The Château

Saw this at a screening last night and thoroughly enjoyed it - a very clever and nimble little film that operates on a loopy, improvisational tone all its own. Charming, witty and wise, with the biggest charm factor belonging to French actress Sylvie Testud, who transforms the screen into pure magic whenever she appears.

The movie was on cable here in Israel and I thought it had potential -- clash of cultures, conflicting interests between the heirs and the staff, but it went absolutely nowhere. Too bad. It was a half-baked writing effort.

But coming from Canada and knowing how francophones who don't speak a lot of English react when bombarded by anglophones who think they do, I must rate Sylvie Testud's performance as a tour-de-force. She was clicking on the English words she might have been expected to catch, and straining at the rest, just as would happen in real life. This is not easy to achieve and she must be an actress of considerable skills. I would love to see her in a remake of Madame Bovary or something of that nature in English. This girl is as good as they come.

There was one very funny scene in my book so it wasn't a total loss, when the Rudd character reads the fractured French letter he wrote to the staff who could not understand a word of it, except the main one, vendre, causing an uproar.

Of all the things I could say about this film, it would'nt be that it could be called a comedy. Most of the characters are hostile, the girl was beautiful and could turn a gay guy straight, (almost), but there's no redeaming features about the other leads. I could'nt help thinking that Paul Rudd was acting, I thought he was supposed to be a good actor and the Rex character was un-necessarily angry, why all the mfs and s words, otherwise he seemed very classy. The American big shot who was going to buy the chateau was hostile. The real estate agent was wonderful. I liked the actor that played Jean, I see where he has a long list of credits to his resume. Overall the dealogue was rather force and strained (there probably was no script and the actors were "winging it") and when suddenly and out of the blue went into a diatribe about "fags" for no reason at all, it let me know that the writers (outline) really had nothing worth while to say and they are probably very shallow people. On the plus side, the French country side as always (and in film) is beautiful. The cinematography and set design were possitives, The overall feeling was warm and enchanting. Thanks!

Had its moments, but by and large, I was disappointed. Paul Rudd makes an idiot out of himself, prattling on and on and ON AND ON, not only in broken French, but also in English. I can't help feeling just a little embarrassed for him. I also can't help feeling that he should somehow apologize for making Americans look like bumbling idiots and for doing anything but helping to improve American-French relations (whatever state they happen to be in).

I really enjoyed this unconventional film. I found the hand-held camera work and video quality of film suited the narrative and tone and the actors did very convincing jobs of the characters they portrayed. The french/American culture clash was done to great comic effect. Paul Rudd was brilliant as well as Romany Malco and Sylvie Testud, whose work I was not familiar with. I've been wanting to see this movie since it came out and I was not disappointed. If you are up for something a little more off the cuff than what usually come out of America, you will be glad to find this movie. It seems like a really good student film with great acting that actually got the resources necessary to see the film through as it was conceived of.