Dubbed Happy Birthday in English, this French film by Cedric Kahn has had some poor reviews. It is not that bad but suffers from some excesses in the story, direction and action and probably some misleading advertising. It is not a sort of family get together comedy although it has pretensions in that area.
The setting, a rambling rural house where three children and their partners and grandchildren get together to celebrate the birthday of the grandmother (Catherine Deneuve)
gives the impression that it will be one of those films in which the family skeletons and secrets get an airing in an idyllic location,
this time Lot-en-Garonne near Bordeaux. The skeletons are there but mostly it is about the reaction of the family to the return of the bipolar sister Claire (Emmanuelle Bercot), who swings wildly from enchanting aunt to screaming virago.
The climax of the film at a candlelit dinner is actually more scary and sad than anything else. How do you cope with family madness? It is not just Claire but her brother Romain
is also rather crazy and the extent of this becomes clear in an epilogue. Some scenes here were over the top such as the visit of the real estate agent to the house with Claire bouncing up and down on the beds with a lascivious look but mostly the story and acting was credible enough. Perhaps some of the plot developments were a little overwritten
or calculated (the children’s play and Romain and his girlfriend getting high) but we will accept the poetic licence.
I liked Bercot even if she was completely over-the-top at times. 
Deneuve didn’t have that much to do and Vincent Macaigne got into part as Romain. Someone just needed to put him in his place.
♦♦+
A second opinion confirms the first doctor. A visit to a shaman “cleans” him but doesn’t seem to help. 
Nonetheless, the shaman tells him a story about a drake masquerading as a duck
to escape being caught by the grim reaper and Egor processes this as a clue to an option that might have an answer for him – dressing as a woman.
He does so and, apart from the adverse reaction of his wife, he has to face the none too benign curiosity of his neighbours obliging him to become a pariah in his own Siberian village.
A place that may be the present time but seems largely unchanged for centuries. This is a very deep and meaningful film patiently told with a fairly minimal script.
It speaks of our relation to nature (excellent forest scenes), of our social constructs which bind us, of faith, of the unknown, of love and of the search for miracles.
Akeksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova
tell the story in a beautiful way, never preaching or judging. Evgeniy Tsyganov as Egor does not speak for half the film but conveys so much in his stare and his body
and Natalya Kudryashova as his wife is more than a match. Excellent photography from Mart Taniel.
this film is about how the latter becomes a writer on Katherine’s show and because she stands up for herself in a way the male writers don’t and is from a minority race, is able to help Katherine save her show and her ratings.
Some of the observations about television and the stressful artificial role of ratings, especially since the revelations about Ellen being a bitch on the set have surfaced.
A fairly sharp script. One or two good bit parters including the guy who starred in Richard Jewell – Paul Walter Hauser.
who emerged from the TV series The Office and has largely carved out a career in television. Here, she is effective as a change agent but I don’t find her anything special either in terms of presence or acting. Rather a cypher (awkward new girl who achieves more than she should).
and found it cluttered with all sorts of extra subplots (former affairs, charitable causes) and a fairly tame denouement that didn’t really convince.
but after building up a lovely bit of tension over the first two thirds unravels in rather a ridiculous way in the final part. The subject matter is also a Korean favourite, the excesses of the monied classes and their often despicable behaviour to maintain their wealth and status.
starting to lose his marbles and bedding the Filipino maid which causes a big fight with his wife, the matriarch (Yuh-Jung Youn, enjoying her Lady Macbeth role).
She is in fact the heiress of the company and her father still whizzes in and out in a wheelchair pushed by a sinister housemaid. Dad is half crazy, half wise. There are 2 kids, Chul, who wants to put his stamp on the company but keeps getting into trouble with the law and sent to prison and Nami, a divorced daughter who lives at home and is rather unimpressed with the family behaviour.
All of this is seen through the eyes of the driver/gofer Joo (Kang-woo Kim), a handsome if somewhat put upon servant. 
His duties include packing bribe money and bedding the old lady. As the father loses his grip, more and more duties fall on Joo and he is dragged into the family mire.
Then, however, we have a murder, a suicide attempt, some mile-high sex, a ghost and a pointless fist fight supposedly to resolve everything and it loses a lot of credibility. Still, it is an enjoyable watch, just needed to be a lot tighter as a story.
is an academic who decides at the age of 35 that he can only be true to himself if he lives his life as a woman from now on. He stresses he is not gay, simply trapped in the wrong body. This film takes a look at Laurence over the course of ten years or so and his transformation is certainly gradual. By the end, we are still not sure if he has had a sex change and his wardrobe changes are still far from instant.
Nonetheless, in the early 90’s of Montreal, this is enough to cost him his job. He has a girlfriend, Fred(erique),
a budding film maker and the film is largely about their relationship. The initial adjustments, a later break up, a potential return, etc. Subplots deal with Laurence’s relationship with his parents, his colleagues and a new family of “music hall artists” that befriend him. Much of this is rambling but natural.
the two principals on an island in winter with clothes falling above them, a blowout fight in a small restaurant, etc. Dolan is not afraid to be creative and get you believing something that on paper sounds dubious. There is also a real sense of what Montreal life must have been like in those times,
especially winter.
but not great, it is left to Suzanne Clément
as Fred to take the acting laurels in this movie. She is very satisfactory in a difficult but rewarding role. Nathalie Baye
as Laurence’s mother is fine in support and there are a number of other good actors in bit parts. Great set design, costumes and hairstyles.
than the sex side.
and lifts what is otherwise a very uneven movie. It tells the story of Marceau, who went from being a butcher’s assistant and frustrated actor to being a key member of the French resistance smuggling Jewish orphans out of the country for which he was awarded the Legion of Honour. If you came looking for mime, there is some but not too much. 
The film is basically a retelling of how Jewish orphans were received in France from Nazi Germany in the late 30’s only to have to be relocated once again when the Nazis occupied France. Marcel, his brother, cousin and two sisters, one of whom, Emma is his love interest (Clemence Poésy)
are among the leaders of this particular group. First, they move from Strasbourg to Lyon where Marcel’s skills as a forger are also used and there is a rather daring and improbable freeing by Marcel of his cousin George from a Nazi van.
Torture scenes follow between the sisters and Klaus Barbie, German head of command here. Barbie is charismatically played by Matthias Schweighofer
but he is an absolute bastard as are all the other Nazis here. The final section relates the crossing of the Alps into Switzerland, a perilous journey to safety.
I know people respond better to stories of individuals than of masses but this is almost too obvious.
While this is undoubtedly one of his best performances, he still seems like the American star in a European film although I did like his efforts at mime.
in the Free State. Janno
is a 15 year old who is learning the ropes as the eldest child and only son of Jan and Marie who are trying to keep the farm afloat
in the difficult economic conditions and with the spectre of the racial issues still present but unexplored here. Life in this part of South Africa is very conservative, religious and austere.
Janno’s life changes when his parents take in a teenage runaway and street kid, Pieter.
First, he has to be detoxicated and then Janno is expected to treat him as a brother and, being an obedient son, he tries to do so. Pieter is somewhat feral, a survivor of teenage prostitution, both seeking and rejecting love and a home and with an instinct that quickly sniffs out things like the state of the parent’s marriage and Janno’s own latent homosexuality.
Pieter’s presence ends up being a test for the whole family, one the parents feel they have to face up to as being of God’s will. Matters eventually come to a head and take unexpected turns.
take advantage of the bleak landscape and produce an attractive work with Evgueni and Sacha Galperine producing an appropriate soundtrack. Brent Vermeulen as Janno and Alex Van Dyk are totally convincing as the boys and dominate most of the scenes.
I look forward to Kallos’s next work.
it depicts the start of the military wives’ choirs that emerged during the Afghanistan campaigns and the need of the women to do things to keep them occupied.
It is all fairly glossy and superficial and you can see where the story is going a long way off but in fairness it steams along well enough to be watchable.
Part of this is due to the casting of Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan
as the choir’s leaders, Kate
and Lisa, both stubborn determined women provide a fair few duels as each tries to impose her way of running the choir.
There are two or three really good scenes and the rest is pretty much cliché.
whose suggestive jokes would be totally unacceptable now. The protesters are led by Sally Alexander (aspiring history student and played here by Keira Knightley in her most Keira mode)
and Jo Robinson (Jessie Buckley), a defiant red-head of a very different background.
. Black, intelligent and an air hostess,
she marks the start of a new pattern which allows for non-white girls to accede to the crown and she stands in between the “patriarchy” and the women’s libbers, pointing out that for some girls this contest is a chance to escape worse oppression. 
Gugu Mbatha-Raw gives a dignified performance in this role.
But despite the above cast and other stalwarts like Rhys Ifans as Morley and Lesley Manville as Hope’s wife, this is a relatively slight movie, carefully reproducing the era but seeming very out of date.
and is one of the last to leave.
She does all the gofer work: makes photocopies, fixes the photocopier, keeps meeting rooms clear, receives stocks and supplies, books taxis and hotels, rearranges meetings and helps show new employees the ropes. She is treated like an automaton, frequently criticized and shown no sympathy by her colleagues. The unseen boss is a Weinstein like figure capable of screaming down the phone at her and then sending her an email saying he is tough on her because she is so good. As a portrayal of corporate America it is damning.
That employees work in such a state of fear and disrespect reflects ill on this business and on society.
is excellent as Jane, having to convey much of what she is feeling in minimal facial movements and slight body shifts. Matthew MacFadyen
as the HR boss is suitably cynical. Haunting music by Tamar Kali.
passionfilm 