Alabama Monroe

I saw this movie yesterday, and must say that it's the first time that I'm really really impressed by a Belgian movie. If I had to compare it with another movie, I would say Into the Wild. Both movies are about passion, beauty and sadness. Whereas ItW has a lot more focus on beauty and passion (the sadness didn't really reach me), this one also has a lot of beauty (never knew I liked bluegrass music so much) and passion, but the sadness... oh the sadness... Half the movie you will be trying to hold in your tears. So don't expect a big story with plot twists and murder weapons; expect a story about real people, that puts your feet on the ground, and that shows you how little it would take for you yourself to end up like this. Now excuse me while I go and look for some Bill Monroe music...

Yesterday i saw this beautiful movie about life, love and death. After half an hour i had the feeling i was looking to a amazingly well balanced and touching film. Every scene, switches in time, music and countryside setting, the actors, the Flemish language ... it all seems to fit together. All credits for that, because the content is rather heavy: the life of the the two leading persons turns completely upside down when their child becomes very ill. The good thing is that - despite the dramatic events - the film doesn't become sentimental at all. The enormous grief is shown beautiful in small details like a bent hand (in the song if i needed you) or the facial expressions of the main actors. Amazing (and yet, easy to believe) how two people can react so different on a tragic event like losing your child.

The bittersweet story of Didier and Elise, their child Maybelle and the blue grass music. Seeing this movie at the Berlin Film Festival I didn't expect anything in particular. What I saw was an emotional roller-coaster of a movie, beautifully cinematography, a great book, wonderful music. And oh those actors, bringing these written lines to life. It will bring even the most hard boiled audience to tears. But you will leave the cinema after that with a smile and be grateful for having witnessed the magic of movie making at it's best. Director Felix van Groeningen has made his masterpiece, I don't know how he can top that one. I am sure you will love that movie as much as I do.

I watched this The Broken Circle Breakdown (BCB) immediately after viewing American Hustle AH), which is a Best Picture nominee, and while I enjoyed the latter, what struck me about it, even while I watched the movie, is that it tried too hard. The scenes seemed crafted for Academy voters. This feeling was solidified as I watched BCB, which, on the other hand, is a movie in which the emotions feel real and the acting appears genuine rather than forced.

Avid moviegoers are familiar with the happy-family-torn-apart-by-illness theme, but the marriage of that theme with American bluegrass music in a Belgian setting is novel. I have not seen any of the other Foreign Film contenders, but this one is more than worthy when juxtaposed against AH.

This is definitely one of those films that is best seen with as little prior knowledge as possible. I saw The Broken Circle Breakdown at a small cinema in Plymouth with only a vague idea that it had something to do with bluegrass music, of which I knew hardly anything. The music was actually very good but the film is far from a story about Belgian musicians playing American music. In fact, this is a fairly simple tale and, although told in a interesting way, there isn't an awful lot going on. However, what this delightful film manages to do brilliantly is throw up some big questions on topics such as love, life & belief that really get you thinking.

The past-present-future style works well to gradually unfold the details of what is happening. I found that this added very much to the tension and emotion of the film, not unlike Incendies (2010) which, although very different in subject matter, had a similar feel. Broken Circle is not as 'heavy' as Incendies and even has several smile-worthy moments to balance out the intensity.

I can see why some people might be upset by certain anti-religious aspects of the film but I thinks it's healthy for beliefs to be challenged. Similarly, some people seem to have been annoyed by the time-line jumping about but I think this actually works to great effect, especially if you don't know anything about the story beforehand. Overall, I would highly recommend Broken Circle; it's refreshing to see something genuinely different that generates real feelings for the characters and stays with you for more than ten minutes after the ending! 8/10