Amour (France/Austria/2012)

by

Julien Faddoul

***  (3 stars)

wd – Michael Haneke

ph – Darius Khondji

pd – Jean-Vincent Puzos

ed – Nadine Muse, Monika Willi

cos – Catherine Leterrier

p – Margaret Ménégoz

Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Alexandre Tharaud, William Shimell

The act of watching a movie is in-part an extended act of voyeurism. We are being allowed to observe the lives of the characters from the safe distance behind this mystic box they call “a camera”, and most of the time we see things that society would never allow us to see in life. What a devilish and exhilarating act! With this in mind, the question is raised as to whether what we feel when we see things we shouldn’t be seeing is a natural human reaction or a hardened manifestation that we have been conditioned to feel through the permissiveness of the culture? The answer to this is within the way the voyeuristic offense has been served to us. When people are dying willy-nilly in Total Recall (2012) we feel nothing because the presentation has disguised the voyeuristic truth. Yet a single slap in the face in an Ozu film is a shocking tremor to behold.

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (although he was born in Germany and has worked predominately in France) has constructed an oeuvre on voyeurism versus desensitization. His latest film, Amour, avows this immediately. The film begins with the most startling jump-scare I’ve seen this year. Authorities brake through the blockaded doors of an abandoned apartment, and the stench of death instantaneously overcomes them. Mr Haneke’s camera fluidly follows the police around the apartment, before settling on the decomposing body of an elderly woman. Then, the word “Amour”, in black-and-white, plastered on the screen.

After this we meet Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), a married couple who are both 80 years old. They are retired, educated music teachers. In fact, when we meet them they are attending the performance of a former favourite student. When they arrive back home they realize that their house has been robbed. We never meet these criminals or witness the crime. The reason we never meet them is because they are us. We, the audience, are in fact the intruders who are about to observe the far too personal goings-on of what led to that opening shot.

The next morning, in an agonizing, beautifully acted scene, Anne suffers a stroke. Mr Haneke has continually been accused of presenting a cold view of the world. I have never agreed with this. His austerity, much like Ozu, is born out of the voyeuristic decisions he makes to show how his characters (who occupy the same world as us) love one another. When it was announced what the title of his new film would be, people joked. I didn’t. For Mr Haneke has always made movies where we see what love is behind closed doors. The conundrum occurs because many people’s definition of love is incorrect. They say “Love”, when they really mean “Romance” or “Lust”. Much like Quentin Crisp, Mr Haneke defines love as: the extra effort you make in dealing with people whom you do not like. Amour affirms this.

The austerity is felt within the flow of the film. As always with this filmmaker, scenes begin and/or end never when we expect them to. Sometimes we are allowed to voyeur only through mid-conversation and other times we are given permission to view far beyond the point of necessary information. Both Mr Trintignant and Ms Riva are astonishing. She has only done four films in the last fourteen years, him zero. To see these two greats working again in such complex circumstances is a formidable affair. Ms Riva’s most famous performance being another film with the word "amour" in the title. The always beautiful and brilliant Isabelle Huppert (her third film with Haneke) here plays their extremely concerned daughter.

For me, Michael Haneke’s masterpiece is Cache. In that film there is a moment when one character decides to do something, then does it in front of another character. I dare not reveal what it is. Anyone reading this that has seen the picture knows exactly what I’m talking about. It is a moment that stops the heart unlike anything else any director has done; whether they are working in the thriller genre or not. There is a similar moment in Amour that not only throws everything we have seen into question, but also the reason why we have been allowed to see anything at all. And believe me, “allow” is the correct term.

Amour was awarded the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and a deserving winner it is. It beat out two other great films, Holy Motors (2012) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012). It is a definite, exceptional work of grace and stimulating intelligence by one of the greatest living filmmakers. It is not only one of Mr Haneke’s best films, it is also one of the year’s best.

Pitch Perfect (2012/US)

by

Julien Faddoul

(0 stars)

d – Jason Moore

w – Kay Cannon   (Based on the Book by Mickey Rapkin)

ph – Julio Macat

pd – Barry Robinson

m – Christophe Beck, Mark Kilian

ed – Lisa Zeno Churgin

cos – Salvador Perez Jr

p – Elizabeth Banks, Paul Brooks, Max Handelman

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Skylar Astin, Freddie Stroma, Alexis Knapp, Adam DeVine, Ester Dean, Brock Kelly, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins

Pitch Perfect, directed by Jason Moore and written by Kay Cannon, is by no means a dumb movie. It tells the story of Becca, a young college freshman who is so-over-everything that she tells people they’re dorky right to their faces, oh my! She aspires to be a record producer. She does grunt work at the college radio station and halfheartedly auditions for a prissy, flirtatious, but sisterly a cappella ensemble. They spend the rest of the film harmonizing their way through many pop standards (most of which are premillennial) that even a music-illiterate dummy like me will recognize instantly.

The movie is based on a book by Mickey Rapkin. The rest of the cast includes Anna Camp, Brittany Snow (both of whom are delightful), Adam DeVine, Ester Dean, Skylar Astin and Rebel Wilson. It is 113 minutes long, which is, with all due respect, too long. The reason I feel calling Pitch Perfect dumb is misleading is because it has cognizance. It is aware of the inevitability of the story and the characters. Kendrick and Astin develop a romance that one can see coming from Neptune. It is bubbly, it is buoyant. It is made with skill and precision and is attempting to enter the pantheon of ironic comedies that constantly fill our movie screens.

The reason I can’t quite recommend it, though, is because cognizance is getting old. Pitch Perfect, although is stuffed with many quips, is never really funny or surprising. It does a dishonour to the beautiful memories of Bring it On, Mean Girls and, my personal favourite, Easy A. And Becca is certainly no Olive Penderghast. Irony over purity is a dangerous game, and what Pitch Perfect is trying to be about is certainly not a fool’s game, I am sorry to say that it never actually succeeds. And I badly wanted it to with all my heart. The quips and putdowns are coming at you so fast and furious that the feeling is akin to searching through a pile of discounted clothes until you find a score. You’re constantly digging through a dumpster.

I have a queasy feeling that Anna Kendrick might currently be suffering from typecasting. Once again here she plays a snotty young woman who thinks she knows more than everyone else only to gain a wider perspective by the film’s end. Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Lindsay Lohan and Emma Stone were all there first and it is a shame to pigeonhole Kendrick (who is talented) in this kind of dreary persona.

I am unsold on Rebel Wilson, whom I still consider to be inexplicably popular. The film itself demands that you love her; love her with laughter. Mr Moore and Ms Cannon save almost all the good stuff for her. But the atrocious level of cruelty that all the characters that she doesn’t play in her movies (Bridesmaids, Bachelorette, What to Expect When You’re Expecting) treat her with still comes across as a rather dubious ploy by an emerging actress to gain popularity. Her character’s name in this movie is Fat Amy, a title she calls herself. Get it? Do you love her yet? She has skill, but I have yet to see talent.

Pitch Perfect feels that if it tries to be about something that is not as noble as other films that it can get away with being sub-par. It can’t. And I know that there is a delightful teen comedy buried within Pitch Perfect bursting to get out. Maybe next time.

Crisp Criticism - "A Cat in Paris", "Chico and Rita", "Lawless", "On the Road", "Killer Joe"

A Cat in Paris (2012/France)   **

In Paris, a cat who lives a secret life as a cat burglar's aide must come to the rescue of the little girl he lives with, after she falls into a gangster's clutches.

A trifle: a congenial animated comedy/thriller with a quaint charm to its simplistic animation. But one forgets it once it’s over.

wd – Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli

pd – Jean-Loup Felicioli

m – Serge Besset

ed – Herve Guichard

p – Jacques-Remy Girerd

Cast: Dominique Blanc, Bernadette Lafont, Bruno Salomone, Jean Benguigui, Oriane Zani, Bernard Bouillon

Chico and Rita (2012/)   *

A young Cuban piano player falls for a beautiful nightclub singer.

A somewhat disappointing endeavour, marrying astute animation and a ripe style with dull characters and a duller story. Even the music seems deficient.

d – Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal, Fernando Trueba

w – Ignacio Martinez de Pison, Fernando Trueba

m – Bebo Valdes

ed – Arnau Quiles

p – Santi Errando, Cristina Huete, Martin Pope, Michael Rose

Cast: Limara Meneses, Eman Xor Oña, Mario Guerra

Lawless (2012/US)   **

A bootlegging gang in Franklin County, Virginia is threatened by a new deputy who wants a cut of their profits.

Although the narrative doesn’t flow as a whole, with missing beats, needless longueurs and unnecessary asides, this is an effective and gripping gangster picture that pleasantly goes for purity rather than irony.

d – John Hillcoat

w – Nick Cave   (Based on the Novel by Matt Bondurant)

ph – Denoit Delhomme

pd – Chris Kennedy

m – Nick Cave, Warren Ellis

ed – Dylan Tichenor

cos – Margot Wilson

p – Douglas Wick, Michael Benaroya, Megan Ellison, Lucy Fisher

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Dane DeHaan

On the Road (2012/US/UK/Brazil/France)

A young writer, his free-spirited friend and the friend’s girl travel across America and encounter a mix of people who each impact them.

Fake, empty, dreary adaptation of Kerouac’s novel that never adheres to the desired charisma of its apparent time, setting and inhabitants because it’s too caught up with the imbecilic fashions of modern cinema, which include constant jump-cutting, celebrity cameos, naked flesh, murky photography and a nostalgic score. A complete failure.

d – Walter Salles

w – Jose Rivera   (Based on the Novel by Jack Kerouac)

ph – Eric Gautier

pd – Carlos Conti

m – Gustavo Santaolalla

ed – Francois Gédigier

cos – Danny Glicker

p – Charles Gillibert, Nathanaël Karmitz, Rebecca Yeldham

Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Alice Braga, Elisabeth Moss, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Steve Buscemi, Terrence Howard, Marie-Ginette Guay

Killer Joe (2012/US)   **

When a debt puts a young man's life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.

A film that blatantly makes one question one’s own reaction to it, even on the simplest level of whether it is enjoyable or not. It contains savage repugnance, a fearless cast and some awkward lurches, with its stage origins intrusively obvious. More than anything, it is an example of the mastery of its director who, in his mid-seventies, is still finding new areas of the ocean to swim in.

d – William Friedkin

w – Tracy Letts   (Based on the Play by Tracy Letts)

ph – Caleb Deschanel

pd – Franco-Giacomo Carbone

m – Tyler Bates

ed – Darrin Navarro

cos – Peggy A. Schnitzer

p – Nicolas Chartier, Scott Einbinder

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, Thomas Haden Church, Marc Macaulay

Crisp Criticism - "Looper", "Taken 2", "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted"

Looper (2012/US)   ***

In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits.

Violent, engrossing, highly impressive time-travel picture that finds ways to go in unexpected directions and surprises right up to the final scene. It is dynamically filmed.

wd – Rian Johnson

ph – Steve Yedlin

pd – Ed Verreaux

m – Nathan Johnson

ed – Bob Ducsay

cos – Sharen Davis

p – Ram Bergman, Jams D. Stern

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, Pierce Gagnon, Garret Dillahunt, Qing Xu

Taken 2 (2012/US)

In Istanbul, a retired CIA operative and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper he killed while rescuing his daughter.

Putrid piece of action cinema aimed at the lowest common denominator. No denominator could be this low.

d – Olivier Megaton

w – Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

ph – Romain Lacourbas

pd – Sébastien Inizan

m – Nathaniel Mechaly

ed – Camille Delamarre, Vincent Tabaillon

cos – Pamela Lee Incardona

p – Luc Besson

Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, D.B. Sweeney, Luke Grimes, Rade Serbedzija

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012/US)  **

The four animals from the New York Zoo continue their journey trying to get back by disguising themselves as a travelling circus.

d – Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, Conrad Vernon

w – Eric Darnell, Noah Baumbach

pd – Kendal Cronkhite

m – Hans Zimmer

ed – Nick Fletcher

p – Mireille Soria, Mark Swift

Cast: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Tom McGrath, Frances McDormand, Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short, Chris Miller