c_murphy86

I saw this film on the last day of the Berlinale and it's seduced me right away. The room by room 360 degree rotating camera scenes did remind me slightly uncomfortably of estate agent guides however the film deserves a lot of credit for its subtlety and restraint. The characters are entirely realistic and multi-dimensional, a rarity in films dealing with class and race. In particular the exchanges between mother and daughter for me exemplified the balance and impartiality of the film.

I would thoroughly recommend this whether you are looking for an examination of class, race and family or just wish for a couple of hours of stunning scenery, endearing characters and beautiful music.

What I found most enjoyable about this film is the way it straddles the sport-biopic genres. It maintains the acute acting and psychological fullness of a biopic, aided by a fantastic performance by Miller, while being in keeping with the Hollywood highs and lows aspects of great sports movies.

Those not interested in sport should not be put off by thinking this will be a typically superficial or one dimensional sports film. But those sporty types will also find plenty to satisfy them.

As a big cycling fan I was already well aware of the Obree story and I can assure people that is every bit as incredible if not more so than is shown in the film. Naturally the constraints of a film mean that the Obree story is cut short and we don't see how the Superman position was banned or Obree's subsequent depressions especially after his brother died (indeed his brother is completely missing from the film). But by choosing to limit the time scale it describes it allows time for greater detail particularly in investigated his relationship with the priest and Obree's wife.

Equally the film doesn't embellish the truth a great deal in order to increase the drama. Indeed the world record attempts are incredibly understated, as they should be. Obree was never well known in Britain despite being very popular on the continent. As a result the film isn't filled with cheering crowds but rather focuses the isolation he experienced within Scotland in spite of his amazing achievements.

What an earth has happened to Parisian cinema? Much like its architecture Paris's cinema seems to suffer under the shadow of its predecessors. The beautiful wholeness of Paris as a city means it is near impossible for Parisian architects to create anything modern and fresh for fear that it will jar too badly with its classical surroundings. Similarly Paris cinema suffers under the shadow of the nouvelle vague, its public is too obsessed with its own ageing image that anything fresh and original is drowned out by tribute after tribute to a dead past (La Haine being a rare exception).

If Honore had wanted to make a film about the modern Paris the action would have taken place completely within the confines of Paul's bedroom. Instead Jonathan bizarre jaunt across Paris which is neither interesting, funny or iconic in anyway takes up half the film.

Even the sections which do focus on Paul offer painfully inept psychological profiles compared to similar studies in German, and particularly Eastern European cinema.

Frankly I wouldn't waste your time with this one and instead seek out some of the more exciting French cinema coming out of Marseille at the moment.