[left][font=Verdana][color=lemonchiffon][size=2]Again, it's been a long time since I wrote here the last time...[/color][/left][color=lemonchiffon]Not about the film (brief thoughts):[/color] [left][color=lemonchiffon]It would be very offensive to talk about cinema with nationalities. Cinema has no boundaries, so it
would be very incorrect to say that all French films are very alike. But it happens that we could connect different characteristics from completely different movies depending on their origins. This film, ?Peindre ou fer l?amour? has a similar style to Laurent Cantet?s ?Vers le sud? (Heading South) because of its calm, good dialogues and illumination. Anyway, each movie must be a unique product of its own, and only comparable to other films by the same director. I say these things because I don?t like when people sees a non-USA film and starts to compare this one to other films created in the same country. Do they compare USA movies to all other USA movies? Nowadays, when all-the-world?s-cinema-experiences are mixed, in my opinion, seems ridicule to talk about cinema and political borders. Having said that, for avoiding any misunderstanding, I don?t mean that it's wrong to say ?this is a French or Asian or Palestine or American movie?, what is wrong (in my opinion, of course) is comparing films between other films created in the same zone without any good reason.[/color][/left] [left][/size]About the movie (review):[/left][left][/font][/left] [center]"PAINT OR TO MAKE LOVE"[/center][center][/center] [left][color=lemonchiffon]William (Auteuil) and Madeleine (Azéma) are a happy middle aged couple who start a new life when they both have bought a house in a quiet place in the mountain. There they will meet and become friends with the mayor of the town (Lopez), a blind man, and his woman (Casar). Everything leads to a normal and relaxing life, with enough free time to make love and sometimes, making love. Well, Madeleine paints too. This is an erotic drama, with some beautiful and smart moments. The four leading roles are performed by great professionals and all four are very convincing, but Sergi Lopez (with his funny Catalan-French accent) and Sabine Azéma are the ones who really shine here (I?m sorry for Auteuil, but his role is played a bit similar as in ?Caché?). There are some situations that are incredibly achieved by the directors (the Larrieu brothers), who eliminate the obvious things and show the necessary to understand the characters. But they fail in some aspects too. Apart of the weak soundtracks and theme songs (in my opinion, are horrible, but sincerely, those don?t fit very well in this picture), the rhythm of the whole product is a bit slow, and the dialogues are not sharpened enough as they could have been. Everything is all the time in the same frequency of drama. There are no surprises but there?s a bit of mystery (which are different concepts). So, the problem that ?Painting or Making Love? has is that it goes blind to the world of sensuality and feelings. And this is a movie, not a radio program![/color][/left][center][/center]
June 21, 2006
