A Good Year

I was intrigued by this 'seems to be ultimate chick flick' movie, because I thought it just might have reminiscences of the beautiful book 'A year in Provence'.

Ok, yes, it was a bit of a chick flick. You pretty much knew the ending when it started. The outline was pretty obvious. Big time prick in London's trade market inherits vineyard in Provence from an uncle. Prick goes down to Provence with intention of selling the domain but sees his life transform (and himself in the process) as memories from the childhood he spent there come rushing back to him. Oh, and he falls in love with a beautiful french woman during all that, of course.

The performances were good and the story was heartwarming once you decide to go along with it and not sigh at every little thing that might ressemble a cliché. It's overall quite a good film.

But I have to say, this might be one of the most beautiful film I have ever seen in my life. The location, the sets, the light. Oh, the light. In Provence, I kid you not, every SINGLE shot looks like a painting. It's absolutely stunning. If you hate the story, doesn't matter, you will be glued to the screen anyway. It looks that good. And the cinematographer makes it so that everything shot in London is blue, gray, cold and uninviting and that Provence looks like heaven. It's yellow and green and warm and like it's dusk all day. The contrast is obvious and deliberate, but it does not take away the sheer beauty of every single frame.

I could watch this film again on mute.
That's how much I loved looking at it.

Blades of Glory

Yesterday, komtois (even if he’s probably deny it…) and I went to see Blades of Glory.
I really like Will Ferrell, and even if I didn’t see Napoleon Dynamite, I know I’d find the other dude funny.

And it WAS funny!

Those two are so tall, and seeing them on the ice was really funny, and of course it's not always them on the ice, but they did a great job with the stunt doubles.

For some reason, even if I’m not a big fan or figure skating, I was aware of all the cameos, unlike komtois.

“Don’t you watch the Olympics?”
“I guess not…”

For us Montrealers, it's also funny to see that the stadium is walking distance, like 500 meters, from the old port and another 500 meters to the Habitat 67, which are suppose to be the athletes quarters...

So it was fun, lots of laugh, lots of insane stuff.
Got to eat a HUGE popcorn and see the preview for POTC 3!

Oh, and when you see the stadium from the hotel room, it's Andre's picture.

The Departed

So we have been neglecting this blog a lot in the past few months. I thought I'd try and revive it a bit...

This movie I waited to see for a long time. Everybody was raving about it, it was nominated for a bunch of Golden Globes, and then won the Oscar for best picture.
So I owed it to myself to see this one, even though I am really not the biggest fan of gangster movies. They are seem alike to me, I don't really get into them that much. But everyone said this one took the cake.
So I borrowed the DVD off my friend and watched it.

I agree, it was a good film, but I still don't get what the absolute frenzie was about. Yes, there are big stars in it. Matt Damon, Leo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson are magnificient. And the intrigue is ongoing.

But sadly, I couldn't get rid of my detatchment to the gangster flick. I tried, but it's just not my cup of tea. At the end, all I could see were the usual suspects. Good cop, bad cop, mafia lord. And everybody ending up getting their heads blown off.
And this is frustrating because this film is so much more than that.

I enjoyed Scorsese's earlier work much more. Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Main Streets. I feel he should have won his Oscar back then. I had the feeling like he got it this year because the Academy sort of owed it to him, because his brilliant work had been overlooked for so long. It was about time he got his gold statue.

Don't get me wrong. The Departed is a very good film. I enjoyed it, but was not blown away by it. I will probably give myself a little while, then watch it again. I feel I will like it much more the second time around. I might have been disapointed by it because of all the hype that surrounded it. I was expecting something absolutely extraordinary and I shouldn't have thought it might convert me to the gangster genre.

But if you can't get enough of The Godfather, Goodfellas and the like, you will eat this one up.