Poupoupidou

This has to be one of the sexiest films made and only the French could do it so it is credible. Poor Hollywood! When it comes to sex scenes they fall flat every time. I wonder why that is? Anyhow, this film has lots of nudity - male and female - frontal and rear - but it is done in such a nonchalant way and even innocently that you are never offended but utterly intrigued. The story is quite original I think, at least, I have never come across a script quite like this one. It takes real life events and parallels them into a current story so that as you go through the story more and more connections with the real story and the fictional story add up to a very enticing affair altogether. The cast is absolutely gorgeous, especially the female lead and the male second lead who I actually got the film to see since I had seen him in another great French film where he goes to prison and becomes some brute's boy toy!!! Ah, heaven! How far away is it?

I think the title of this review sums up the content of the movie! I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, particularly because I had no expectations. I loved the atmosphere and I think the director and crew where very attentive in giving it that 'thriller in the cold' feeling.

If you add the great soundtrack, the murder mystery and the actors, you have a very good ensemble. Sure, there were some imperfections in the plot (like who exactly is trying to kill the writer?) or loose ends (hotel girl crush on the writer) but I was so much into the atmosphere that it didn't really matter (for me) and it certainly didn't spoil my viewing experience.

I have to say though that I love thrillers with this kind of winter atmosphere like Insomnia, Les Rivières Pourpres, Whiteout or Millennium (the Swedish ones since I haven't seen the Hollywood style version yet).

I found this movie on Netflix browsing the French foreign section. It is really mostly a dry comedy I suppose but is much more. It is also an extremely creative gay friendly detective story about a modern parallel life to Marilyn Monroe's in the form of Candice Le Coeur from the coldest part of France.

It is funny foremost with characters like the Hotel clerk who has the hots for the Rousseau (the main character). The lesbian psychiatrist taking close up pictures of tree moss...on and on. Rousseau is a novel writer who stumbles on Candice's murder and follows up and solves it for inspiration for a book.

It is just so non formula so unique so humorous. Just watch it. Not sure what the number 5 means?? showing fate is at work anyway.

This is the only movie on Netflix streaming I have watched twice.

RECOMMEND HIGHLY

David Rousseau is a crime mystery writer driving through a small town in France when he happens upon an ambulance loading a body into the back. Candice Lecoeur, a semi famous model has been found dead in the snow of an apparent suicide. Rousseau becomes obsessed with the death which closely parallels the life of Marilyn Monroe. With the premise of writing a new novel, he investigates the circumstances and final days of Lecoeur's life. He befriends a local detective and they team up to solve the possibility of a crime.

Through a series of flashbacks, Lecoeur's life is examined using diaries she had written from her teens to present day. This is a top notch mystery thriller with excellent performances by the two leads, Jean-Paul Rouve as Rosseau and Sophie Quinton as Lecoeur. It is heart breaking at times but well worth your time, an 8/10.

Nobody Else But You kind of sneaks up on you. It starts out being a deadpan Fargo like comedy---love that quick shot of the main character throwing away the big stuffed dog in the first 5 minutes---but quickly turns into a slightly melancholy investigation of the death of this local weather-woman. I'm not giving anything away--the body of the woman is found within the first ten minutes of the film and the main character is a writer looking for a subject for his next book---so the plot is set up very nice and neat right at the very beginning. The entire movie is mostly taken up by the writer's investigation (and frustrations in his investigations thanks to all the colorful locals) but rather then focusing on the other people in the weather-woman's life--the writer (and the movie) is really more focused on the woman's emotional state before she died-(the writer stumbles onto her diaries which is a neat way of having her narrate the movie from beyond in a way that makes logical sense and not just there because the director wanted to pay homage to sunset boulevard and American beauty) Eventually we find out that she was hardly the happy go lucky young woman everyone in town makes her out to be--she is in fact a rather sad young woman who completely modeled herself--on Marilyn Monroe---which actually explains the title if you think about it. In fact this movie might actually capture Marilyn's melancholy, bitterness, and flat out sadness better then the recent "My Life with Marilyn" did. (well maybe not better but this would definitely make an interesting movie to watch on a double bill with Marilyn--and it would prob be seen as a good attempt to put "Marilyn" in a noir of her own.) As a who done it the movie is kind of a wash out--we find out who did it all right enough but we're never really given any great motive or incentive for why---in fact i honestly felt the identity of the murderer ended up being pretty arbitrary---but as a story about a young woman who's thirst for fame left her less then satisfied--and as a story about a writer trying to understand the events that led to this young vital woman's demise--the movie was successfully engaging and just different enough thanks to its frigid atmosphere and various local characters to be entertaining. Even if the semi comedy we were kind of set up for at the beginning all but vanishes by the end of the film--the tonal shift from deadpan comedy to slightly bleak drama is handled nicely enough that it never feels jarring while you're watching it (its really only after i started thinking about it after wards that i thought hey when this thing started wasn't it supposed to be a comedy?) If you're in the mood for a more than decent drama with traces of comedy in it (and if you're in the mood for a decent writer investigates a murder movie as well) this should fit the bill.