tres cool: ENTRE LES MURS [AFI Preview]

Enter the star of the festival. ENTRE LES MURS, or THE CLASS (or literally "Between the Walls"), is the film adaptation of an award-winning novel written by and based on the real-life teaching experiences of François Bégaudeau, a French journalist who played literature teacher for a short time in an inner city middle school in Paris. Interestingly, Bégaudeau is also a movie critic for the French version of Playboy. So what exactly was he teaching these children?

The director, Laurent Cantet, won the Golden Palm (Palm d'Or, the highest prize) at the 2008 Cannes Film festival in May, hence the acclaim of AFI getting a hold of this great film so quickly. Definitely the one I'm most interested in viewing, and definitely going to be a packed showing.

Buy your tickets after reading a few words from AFI:

Laurent Cantet, already a hero to cineastes for his class-strife studies TIME OUT and HEADING SOUTH, breaks into the international spotlight with this Palme d'Or-winning story of Francois who, along with his fellow teachers, is preparing for a new year at a high school in a tough Parisian neighborhood. Armed with the best intentions, these teachers brace themselves against the inevitable discouragement. Can they give their students the best education possible in an unfriendly environment? THE CLASS powerfully presents one high school as a microcosm of contemporary France, with its sometimes explosive cultural and class differences. But this is also a film about everyday heroism. By creating an atmosphere that's neither stuffy nor severe, expecting the highest performance from his students and providing them with the kind of honesty they need and deserve but only rarely encounter, Francois demands success from his students. Of course, faced with the rising standards, some students rebel … Based on the autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau, THE CLASS's immediacy and intimacy arises from its use of real students and teachers and from carefully deployed video cameras, which give the story its gritty, street-level feel. And this startling, inspiring story shows Paris like we've never seen it before.

The trailer (in French): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz5svwJqoVU

Press conference with the director (in French):

Entre les murs - Conf de presse
Uploaded by CANNES_LEXPRESS_STUDIOMAG

The film's website (oh, and you guessed it; it's also in French): http://www.entrelesmurs-lefilm.fr/site/

tres cool: L'HEURE D'ETE [AFI Preview]

Did I say Catherine Deneuve was the female Depardieu? I might correct myself and say Juliette Binoche is fast becoming him. But seeing her earlier this year in DANS PARIS, reminded me how much I like her, even if she is a bit...over-worked, we'll say, and that's why I'm looking forward to SUMMER HOURS. Even better news: this one's a comedy. Well, it's a French comedy.

IMDB says, "Two brothers and a sister witness the disappearance of their childhood memories when they must relinquish the family belongings to ensure their deceased mother's succession." But for a more flourishing synopsis, here are a few words from AFI:

Hélène (Edith Scob) gathers her children and grandchildren at her French country estate to celebrate her 75th birthday. Their gift of a tricky-to-use mobile phone, however, seems to symbolize the 21st-century pressures that are closing in on her precious way of life. The growing sense the exquisite Hélène—the niece of a famous artist—has of her own mortality leads her to bequeath her most valuable artwork and furniture to her closest family: her eldest son Frédéric (Charles Berling), daughter Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) and brother Jérémie (Jérémie Renier). Director Olivier Assayas’s gently beautiful meditation on connection and loss traces the journey of one family’s treasures from their home to their final resting place in glass cases, where they receive only the passing consideration of museumgoers (like Hou Hsiao-hsien’s FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON [AFI FEST ’07], SUMMER HOURS was commissioned by the Musée d’Orsay to celebrate its 20th anniversary). As he did in his LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER, Assayas uses elliptical jumps in time and unexpected shifts in perspective to tell an ensemble story in oblique, multilayered fashion. Gradually, carefully, Assayas shows how family ties, even in decent and affectionate families, inevitably erode over time. The haunting late-afternoon melancholy is well served by Eric Gautier’s fluid camera and, combined with Assayas’s confident, inventive storytelling, makes SUMMER HOURS a bittersweet elegy about love and memory and the ways in which we hold them.

Trailer (in French): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzLvHaE64cQ

tres cool: UN CONTE DE NOEL [AFI Preview]

This is the movie I'm second most excited about seeing at this year's festival, among the French entries. Not only does it feature the female counterpart to Gerard Depardieu (that would be Catherine Deneuve, appearing in almost every French film in the past two years, even the animated ones), but it co-stars Mathieu Amalric (of last year's depressing but beautiful LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON, which I saw but about which I apparently failed to write), it's directed by Desplechin AND it opened at the New York Film Festival earlier this month to favorable reviews.

Frankly, given the above, I don't care what it's about. But for those who might, here are a few words from AFI:

AFI FEST honoree Arnaud Desplechin (LA SENTINELLE, MY SEX LIFE … OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT, KINGS AND QUEEN) has demonstrated a knack for working with ensemble narratives. His latest is set during a bittersweet holiday season, when three generations of the Vuillard family gather at their home for what may be the last time. The matriarch, Junon (played with witty cool by Catherine Deneuve), has been stricken by a rare genetic condition. And her adult children, Henri (Mathieu Amalric from MUNICH), Elizabeth (Anne Consigny) and Ivan (Melvil Poupaud of DIARY OF A SEDUCER, BROKEN ENGLISH), and their wives and girlfriends, played by Desplechin regular Emmanuelle Devos and Chiara Mastroianni, are all at each other’s throats, replaying long-simmering resentments about financial misdeeds and thwarted romance. Desplechin mixes and matches dark comedy, psychological anguish and philosophical speculation, creating a world both entertaining and unpredictable. He renders the interaction between characters—their frivolous games, seething resentments and frustrations—so vividly that they seem as familiar as people in our own lives.

And here's the trailer (English version): http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi979632153/

tres cool: L'AIMEE + LA VIE DES MORTS [AFI Preview]

The only thing better than getting to see a movie for free in Fire City is...well, nothing. Maybe getting free popcorn, too? But another treat that ain't half mauvais is getting to see two movies for the price of one. During AFI, I'll get that chance--and so will you, if you buy a ticket to see these two films from Arnaud Desplechin, the great director behind the Emmanuelle Devos starrer ROIS ET REINE as well as LEO, EN JOUANT DANS LA COMPAGNIE DES HOMMES, and another 2008 AFI premiere, UN CONTE DE NOEL.

A few words from AFI:

Two lesser-known works by the master of contemporary French cinema showcase his versatility and explore themes of family and transition: his award-winning debut LA VIE DES MORTS tells the story of a reunion built on a tragedy, and the documentary L'AIMEE reconstructs his own family's past.

Can't find any trailers for these, but regarding L'AIMEE, here's an interview with the director (in French) about the picture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn9-v2qY6fM

tres cool: TOKYO! [AFI Preview]

I watched the trailer, and to be honest, I can't tell what this film is about. But it's a compendium of creativity from three great directors: Michel Gondry (SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND), Bong Joon Ho (THE HOST) and Leos Carax (MAUVAIS SANG). IMDB describes the film as "A cinematic triptych of three Tokyo-set stories." I guess that says it all. With these directors at the helm, though, it shouldn't be anything interesting.

A few words from AFI:

This triptych of shorts hover in a state of surrealism that might feel natural only in Tokyo, as auteurs Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho transform elements of the mundane to tantalizing visual aphorisms. Gondry's INTERIOR DESIGN begins when a young man and woman move to Tokyo to pursue (his) dreams of filmmaking. Soon, they are lost in endless grids of towed cars and buildings that “refuse all contact with each other.” Feeling smothered by her boyfriend’s self-proclaimed genius, the heroine’s anxiety escalates until she undergoes an uncanny metamorphosis. In Carax’s MERDE, the delicately woven surface of consumer utopia is ruptured abruptly with the appearance of an otherworldly being from the sewers. His name is Merde. He does not speak our language. The jostling crowds and pervasive media are frenzied as the enfant terrible assaults everything in his path: eating cigarettes, flowers, tipping baby strollers and licking schoolgirls. His acts invoke furor, repulsion and hilarious religious ardor in the masses. Finally, he is incarcerated, but is this the end, or just the beginning? Bong Joon-ho's SHAKING TOKYO treats us to a look into the nest of a hokikomori- a man socially crippled by a spatial ailment that keeps him from leaving the stale security of his home. Then, when an earthquake strikes, Bong asks sadistically, what might happen if a hokikomori fell in love? These stories of individuals whose isolation is exacerbated by their fantastic debilitating urban spaces offer hallucinatory portraits of a city that are fleeting, terrifying and sublime.
-- Aliza Ma

link to teaser/trailer: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1214128517/bctid1541073040

AFI Film Fest French Film Schedule

...in chronological order (see below...way below).

There are five French film screenings. Perhaps they heard I was coming. And hence we have--
LETOP5 SUGGESTS FIVE FRENCH FILMS FOR NOVEMBER (alphabetically):
1. A CHRISMAS TALE (UN CONTE DE NOEL) - stars Catherine Deneuve!
2. THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS) - won Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival!
3. L'AIMEE + LA VIE DES MORTS - two Desplechin films for the price of one!
4. SUMMER HOURS (L'HEURE D'ETE) - stars a blonde-haired Juliette Binoche!
5. TOKYO! - part one was directed by Michel Gondry!

The AFI show dates and screening times, alas, do overlap here and there, but that's nothing that can't be remedied with some scheduling. You will see them all if you want to, trust.
- A CHRISTMAS TALE shows: Sunday, Nov 2 at 6.45pm & Friday, Nov 7 at 7.30pm
- THE CLASS shows: Sunday, Nov 2 at noon & Saturday, Nov 8 at 10pm
- L'AIMEE and LA VIE DES MORTS shows: Sunday, Nov 2 at 12.45pm
- SUMMER HOURS shows: Saturday, Nov 1 at 3pm & Wednesday, Nov 5 at 7pm
- TOKYO! shows: Saturday, Nov 1 at 3pm & Saturday, Nov 8 at 9.30pm

That is confusing. Well, to satiate your inner croissant-loving francophile, letop5 suggests the following schedule:
1. See TOKYO on Saturday, Nov 1st at 3pm.
2. See L'AIMEE + LA VIE DES MORTS on Sunday, Nov 2nd at noon forty-five.
3. See NOEL on Sunday, Nov 2nd at 7pm.
4. See SUMMER on Wednesday, Nov 5th at 7pm.
5. See CLASS on Saturday, Nov 8th at 10pm.

Voila. Now let me figure out what each of these movies is about. If they're showing at the festival, I assume they're "tres cool." But I guess we'll see.

MAX PAYNE

I'm on a streak here, and it's getting irritating. I feel like I haven't seen a good movie--a really good movie, not a Ricky Gervais movie--in months. But I guess I really should blame myself. Not everything free is good for you, letop5. Do prositutes pay for syphilis? And what was I expecting from this flicka anyway? Well, I wasn't expecting good. But there are bad movies...and then there's MAX PAYNE.

I read somewhere--and the source currently escapes me--that Matt Whalberg reputedly called MAX PAYNE the favorite of all the movies he has ever filmed. And I love me some Marky Mark and definitely a heap of Entourage, but if that's really what he thinks, frankly, I think he's insane.

The story was simple, to the point--which is good in an action flick: man tries to avenge wife's death by becoming a night-prowling, crime-fighting, bad-guy-killing vigilante. But the simple story was delivered so vapidly, with awful dialogue, little to no emotional depth from our lead (sorry Marky!), and--wait, what was I expecting? I'm done talking about story. But to boot, the CG effects were weak sauce Matrix re-dubs, unimpressive and oft cartoonish. So it was neither fun to listen to nor fun to watch.

I try to keep in mind that most video game-to-movie adaptations suck. Apart from TOMB RAIDER--which I'm guessing was only good because a digital femme fatale with cartoonisly perky boobs who mercilessly slays mummies WOULD effectively win the hearts of sexless male critics the world over all just itching for an interview with the leading lady)--yeah, apart from TOMB RAIDER, which I missed, I've seen the likes of MORTAL KOMBAT and DOUBLE DRAGON (yet thankfully skipped the likes of DOOM, FINAL FANTASY and STREET FIGHTER), and they were pretty awful. I know we've got RESIDENT EVIL in there, which has sustained a pretty hefty cult following, but as a whole...in general...video games should stay video games. Maaaaaaybe become graphic novels. In truth, I would say think twice before hitting the big screen, but since MAX PAYNE actually flew in at #1 this weekend, really I don't know what I'm talking about. Do I smell a sequel?

Well. I don't know how long the Payne story continues as a video game series, but personally, it's one I hope never to have to check out again.

plot: Man questions why wife died.
thought: I question why I stayed.
in five: 1.5/5

see Payne, feel payne: http://www.maxpaynethemovie.com/

letop5 presents...2008 AFI Film Festival

Clearly, clearly, clearly--and at least from everything that is evident about me from any number of my online haunts--clearly, I am a Francophile. Francophile, cinephile, not a pedophile, maybe a bit of a food-o-phile (otherwise known as a "foodie")...yeah, my vices are evident. Film, food and France, mostly. No porn, just movie trailers.

And hence, AFI Fest is going to be my addiction at the end of the month. Not only does it feature two of my vices (France and film) in tandem, on repeat, for about a week, but it also is mostly showing at the Gritwood ArcLight, and I think we know of a couple not-too-shabby food spots in the area. Baja Fresh, for one! <---That's a joke.

But I'm going to start profiling the French films showing at this year's AFI Fest, should any of you potential readers and perusers be so artistically curious. If you read about one you like, holla at a girl, 'cause you better believe I'll be ready to see it. For starters, here's a tip for you:

- See THE CLASS (en fait, il s'appelle ENTRE LES MURS) with UCLA Extension: http://www.uclaextension.edu/emailblasts/9461A.html

We'll be in touch.

Bootie SF | party

Want to get out of Fire City at the start of Santa Ana season (yes) and visit a place where you can dance past 2am, not get lurped on by the sexually deviant but still have a great, great time (because who doesn't like a wee bit o' lurping)? Drive or fly to the cities that host Bootie.

Please note: "Bootie," is not a reference to badonkadonk butt.

"Bootie" is basically a nickname for "kick-ass-bootleg-mash-up-party." And it's a celebreezy of epic musical proportions. Not quite legal but 100% fantastic fun. Get in before 10pm, and it's cheap fun at $6 entry in TownCity. The people may not be as pretty as a Hollywood hang, but the bouncers are considerably nicer, and the mood considerably more chill. Or is it "chiller"?

I was in NorCal over the weekend attending a great, great university's great, great homecoming, and in between the Alumni Club's open bar and me completely losing my voice, the friends and I made a petite trek to Town City to attend Bootie SF. Yes, it's another event worth extolling whose moniker bares the name of a previously nick-named city on my roster. And it happens bi-monthly at DNA Lounge on the club side of Town.

It was "French Revolution" at this Bootie party, meaning we had a cute DJ from the Bootie Paris clique. He spun cool tracks, featuring the following so artistically well:
1. Jay-Z (99 Problems) vs. Nena (99 Red Balloons)
2. "Phantom on the Bottom" - The Lady Tigra (Bass on the Bottom) vs. Justice (Phantom)
3. "Dance Dreams" - Lady Gaga (Just Dance) vs. Eurythmics (Sweet Dreams)
4. "Paper Rump" - Wreckx-N-Effect (Rumpshaker) vs M.I.A. (Paper Planes)
5. "Detox" - Amy Winehouse (Rehab) vs. Britney Spears (Toxic)

And through one part of the show, DJ Comar was joined by the accented rapping of a French gentleman known as Grandpamini, one of Paris' biggest bootie artists, who kept asking "Is it you want to make the noise?!" Who doesn't love that?

I found out with a little research that Bootie travels. Boston, Munich, Paris, NYC, LA. Never been to Munich...or NYC or Boston for that matter. Looks like now I've got a reason to wander! Why doesn't Southwest fly internationally?

Shake that: http://www.bootiesf.com/

I am my own Urban Dictionary III

Term: Thumbelina complex

**This one I had some help on from a friend we'll call Summer Home (she's from California...she lives with her parents).**

Definition: A colloquial term describing an alleged type of inferiority complex which is said specifically to affect physically short, usually single women, making them strangely hostile to members of both sexes. In short (ho hum, what a pun), a very short girl with a persistent bad attitude probably suffers from Thumbelina complex. Named in honor of the small, adorable yet unfortunately beleaguered heroine of the Hans Christian Anderson children's story, Thumbelina.

Usage 1: Her flatmate has the worst Thumbelina Complex. [implies the girl is hostile and short]

Usage 2: Don't get on her bad side; she's a bit of a Thumbelina. [implies the girl might shank you, albeit in the leg]

RACHEL AT THE WEDDING

Ooooooh man. I paid $14.50 to see this movie.

The venue was an old, fabulous fave, the same Arclight in Gritwood where I saw THE DARK KNIGHT a few months back and ATONEMENT with James "hot" McAvoy in the flesh a few months even before that. But the Light is far from me, and gotta admit I wouldn't have made the journey--or paid the money--if it wasn't for the face that the slightly cheaper, nearer upscale half-indy cinema option on the Westside was sold out. Sold out. Sold out at a sowing of the Most Random Movie of the Year. Congrats, RACHEL, you just got that award. And with my shoddy luck this upcoming awards season, I fear we haven't seen the last of you.

RACHEL (and her wedding) was bizarre, colorful, weird. It was the shakiest hand-held camera work since that drippy nose scene in BLAIR WITCH--which I didn't see for a reason--except it had more musicians. Weird musicians. Not only did RACHEL have the most antagonisingly monotonous scoring since THERE WILL BE BLOOD, but its plot was off, too. It felt...real and yet fake at the same time. Like...I felt like I was in this movie, at this wedding. But in the '60s. This progressive white woman was marrying a big, jazz-playin' black man who wore glasses with tinted frames Lennon-style, ALL THE TIME, while a gigantic dog roamed the premises, everyone wore Indian saris and shouted "L'Chaim!", musicians kept house by playing around the clock, an old white woman spun hip-hop on her turn tables (yes, this all happened), and I kept begging the minister and the violinist to cut to the chase already and make the whole ceremony end so I could get back to watching new episodes of "Happy Days." Problem was, this movie, I'm pretty sure, takes place in present day. That is, in 2008. And that made it the most eclectic upper middle class slice of life since THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, but with a stark lack of everything that makes that film so humorous. Put in a little more drug abuse, a few more suicide attempts, some bad--really bad--violin...and take out Angelica Huston, Bill Murray, Luke Wilson and well, everyone from that cast...and sit in one of those teacups at Disneyland right after eating runny scrambled eggs...and then take a depressant...and you've got RACHEL AT THE WEDDING.

Now, I should tip my hat to Ms. Hathaway, our leading lady (whose character's name, might I add, is K-Y-M, Kym. Pronounced Kim. Spelt Kym. Detail that went over everyone's heads until the end credits...but after seeing this movie, of COURSE it was spelt that way). Her acting was pretty solid, as was the rest of the cast. When she first stumbled on the scene with un-pretty short hair but with a cigarette hanging from her almost Jolie-pretty pout, I immediately thought, "Miscast." Sorry, Anne. I thought the same thing in BROKEBACK, too. But by the time she'd blinked back a few tears while a violin whined in the background, I thought, "Wow, you're pretty good at this whole acting thing." She impressed me--about halfway through the movie and then onward until the end--as did the rest of the cast, all who brilliantly seemed to step into the tragic lives of the parts they played so seamlessly, I often forgot I was watching a movie at all, as I said, and instead felt, at times, that I had somehow...unfortunately...fallen right into their lives. Luckily that wasn't the case.

plot: Dysfunctional family seeks no therapy.
thought: Please don't release a soundtrack.
in five: 2.5/5 (the acting was raw and real, and that's what raised it...from a 2 to a 3, but the randomness of everything else brought it back down)

tune in or out: http://www.sonyclassics.com/rachelgettingmarried/

ALERT: Nat'l Stay at Home Week, Not an Actual Holiday

ABC has declared last week and this week (i.e., 14 days, i.e. the longest week ever, and/or actually a fortnight) National Stay at Home Week. It's in an effort to promote their fall lineup and, apparently, endanger children from excelling academically. The school system doesn't recognise secular holidays, ABC. Don't you know if someone misses that many days of school, they're in danger of--gulp--being retained?

Well, I'm onto ABC, and I'd like to spread the news: despite your hatred for dressing in mildly defined "business casual" and your secret love for Maury Povich, this is not a real holiday.

FIVE THINGS THAT DISCREDIT THE PROMISE OF NATIONAL STAY AT HOME WEEK:
1. Staying at home, between the hours of nine and five, actually results in very little good television. The View. One Life to Live. General Hospital. Seriously? No, thanks. I quit watching 1L2L years ago, and Grey's is the new GH. Duh.

2. Yesterday was Rosh Hashanah, so everyone (Jewish) was already home. Give or take a month of Ramadan, I don't know of too many overlapping holidays.

3. ABC claims to be sponsoring the week, but most of the good shows are on other networks. Cable networks. I'm more excited about HBO's "Entourage," AMC's "Madmen," Showtime's "Dexter" and SNL's recap of the Sarah Palin interview than "Ugly Betty." Sorry, America.

4. The one good show of the whole week--yes, my lovelies, that's Grey's Anatomy--conflicts with "The Office" on NBC. And I think it comes right after "30 Rock," also on NBC, so my DVR hiccups into stupidity trying to record three programs for the 30 seconds that they usually overlap. No holiday that doesn't involve extended relatives should be this hard to program.

5. I asked my boss if I could have this new, national holiday off from work. He frowned. I don't think he, or the HR Department, has heard of the holiday.

At any rate, this faux-holiday is obviously misnamed. Other more suitable titles include:
1. National Stay-Up-Late-to-Catch-Up-on-Your-DVR Week
2. National (Jewish) Stay at Home Week
3. National Upgrade to HBO and Showtime Week
4. National And This is Why I Tivo Gossip Girl Week
5. National Just Stay at Work and Watch That Stuff Online Between Meetings Week

If you should feel so curious: click here.