GABRIELLE (2005) *** Arthouse enthusiasts are going to feel that I missed something in this movie, and I'm sure they're right. It allows for more contemplation than I'm willing to give it. Patrice Chéreau sets a brilliant stage: it's not a beautiful film but it has an appropriate and fascinating look, his lines and those of the other writers are so clever as to lead you to suspect that they understand more than I eventually allow that they do; the music is not something I'd want to listen to by itself but it is very good and amplifies the intensity, and the performances of Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Greggory are superb. Now, I might argue that it's easier to offer a superb performance when the goal is to demonstrate no emotion rather than the other way around, but they do let just that little slip through, and at all the right times. If one denies all emotion, is it not necessarily the base that will eventually elude control and break through? In operating strictly within societal constraints imposed collectively by others, is it not inevitable that one will betray oneself? If love can only be found in fleeting moments that destroy all around them, and life without love is intolerable, what have we left? You get the idea, these are the sorts of things they get you thinking about, in that nihilistic French manner that allows the bourgeoisie a depth it considers itself otherwise lacking. So they set this brilliant stage, babbling brilliantly all the way, and then effectively do nothing, because there's nothing that can be done. And now they want you to keep contemplating it. Not me, mate, I've always been more into hedonism than nihilism…and if it doesn't feel good or necessary…in this universe full of fifty billion sensory sensations per second…I think I'll turn my attention elsewhere. It is a particularly well done film, though. It's the sort of film where a murder might actually calm things down.
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Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your novel!
I've already read that novel. It was brilliant. Thank you. Now I want to check out your weekly blog on everything