassuming life as a teacher in a provincial primary school spending much of her free time in the quiet of her rented apartment. Having asked the parents of her pupils to come into the classroom and give a talk about what they do for a living, one afternoon, Jean enters her classroom and explains to the children the intricacies of the building trade Somehow, a certain spark ignites between the solitary teacher and the contractor. Both begin to sense that they are attracted to one another.

A slow precise love story, tender and moving, Mademoiselle Chambon (2009) is beautifully played out with looks and gestures by the two lead actors who make you entirely believe in what is being portrayed on the screen. Veronique is played by actress and singer Sandrine Kiberlain (Après vous 2003) and Jean by Vincent Lindon (Anything for Her 2008) who were formerly married in real life. Based on a novel by Eric Holder and superbly directed by a gentleman called Stephane Brize this is a film that’s a real pleasure to watch helped by some great framing shots. Shown at the RBC as part of this years French Film Festival.