Movie Review: Murmur of the Heart (1971)

Murmur of the Heart(Le Souffle Au Coeur) is movie in the "coming of age" realm.  Fourteen year old Laurent(Benoit Ferreux) is the main character and he gets into all kinds of mischief.  Hustling on the streets for the Red Cross, stealing jazz albums from the local music shops, smoking, drinking, being hit on by a priest and more.  There were aspects of this film I really enjoyed and others that left me upset.  This review goes into detail in some aspects so if you have not seen it and do not want to be spoiled fully, please do not read past the next paragraph.

What I do like about Murmer of the Heart is the progression of Laurent.  He comes from a well to do family but it is a family that has their own issues.  Laurent's father(Daniel Gelin) doesn't show much affection, the mother(Lea Massari) shows entirely too much affection, and the two older brothers(Fabian Ferreux and Marc Winocourt) are just out to have a good time throughout(almost like sexual deviant versions of the twin Weasleys from Harry Potter).  Unlike the Weasley boys, by good time, I mean sexually harassing the maids, comparing penis sizes, getting Laurent drunk, taking their younger brother to a brothel and then interrupting the act.  We will get into the relationship with the mother shortly.

Movie Review: Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

"Hiroshima Mon Amour" is a French film directed by Alain Resnais based on the screenplay by Marguerite Duras.  The film follows the one night stand of a French actress(Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect(Eiji Okada) that blossoms in what appears to the characters as love.  The film follows the two characters in their final day together as the actress must leave for Paris in the morning.

I will start off this review with what I enjoyed from the film.  The visuals were stunning.  The beginning alone had some of the most haunting imagery as we were brought back to Hiroshima just after the atomic bomb was dropped.  You are able to look back and see the destruction that was caused and really see why nuclear war should never be a thing.  The director did a superb job of showing the deformities, hair loss, damage to food supply and death.  The actress is recounts the events while the architect constantly reminding her, "You saw nothing in Hiroshima."

This movie will never let you forget that it takes place in Hiroshima.  You are repeatedly beat over the head with the fact that this is where the movie takes place.  Well, other than Nevers, France.  The two characters constantly remind each other where the other is from.

And what of these characters?  You get to hear plenty of backstory from where they want to tell the other.  We hear very little about their spouses.  We are just reminded that one night together was so wonderful, that it's painful to be apart from each other.  We spend ninety minutes of the architect attempting to convince the actress to stay with him in Hiroshima(even though his wife will be there in 3 days).  The actress spends ninety minutes trying to push him away despite the fact he'll listen to her stories from her youth.  Well, he listens until she gets too emotional and then slaps her a couple times.  The bartender and patrons raise their eyebrows to see what was going on but the actress seemed very approving of the smacks across her face and everyone went about their business.

I received this movie in the Boxwalla subscription box and you can read my reviews for the boxes themselves at HelloSubscription.  This wasn't my favorite film that I've received but at ninety minutes, it was worth checking out.

Movie Review: Mississippi Mermaid (1969; MGM/Twilight Time)

...braving the lambast-worthy gauntlet of losing some respectable points as one of many cult film auteurs out there, the respected 'comma, then title' moniker which this reviewer make an unabashed claim to...he...uh, he (...stutter, stutter)...he has to candidly, and...swell, quite shamefully admit, he...uh, he (...stutter, stutter) had never partaken of a film, produced and directed by the great Francois Truffaut...that is, until now. Admittedly, as a very young and budding embracee of cult films, this reviewer had heard of this extraordinarily masterful filmmaker, at least enough to know that his film artistry was, at the very least, something more than noteworthy, and he was even dimly privy to some of Truffaut's early film work (...'fancy-schmancy arthouse' films, I called them back then...and as a youth...well, perhaps it was understandable that I wasn't into 'fancy-schmancy', though indeed, such films were as yet beyond my level of understanding and appreciation, at the time), without actually having seen them...classics like "Fahrenheit 451", "Story of Adele H" and "Shoot the Pianist", amongst others...

...no siree...this reviewer's first exposure to Francois Truffaut wasn't even his prowess at film direction; rather, it was his authoritative, albeit language-hampered performance as Claude Lacombe, in the wonder, instilling 1977, Steven Spielberg-directed sci-fi classic, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". However, even in that enigmatic performance alone, there was an aura of interest and fascination, which shone through...not in the character he played, but in the performer...or rather, the artist himself, the exposition of which could not be denied, nor ignored...

Movie Review: The Man Who Lies (1968; Kino Lorber/Redemption Films)

...what's that old saying?? Something about a 'tangled web one weaves, when one practices to deceive'? Consider the pathological liar: The tales rendered, often outrageous and dazzling...even manipulative...though with an element of truth, which genuinely supports the fantasique fervor of the story told. Favorable focus on the storyteller...even to the point of 'superhuman' empowerment, or an incredibly sheltered naivete; they are the hero in their tales, or perhaps the hapless, unknowing victim. The surprisingly keen ability to weave a fantastical, seemingly supportive tale, right on the spot, given the clear urgency of the situation...though, that's where that aforementioned 'tangled web' comes into play, when the story becomes so convoluted with falsehood, it begins to fray, and come unraveled. And of course, there's the motive...the 'hanging carrot' clockwork reasoning that drives the recipient listener of the complex and intricate fabrication into potentially believing the manipulative teller of the tale...

...in director Alain Robbe-Grillet's brazenly artful, enigmatic and self-telling 1968 mystery/drama, "The Man Who Lies"...a joint French/Czechoslovakian production...does the film's mysterious and manipulative protagonist, rightly fit the definition, as suggested above?? Or is there method to the ensuing madness, as enigmatically depicted in the following 'tangled web' proceedings??...

Movie Review: The Horde (2009)

There have been many zombie movies in the last decade, and now there is even been a television show that features our brain eating friends. I've seen some of them, and they all start to have a similar tone. A virus is spread, and we slowly see the takeover happen as a few ragtag survivors fight to stay alive. This theme really goes back to the original Night of the Living Dead. This is where The Horde takes a different angle.

Buy The Horde [Blu-ray] or DVD

At an officer's funeral, a woman begs a mourner not to do what she knows he's going to do. He's a fellow cop, and he wants revenge. The same goes for a few others. She makes him promise that he'll bring them all back safe, which is just about the time you know that most of them won't.

Movie Review: 36th Precinct (2004, aka 36 Quai des Orfèvres)

Directed by Olivier Marchal

Reviewed by Greg Goodsell

When the craggy senior officer of the Parisian 36th Precinct announces his retirement, his fellow coppers, a rambunctious lot, throw him a suitably party. Chief among the celebrants is a fat, hairy officer dressed as a belly dancer for the evening's debauched entertainment. When rats are spotted creeping about the shelves of liquor at the dive bar rented out for the festivities, the drunken gendarmes shoot at them with live ammunition.

Buy 36th Precinct Blu-ray or DVD or Watch It Instantly

"Point Blank" Comes To Blu-ray and DVD December 6th From Magnolia Pictures!

Get Ready For A Non-Stop Adrenaline Rush As The Action-Packed Film POINT BLANK Thrills On Blu-Ray And DVD December 6 From Magnolia Home Entertainment

“It leaves you with an endorphin high. An exhilarating adrenaline rush.” – New York Times
“Make a note to see it. Propulsively entertaining.”– Boston HeraldFrom producers Cyril Colbeau-Justin and Jean-Baptiste Dupont (36) and writer/director by Fred Cavayé (The Next Three Days, Anything For Her), POINT BLANK is a “skillfully directed French thriller that plays like an Alfred Hitchcock wet dream” (Paper).

Buy Point Blank on DVD


Gilles Lellouche (Tell No One) stars as Samuel, a nurse who is working at a hospital when his pregnant wife (Elena Anaya, The Skin I Live In) is kidnapped before his very eyes.  Knocked unconscious, when he comes to, he discovers that a dangerous criminal named Sartet (Roschdy Zem, The Girl From Monaco, Days Of Glory) is responsible, and if he's ever to see his wife again, he must do Sartet’s bidding.  Samuel quickly finds himself pitted against rival gangsters and trigger-happy police in a deadly race to save the lives of his wife and unborn child.

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Courses in film production from online universities may be of interest for those who want to learn about making movies.