Terminator Genisys [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (1 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  

Terminator Genisys [2015] (directed by Alan Taylor, screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier based on the characters created by James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd) is the fifth installment in the Terminator story/franchise.

The series throughout has gloried in appropriating Biblical / Christian concepts and recasting them in IMHO often fascinating / thought-provoking ways.

The basic story line was outlined in the first Terminator [1984] film (which came out when I was a college student).  In that film, both a "Monstrous" mechanical "Terminator" (played by young Arnold Schwarzenegger) and an "Angelic" (though human) warrior figure named Kyle Reese (played in the original film by Michael Biehn) were sent back from the Future to Los Angeles of 1984 to find a lowly waitress named Sarah Conner (played in the original film by Linda Hamilton), note Sarah's "Biblical name."  The monstrous mechanical "Terminator" (as fierce as ANY DRAGON, like that of the 12th Chapter of the Book of Revelation) was sent back to FIND AND KILL Sarah Conner, while the "Angelic" Kyle Reese was sent to PROTECT HER by her Son, John Conner (note the initials "J.C.").  Why?  Because, Sarah's son, John ("J.C.") Conner would grow up to SAVE HUMANITY in an Apocalyptic battle with interconnected sentient machinery which, born of human arrogance, that is, Sin, had decided (in a "monstrous nanosecond") to destroy Humanity, its unpredictable maker.  (Readers note here that my thesis paper at the end of my seminary years was based On the Marian Imagery of the Terminator (1996)).  

The rest of the subsequent Terminator series continued with explorations of the relationships between (1) Humanity and Computers / Machinery and (2) Humanity and (Super) Humanity, that is, something approaching Divinity: Would a person arriving from the future to a previous age be perceived by people of that previous age to be at minimum "angelic" / "superhuman" or perhaps even "Divine"?  Could a super-intelligent, super-capable machine or perhaps an "machine enhanced person" begin to appear "Superhuman to Divine"?

The current film certainly continues to explore these questions as well as some of the paradoxes of time travel (If one were to go back in time to change an event in the past, could one, "poof," just destroy one's own future existence, or would one continue to exist then in the "new present" ;-)

In any case, in the current film near the end of the climactic battle with the machines, Kyle Reese (played now by Jai Courtney) is sent by John Conner (played by Jason Clarke) back to 1984 to find / save Sarah Conner (played now by Emilia Clarke) as in the first movie ... BUT ... the circumstances of Sarah (and really of the world) have been changed by the time traveling interventions that have occurred in the intervening movies (YES dear readers, keeping track of the effects of time traveling thoughout the film-series is enough to make your heads spin ;-).  Indeed, an Arnold Schwarzenegger-playing cyborg is a now "Guardian" PROTECTING Sarah Conner rather than seeking to destroy her (something that poor Kyle Reese, who's spent his whole life battling machines, had a difficult time wrapping his head around).

Still the basic goal of Reese / Sarah Conner (by now very well informed about the future battle with technology) is to find the point in which the Machines would lash out at Humanity (Judgement Day) and STOP IT.

That day turns out to be in 2017, when a new GeniSys ("Killer") Ap is supposedly going to be lauched which promised to "seemlessly link together all the gadgets of the world" to form a universal (or at least world-wide) "SkyNet."

So Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner have to then jump from 1984 to 2017 to stop this ... and ... much then ensues... ;-)

AMONG that which ensues is an exploration of a new "interesting quasi theological question" (in the context of the whole Terminator storyline / franchise): If John Conner, born of a human mother (and of an "angelic" human father from the future ...) could be understood as a (Christ-like) "Savior figure" for humanity, what would an "anti-John Conner" look like and how would he come to be (created/conceived)?

Anyway, all the "Apocalyptic" violence aside (something that has also been part-and-parcel of the whole Terminator franchise...), I continued to enjoy some of the more thought provoking aspects of the story ;-)


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Krásno [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CSFD listing*
FDB.cz listing*

Aktuálne.cz (J. Gregor) review*
ČervenýKoberec.cz (J. Kábrt) review*
Česká Televize (M. Šobr) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*
Lidovky.cz (M. Kabát) review*

Krásno [2014] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* (directed and cowritten by Ondřej Sokol [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* along with Martin Finger [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* and Petr Vydra [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) closes-out the 2015 Czech That Film Tour organized by the Czech Foreign Ministry / Ministry of Culture, which makes its stop this month (June, 2015) at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.

The film is a smart (perhaps too "smart" for its own good) noirish dark comedy that borrows/applies the conventions of similar American / Western films -- influences would range from The Hangover [2009] / Pain and Gain [2013] to Martin McDonagh's In Bruges [2009] / Seven Psychopaths [2012], to the Coen Brothers' Fargo [1996] to the Humphrey Bogart "Noir just before it came to be called Noir" classic The Maltese Falcon [1941] -- to spin a very contemporary Czech story.  The effect though may have been to produce a film that was more provocative than intended ;-).

The story is about two quite well-off, approaching 40, hence no longer entirely young men, Adam (played by Ondřej Sokol [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) and Michal (played by Martin Finger [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) coming back, after some (not a huge amount, but some) years, presumably from Prague to the (NOT tiny but still quite provincial) town of their birth, Šumperk (in German it used to be called Mährisch Schönberg) in the Olomouc region of northern Moravia in the Czech Republic.

It's clear that that the two disdained going back.  True the region was nominally BEAUTIFUL (the film's title "Krásno" arguably means "beautiful" in Czech), but both appear to find the town's nominal beauty kitsch / quaint and, more to the point, below its facade, FAKE.  In the Czech dialogue of the film, the word "krásno" (or one or another derivative) appears with some frequency and almost always in the context of using something "lovely" to hide / cover-over some kind of ugliness.

And let's face it, there'd be A LOT OF HORROR / AWFULNESS to find "beneath the surface" of "quiant, lovely provincial" Šumperk [en.wikip] [cs.wikip] [de.wikip] BEGINNING with the Czechified name of "Šumperk" itself:

Though historically part of the Lands of the Czech Crown (the Czechlands) -- Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia -- prior to Czech(oslovak) independence in 1918, the town of Mährisch Schönberg (Šumperk) was almost entirely populated with ethnic (SUDETEN) GERMANS with a significant JEWISH minority.  The Czech population, small prior to Czechoslovak independence, increased in the interwar period because the town was a fairly significant borderland railroad junction and the Czechoslovak government needed the trains to run through the region reliably (with Czech workers).  Enter the War: the town along with the surrounding region was annexed to Nazi Germany as part of the infamous 1938 Munich Pact.  DURING THE WAR, the previous Jewish population in the region was largely exterminated in the Nazi Holocaust (and the ethnic Czechs would have been expelled).  Then AFTER THE WAR the Czechs returned and armed with the Beneš Decrees promptly EXPELLED ALL THE ETHNIC GERMANS, repopulating this "picturesque town" (and others just like it) with Czechs and Slovaks not only from Czechoslovakia proper but also with Czechs resettled from Western Ukraine (the Russians had taken those lands from the Poles...) and Slovaks from Romania.  Add then a sizable number of GREEK (Communist) refugees from the post-WW II Greek Civil War and Roma (Gypsies) from all over the country, ALL TO MAKE THE "PICTURESQUE TOWN" NOT _SEEM_ SO VACANT.  Now why would it be VACANT?  Because MOST OF ITS ORIGINAL RESIDENTS -- BOTH JEWISH AND GERMAN were either DEAD or otherwise EXPELLED.

So ... what a "lovely town" ... "beautiful it is, really ..."

'Cept, neither of the approaching 40-year-olds, Adam and Michal, returning back to the town were at all that concerned about the monumentally awful history of the town in which they grew-up.  Instead, what they hated about the town was that it had seemed "SO BORING."

Now WHY would it be so?  Just think about it for a minute: What would ANYONE of any AUTHORITY from parents to local government ("back in the day" Communist) officials "talk about" when these two were growing up? ... When 9/10 people living there (including they themselves) were LIVING ON OTHER PEOPLE'S PROPERTY, IN OTHER PEOPLE'S HOMES, EVEN USING OTHER PEOPLE'S DISHES, LINENS and FURNITURE as their own.  Of course the town's going to be BORING ... NO ONE is going to be talking ABOUT ANYTHING ... substantial.

So the two had fled the town as soon as they could for far more excitement, elsewhere, in Prague.  Now they were returning for reasons for which one often returns home even if one doesn't particularly want to: family matters. 

'Cept those family matters were not particularly "pretty either."  Michal's father was dying, but Michal was convinced that his father and his current wife Blanka (played by Jana Pehrová-Krausová [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) had somehow a hand in his psychologically troubled mother's death some years back: She had been in and out of psychiatric institutions for years, but despite having Blanca as a mistress, Michal's father had never divorced her.  Then Michal's mother had been found, drowned at a boating pier by a (lovely) local reservoir.  But she also showed signs of possibly being strangled.  But perhaps she tried to hang herself first, and when that didn't work, went out to the reservoir to drown herself ... or ... maybe "she was helped / pushed / etc."  In any case, Blanca moved into Michal's father's flat quite soon after her death...  Now, some years later, Michal's dad was dying (of cancer) as well.

Michal's coming back home, because "that's what you do, when one of your parents is ill" but he has very little to say to his dying dad and even less to say to his dad's second wife.  Adam has even less interest to return to a town that he really disdained, but is coming along because "that's what you do, when your friend is in a tough time" to support Michal.  Much, sometimes funny / increasingly not, ensues ...

But isn't it all so krásno (beautiful) here ... where "nothing ever happens"?


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser.  

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Ted 2 [2015]

MPAA (R) CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review


There are a fair number of things that I can say with absolute certainty about Ted 2 [2015] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Seth Macfarlane along with Alan Sulkin and Wellesey Wild) -- (1) the film's NOT going to win any Academy Awards Nominations this year, and (2) like its predecessor Ted [2012], it will gleefully get an "O" (morally offensive) rating from the CNS/USCCB media office.

Yes, the R-RATING is RICHLY, indeed WILDLY DESERVED.  Why?  PARENTS TAKE NOTE: If your kid didn't know what a "bong" was or how to "give a BJ" before seeing the film, your kid will DEFINITELY KNOW AFTERWARDS.  So parents, would you want your 10 year-old or 12 year-old to know _those kind of things_ already?  Hence, the film's R-(not without parental consent) rating ...

So why see / review a film like this at all?  Well, (1) I do believe that I could very safely "bet the collection" that easily half the parish will gleefully, smiling-from-ear-to-ear see the movie (though hopefully NOT with the youngest of kids...).   I do "know our people" ;-) and as long as the kids stayed at home -- NO the film would NOT be an "AYO / youth group activity" ;-) -- I'd probably happily join them ;-); (2) LIKE its predecessor, Ted [2012], the film IS OFTEN VERY FUNNY and (3) even in the midst of often stunningly stupid jokes actually tells some fairly good cautionary stuff:

Case(s) and point:

(1) We're told fairly early in the film that Teddy-bear Ted's (voiced by Seth Macfarlane) best human friend forever John (played by Mark Wahlberg), who had apparently married his love interest in the first movie (played then by Mila Kunis) is now divorced.  Poor Mila ... (not appearing in the current film).  Anyway, Ted discovers that John, depressed, is now addicted to porn.  He tells John, "OMG, you have to get rid of this stuff"  "Yes, yes, I'll erase it all."  "But that's not going to do it, we have to take a hammer to your laptop." They do.  But then how to get rid of the pieces?  "We're going to have to bury them in the bottom of Boston Harbor ..." Ted suggests.  And so a sequence follows showing both Walhberg AND TED in scuba gear burying a white plastic trash bag with the pieces of John's old laptop in the sea bed of Boston Harbor ... ;-).  YES, PORN'S A PROBLEM ... and YES, HOW DO YOU GET RID OF IT (completely, without much of a trace) FROM YOUR COMPUTER ONCE IT'S THERE ... ? ;-)

(2) The current film begins with the magically living Teddy-bear Ted getting married to a sweet / heart of gold (but ex-hooker) named Tami-Lynn (played by Jessica Barth).  A year into their marriage, they "run into problems."  To save it, they decide to have a kid, never mind that Ted, well can't (he's a FREAKIN' STUFFED though MAGICALLY LIVING / TALKING TEDDY BEAR ...) .  Anyway, after "exploring" various "means" of getting a sperm donor, they're told another hard lesson: Due to Tami-Lynn's previous hard-living lifestyle ... she can't have kids anyway.  (YES FOLKS, "hard living" does have UNINTENTIONAL / UN-THOUGHT-THROUGH CONSEQUENCES...).

So after realizing that they can't have children, the two decide to adopt.  And that's where they realize that they have a whole other level of problems.  They're told that "technically" Ted's not even a human being.  Well, yeah ... And that's where the film really begins, the film (3) becomes a parable about all sorts of past practices of discrimination, against blacks, women and gays ...

Recently graduated (from "loser" / notorious "party school" A.S.U. ;-) Samantha L. Jackson (played by Amanda Seyfried), yes "Sam L. Jackson",  becomes their lawyer ...

Much often quite funny, indeed jaw-dropping ("Did they just say that?") hilarious ensues ...

So the film, as the first, continues to be both a really DUMB sophomoric movie and one that's NOT altogether dumb.  What it certainly is however, is "NOT for the kids ..." ;-)


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Njinga Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013]

MPAA (NR would be PG-13/R)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
AdoroCinema.com listing*

Jornal Angolano de Letras e Artes (A. Quicunga) review*
C7nema.net (R. Nunes) review*
Diario de Noticias.pt (R.P. Tendinha) review*
Jornal Brasil Online review*

RaisNezaBoneza.no (R.N. Boneza) review 


Njinga Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] [IMDb] [AC]* (directed by Sérgio Graciano [IMDb] [AC]* written by Joana Jorge [IMDb]) is an excellent, high quality (Portuguese language / here English subtitled) Angolan historical epic set in the late 1500s-early 1600s in what is today the Southwest African nation of Angola as the Portuguese, and most gallingly Portuguese slave traders, began to increasingly encroach on the traditional kingdoms of the region.

The film played recently as part of the 2015 (13th annual) Chicago African Diaspora Film Festival organized by ArtMattan and hosted by Facets Multimedia in Chicago.

In the film, Ngola (King) Kiluanje (played by Álvaro Miguel [IMDb]) of the then Southwest African kingdom of Ndongo [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]* the father of film's title character Njinga Mbande [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]*(played in the film by former 2008 Miss Angola beauty queen Lesliana Pereira [pt.wkip]*[IMDb] [AC]) is mortally wounded in battle against the Portuguese after refusing concessions, again above all involving the slave trade, being imposed on him by them.

The question becomes who's going to succeed Ngola Kiluanje?  The logical successor would be his son Mbande (played by Jaime Joaquim [IMDb] [AC]).  Alternatively, there's his illegitimate son Njali (played by Miguel Hurst [IMDb] [AC]) and then there is Njinga, who, though a woman, many (elders and otherwise) in the court considered the most capable anyway.

What to do, and above all for the sake of the Kingdom?  Well, that's bulk of the film ...

Njinga proves to be a very adept / wise politician.  She remains in good terms with both of her brothers.  Further, she goes to and negotiates with the Portuguese a treaty on behalf of her brother.  Discovering that it would be to her and her kingdom's advantage if she became a Christian, she gets baptized, taking the Portuguese governor's wife as her Godmother and even taking on her Godmother's name, Ana de Soaza, as her Christian name.

After her brothers' deaths, she becomes Queen of Ndongo [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]* and even of a neighboring kingdom Matamba [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]*.  Then discovering that another European power, the Dutch, were also seeking to make inroads (at the expense of the Portuguese) in the region, SHE PLAYS THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER to her advantage, SUCCEEDING in acheiving FULL INDEPENDENCE of her two kingdoms from the Europeans (not having to pay tribute to either European power) during the remainder of her reign ;-).

Njinga's [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]* was truly a quite remarkable story, and I'm happy that today's Angola  made a very nice / high quality film to tell it.  Good job folks, good job!




 * Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser.  

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The Face of an Angel [2015]

MPAA (R)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C)  The Guardian (1 Star)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review
The Guardian (P. Bradshaw) review
Slant Magazine (C. Dillard) review

The Face of an Angel [2015] (directed by Michael Winterbottom screenplay by Paul Viragh based on the book Angel Face [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Barbie Latza Nadeau [GR] [Amzn]) is a (fictionalized) film about a European born/accented Hollywood screenwriter/director named Thomas (played by Daniel Brühl) sent by a London-based production company to Siena, Italy to research a (fictionalized) sensational murder of an English college student named Elizabeth Pryce (played by Sai Bennett) which paralleled the circumstances of the actual sensational murder of English college student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy on the night of Oct 31-Nov 1, 2007 (Halloween).  

When Thomas arrives at the airport in Italy, he is picked up by American-(or English) ex-pat journalist Simone Forde (played by Kate Beckinsale).  Among her gigs were writing for various American publications out of Italy, including Newsweek and The Daily Beast.  And in the film, she's presented as having written a book entitled "The Face of an Angel" about the murder.  Forde's character is modeled after Barbie Latza Nadeau [GR] [Amzn], an expat journalist based in Italy who has written for Newsweek / The Daily Beast and who wrote the book Angel Face [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] on the Meredith Kercher case. 

Simone's first piece of advice to the arriving / no doubt still jetlagged Thomas is to "fictionalize" the story as "there is truth about this case that can only be written in a fictionalized style."  Va bene, so Thomas and Simone drive off to Siena investigate the fictionalized murder of Elizabeth Pryce (modeled after the actual murder of Meredith Kercher which took place in Perugia) the story of which, in a tip of the hat to Dante's descent into Hell in The Inferno, Thomas eventually decides to set in Florence ;-).

Yes there comes to be a Dantean Descent into Hell / Alice in Wonderland "looking glass" quality to the story that follows.  Among the cabal of paparazzi / journalists / bloggers following the "retrial" of American college student Jessica Fuller (played by Genevieve Gaunt and modeled after actual American college student Amanda Knox first implicated then exonerated in Meredith Kercher's murder) for the murder of Elizabeth Pryce are:

(1) the above mentioned Simone Forde, the American-(or English) expat writing for Newsweek / The Daily Beast;

(2) a Nancy Grace-inspired character named Sarah (played by Sara Stewart) who's been paid a fortune by Jessica Fuller's family to plead her case in the media;

(3) a British tabloid journalist, Joe (played by John Hopkins), whose "great coup" in the reporting on the Pryce murder was getting his hands on and then publishing salacious extracts of Jessica Fuller's diary;

and (4) a really creepy local Italian blogger named Francesco (played by Corrado Invernizzi) who also (we discover as the story progresses) owned a good portion of the rentable (including student) properties in Siena, and who frankly seemed to know way-too-much about the story than he should have.

Again, a true descent into journalistic Hell ...

To try to make sense of the case, and even the student ("partying") culture of today's Siena, Thomas eventually solicits the aide of a Beatrician "guide" in the form of an amiable English college student / barmaid-waitress named Melanie (played by Cara Delevingne). 

Much, often strange / obscured by a drug-induced haze ensues ...

In the end, does the film offer anything new particularly insightful about the tragic murder of Meredith Kercher on that fateful All Hollows Eve of 2007 in Perugia? 

I actually do think the film says a lot ... above all that beyond all the complexities / contradictions in the case ... at the end of the day A MURDER OF A YOUNG ENGLISH WOMAN OCCURRED.  Who did it?  Well ...


And perhaps, that's the horror of it all. 

All in all, IMHO a pretty good rendering of a story that is very difficult to tell.


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To See the Sea (orig. Pojedeme k Moři) [2014]

MPAA (PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CSFD listing*
FDB.cz listing*

Actualne.cz (J. Gregor) review*
CervenyKoberec.cz (E. Bartlová) review*
CeskaTelevize.cz (M. Třešňáková) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*
Respekt.cz (K. Flila) review*

To See the Sea (orig. Pojedeme k Moři) [2014] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* (written and directed by Jiří Mádl [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) is a lovely Czech "Boyhood-like" film that's part of the the 2015 Czech That Film Tour organized by the Czech Foreign Ministry / Ministry of Culture, which makes its stop this month (June, 2015) at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.  Indeed, if not for the release of Boyhood [2014] in the United States at almost exactly the same time last year, the current film could very well have been the Czech Republic's submission to the Oscars  (Instead another excellent though very different film, Fair Play [2014], became the CR's Oscar submission, and also played as part of the 2015 Tour).

The current film is about an 11 year old boy, Tomáš (played by Petr Šimčák [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*), growing-up in the picturesque South Bohemian provincial capital České Budějovice. [Yes, this is the town after which the Anhauser-Busch beer Budweiser derives its name.  And to this day, the town remains famous for its beer, Budvar, which is sold now in the States as "Czechvar"].

Having received a digital camera for his birthday (along with, as he happily explains, a "bundled editing program for the computer") from his parents (played by Ondřej Vetchý [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* and Lucie Trmíková [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*), Tomáš decides to do "what all the great film-makers always tell young people to do... film what you know."  So Tomáš along with his half-Czech / half-Croatian BFF Haris (played by Jan Maršál [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) decide to film the last part (basically the Spring) of their 6th grade year at school.

Much, often cute, often poignant, sometimes quite difficult / sad, ensues ... And since Haris' mom (played by Michaela Majerníková [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) is Croatian, Haris knows something of "the sea" (hence the film's title).

Viewers should remember that this _is_ a film written and directed by the 28-year old previously Czech actor Jiří Mádl [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* in his directorial debut and that Tomáš, Haris, et al are just actors in the story.  The film is also of a quality that would probably exceed the abilities of even the most computer-adept 11-year olds ;-) even if there are some "corny" editing tricks in the film that 11-year-olds would probably "really like." ;-)

I also found it convenient / interesting that I saw the current film on the same weekend as the Pixar/Disney animated feature Inside Out [2015] in which the central protagonist was an 11-year-old girl.  A good part of both films is about the transition from childhood into something more/new ... adolescence.

Finally, I have to hand it to Mádl [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*.  He did a lot of things right in the telling of the story: Tomáš' grandma (played by Jaroslava Pokorná [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) was well drawn (she reminded me honestly a lot of my own Czech grandmother of fond memory) and she played a significant role in the story.  Then both Tomáš' and Haris' households were portrayed as having their secrets which come to be revealed quite well and quite realistically as the story progresses.  Then VERY MUCH TO THE WRITER/DIRECTOR'S CREDIT, he made Haris' CZECH dad "the jerk" as opposed to his Croatian mother (The temptation would have been to make one's own ethnicity, and Mádl is Czech, "the good guy").  Similarly, when Tomáš and Haris find themselves competing "for the girl" a lovely, ever smiling, blond-haired classmate "with a voice of an angel" Stáňa (played by Anastázie Chocholatá [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) the "right person" (for the sake of the story) "got the girl."

So I am quite impressed with 28-year old Mádl [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* as a director.  This was one heck of a first directorial effort.  And his future may not be being a Steven Spielberg [IMDb] or a Miloš Forman [IMDb] , it may be of being a Ron Howard [IMDb] ;-).  Honestly, very good job!


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser.  

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The Rendez-Vous of Déja-Vu (orig. La Fille du 14 Juillet) [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
Allociné.fr listing*

20minutes.fr (S. Leblanc) review*
APUM.com (I. Navarro Mejía) review*
CinEtrange.com (Jérôme) review*
FilmDeCulte.fr (N. Bardot) review*
LeMonde.fr (F. Nouchi) review*
Next.Liberation.fr (B. Icher) review*

SensCritique.com viewer reviews*


The Rendez-Vous of Déja-Vu (orig. La Fille du 14 Juillet) [2014] [IMDb] [AC.fr]* (directed and screenplay by Antonin Peretjatko [IMDb] [AC.fr]* with assistance by Emmanuel Lautréamont [IMDb] [AC.fr]*, Patrick Chaize [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and Luc Catania [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) is a goofy (French) young adult oriented comedy that played recently as part of an eight film Young French Cinema program held the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago and in partnership with UniFrance Films and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy to the United States. 

I write that this is a "(French) young adult oriented comedy" because though the film is -- if one is open to its quite off-the-wall, dry / drôle (TM) humor -- LOL funny, I suspect that a lot of American viewers watching the film would find themselves, mouth-half-open / exasperated / somewhat lost, knowing that they probably should be laughing but admitting (again half-out-loud) "I ... just don't get it."   

"Bie sûr, mais vive la différence" ;-)

The film is about young people in France trying to find their way through an economy that ... like all across the Western world ... doesn't really have serious jobs for them.   A recent Italian comedy based in the same reality I Can Quit Whenever I Want (orig. Smetto Quando Voglio) [2014] played at Chicago's Italian Film Festival last year.

So how are the young people in the current film coping? 

Well, there's Hector (played by Grégoire Tachnakian [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who's landed himself a job as a security guard at the Louvre in Paris.  He spends his off hours hanging-around besides cars that he can't afford, hitting-on (and surprisingly ... the film's universe anyway ...)  picking-up girls ;-). 

There's soon-to-be college-grad "Truquette" (played by Vimala Pons [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who's introduced to us selling "Revolutionary nicknacks ("truquette" means essentially "nicknack") to bystanders during the annual Bastille Day (July 14 / il "14 de Juillet" from which the French title of the film derives) parade:  Come get your "piece of the Revolution" she happily cries out, walking along-side a HUGE row of French armored personnel carriers that apparently were (going to be) part of the Bastille Day parade ... ;-) 

Among the nicknacks she's selling are polyurethane-foam cobble stones ;-).  "Oh don't worry, they're harmless," she tells a potential buyer, throwing one then at the back of the head of a police officer standing by; it bounces off his helmet without him even noticing ...

Somewhat depressed that she's made less than 50 Euros selling her plastic (no doubt "made in China") "revolutionary wares..." she's cheered-up by her BFF Charlotte (played by Marie-Lorna Vaconsin [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) at whose flat she's been crashing.  Charlotte, who also works at the Louvre, tells her that she's found "a cute guy" for her ... Hector.  Now is Hector particularly cute, or particularly "happening" / interesting, etc?  NO ;-).  He's just a random, if amiable, dude with a very simple job (though one supposes, at least he has one...).

And this is honestly _very interesting_ about this film.  In American romances / romcoms, the central protagonists are almost ALWAYS _spectacular_ in some way.  Perhaps the characters don't know (initially) that they are "spectacular."  Perhaps the actors / actresses are suitably "uglified" for a little while before their characters' "spectacularness" is revealed.  But they always come out _spectacular_ by the end ...  Here, certainly the guys, Hector, and then his bearded/early-onset-balding buddy Pator (played by Vincent Macaigne [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) are utterly UN-(!)-spectacular. 

And yet, there they find themselves, in a bar, after Pator loses his fake job -- he's been impersonating a medical doctor for 3 years -- discussing the possibility of "going on vacation" for the rest of July / August ('cause that's what people do in France ;-).  "It'd be quite boring going on vacation, the two of us ..." Hector notes.  "Well, what about the girl ("truquette") and her friend (Charlotte)?" asks Pator.  "I barely know them," replies Hector. 

So Hector asks two random young women in said the bar: "Would you two go with us 'on vacation' if we asked you?"  The random young Parisian women look at them, then at each other, then back at them, and answer "Yes."  So ... Hector and Pator LEAVE the two random young Parisian women that they JUST KINDA ASKED to go on vacation with them ;-) ... and go to Charlotte / "Truquette's" place to ask them ... and rest of the movie then ensues ...

I found the film light / fascinating and "perhaps" (obviously...) "still written from a male perspective."  Would two young Parisian women, one _with a job_, just pack-up and go with two amiable, but, let's face it "loser" young Parisian men "on vacation" FOR SIX WEEKS ... ;-)

It's all quite remarkable but this film was well liked / well reviewed "hit" in France ;-)


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