Ultimi giorni da noi

Not only an interesting study of different family/personal dynamics but so atmospheric - I felt as if I was in that city (Melbourne?), & kind of fell in love with it. The film is sad, beautiful, funny & realistic. To this day, I find myself uttering "This haircut is over!" (in an Australian accent); Kerry Fox /Vicki's typically understated way of saying she feels terrible after a break up. Kind of an indie classic.

This is a moody and frank story of an Australian couple and how relationships change when the husband falls in love with his wife's sister. Lisa Harrow is the pent-up wife of J.P.(Bruno Ganz)and Kerry Fox is Vicki the younger sister and temptress. I saw this on IFC and was really reeled in with the straight forward atmosphere and personal subject matter. Cinematography is super and the Australian accents cool and pleasing. This is a powerful drama; and well deserved kudos for director Gillian Armstrong.

I liked My Brilliant Career back in 1980, but after seeing this effort from the brilliant turned masterful Ms Armstrong I suspect that its traditional feminist message ("I won't give up my dreams for a man") made it more palatable for the times. Chez Nous doesn't let you off the hook so easily. What I found so compelling is its gentle but firm refusal to adopt a condescending attitude towards the characters or the audience. I rented this film with Jane Campion's Sweetie, which I found audaciously weird but riveting, in fact I now own Sweetie. Like Chez Nous, it deals with heroines and their family relationships, particularly involving sisters and to some degree, fathers. Both films are from the same part of the world. I was happy to find a used copy of Sweetie a few months after seeing it, but I watched Chez Nous twice before returning it, and that's the highest recommendation I can give.

Beautifully photographed and directed film, contrasting a family home with the outback, and characters trapped as much by themselves as by those around them. The road trip does not liberate the woman much, though she gets to learn her dad's views on God. Good acting all round, especially Harrow and Hunter, this is purely character driven, and what is predictable about it would be equally so in life. I liked the later scenes where the French husband begins to see his error. (One thing though: when they got the German Bruno Ganz why not change the character to German too?)

A movie without character. You get nothing and it's just 1 hour and 33 minutes of your life getting wasted. More happy writing my criticism right now than watching this movie.