debree1138

Sophie Marceau: absolutely gorgeous, genius, and multi-talented. This underrated romantic comedy is definitely a gem. I recommend contemplating the fact that she was 21 years old when she commanded this role. Wow! She dated, copulated, studied, wrote and defended a dissertation and succeeding in dispelling my disbelief. This film is like a Valium. I always rely on "L'etudiante" to cheer me up when the world is literally in the middle of a Pandemic, racial injustice is out of control, and the global economy is sinking. This is truly a joy. The sets, cinematography, casting, writing, and most of the music is amazing.

This film would have been amazing but the ratio of subtitles to words spoken were 30 to 70. I thought I was going to learn words to the legendary Edith Piaf's songs and her history. However, there was literally zero subtitles for her songs. I rented this film from Apple on AppleTV. I'm not sure if other platforms have better subtitles but, I'm not as fluent with French as I am with Spanish. Consequently, this made for two hours and twenty minutes of guessing.

This is a feast for the senses. Cinematically, The Forbidden Room is Valentine to filmmaking from the Silent Era to Talkies. Guy Maddin has clearly viewed a plethora of films and synthesized them into this masterpiece. It moves at a fast pace and the two hours will pass Quickly. Get ready for an unconventional film that will cover alternate dimensions, tantra, neurological disorders, psychiatry, manual labor, god and goddess worship and the heroes quest. Every minute Maddin is using the screen as a canvass with varied masterful brush strokes. It is packed with a great cast, wonderful silent film effects, chromogenic color palette, and a joyous ending that is a thorough as a well written dissertation.

It is as if Joseph Campbell took psilocybin and made this film. Watch twice with sub-titles.