Poupoupidou

Well made film wacky funny somewhat surreal mystery of the death of a Marilyn Monroe reincarnation doomed to suffer a similar fate.

I love these crazy kind of movies this one was a pleasant surprise from Netflix streaming.

It is basically a comedy and had to be written by an American or an americanphile Frenchman. All the little details like Jiminey Cricket.

You just have to watch this thing.

You will enjoy this I think.

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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.

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).

Nobody Else but You (2011)

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Part sexual fantasy, part hardboiled detective story, part Twin Peaks surrealism, part Norwegian humor, and part sweet hometown romance.

No way? Yes way. Here's roughly how the director and writer Gerald Hustache-Mathieu pulled it off. First is the seemingly main story: a scruffy detective writer of few words is in this snowy village on the Swiss border called Mouth (it really exists) to collect his part of an inheritance, which turns out to be a stuffed dog. You think you're in for a bizarre and dry comedy. But he learns as he leaves town that the young female star of the village was found dead in the fields, officially a suicide. He sticks around to learn more, doubts grow, and he begins to play real world detective.

However, the opening scene before even this is a bright, dreamy sequence of a sexualized blonde woman talking to us in voice-over. We have no idea what's going on yet, but the sensual aspects clash with the reality of the rest. Yet the two worlds are the same, of course--the woman is the dead woman, and we see what is going on through her eyes, both as a corpse and in flashbacks. The flashbacks themselves are triggered by entries in a series of diaries left behind. And the story sweeps in a whole assortment of the local townspeople, many of them quirky types themselves (this is the David Lynchian part).

Then on top of this is a gradual realization that not only did the woman look like Marilyn Monroe (at least when she goes bright blonde) but she has many parallels to the icon's actual life. The detective begins to think this is more than coincidence, and while falling in love with the memory of this woman he never met, he uncovers more and more of the startling story of her sad life.

So, besides the director we have to completely admire the performances of the two leads--the detective played by Jean-Paul Rouve and the young woman played by Sophie Quinton. They are opposites in many ways, but both are a little bit famous and a little bit outcast, too. In the flashbacks and in the current story the two meet the same range of people, so we come to see the context with full complexity. And for those familiar with Monroe's life and lovers (purported and otherwise) the parallels only grow in fascination.

It's filmed with terrific energy, from fluid gorgeous camera-work to hand-held kinetic stuff with fast edits, including perky cuts to show faces and highly magnified closeups. (The most memorable of these is the view of the red shiny lips of Quinton as she sings "Poupoupidou" which is the original French title to the movie.) This is all lovely and hilarious and oddly sad, too. An inventive, terrific movie that manages to speed through a few weak points and make little of a contrivance or two, piling on a wonderful soundtrack, and keeping you on your toes from start to finish.

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