Bil-3

I saw this movie at the Palm Springs INternational Film Festival and it totally blew me away. This is one filmmaker who definitely knows what he's doing. I met him after the screening and he was really nice, very sexy and seemed to know his stuff, unlike a lot of other Hollywood posers who just make these stupid one-joke surprise ending shorts. It's a great film that really gets at the nature of being alive, of being PRESENT, and trusting your instincts. David Aronson is a director who's really good at just doing his thing. I really hope he continues to make films as he is someone with a talent for lighting faces to make them look really bright. The lead actress also speaks English exceptionally well which I attribute to the director's expertise. Of all the May-December romances I've had the privilege of seeing lately, this one's the most touching and acute.

The thing that makes me laugh about straight, white men and their reactions to comedians like Margaret Cho is that they're so used to being the major demographic for every movie, television show, advertisement etc. that when something isn't aimed at them they feel COMPLETELY lost. "Oh my God, why is she talking about gays all the time?" "Why is she talking about her period?" "Why is she talking about Asians?" Since when did a comedian vary their topics that much? Just because it's not about you doesn't mean it's not funny, it's just that for ONCE you're not the one translating what you're hearing to make it apply to your life the way ethnic people, gays and lesbians or women in general often have to do. So if you don't think Margaret's funny because her sense of humour doesn't appeal to you, that's cool, but if you don't think she's funny because she's not talking about you, TOOOOOOOOOOO BAD! You're going to have to share the world with others after all.

Daniel Auteuil makes an excellent Marquis de Sade (even better than Geoffrey Rush in Quills) in this intelligent film by one of France's very best directors, Benoit Jacquot (The School of Flesh, Pas De Scandale). Unlike the aforementioned Philip Kaufman picture, which examined the issue of censorship by using Sade and his work as a backdrop, this film intends to explore the sides of the infamous pornographer as philanthropist. While being held prisoner in a grand chateau with many other nobles following the French revolution, Sade befriends a curious young woman and teaches her a thing or two about growing up. The relationship they develop is genuine and in the end very moving, mostly because while instructing her to loosen up she teaches him how he can reclaim his emotional self and learn to once again love the society that he has dismissed as conventional and narrow. Not Jacquot's best, but a worthy piece of work.