Gondry’s Microbe and Gasoline

Even Mr. Rogers would be tempted to bully Daniel Guéret and Théo Leloir. It is not just because they are French (although there is that). They just seem to be striving for a nauseatingly twee ragamuffin look. Finding themselves alienated from their cool classmates and their square parents, the two lads head off on an unlikely road trip in Michel Gondry’s Microbe and Gasoline (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Being small for his age and slightly girlish looking, Guéret has been dubbed “Microbe” by his classmates. Leloir, the new transfer student, is a grease monkey and a bit of a blowhard—hence, “Gasoline.” Together, they are “Masoline” or “Gicrobe,” but mainly they just talk about girls and their families’ lameness. The working-class Leloirs have serious financial and health problems, whereas Guéret’s high strung New Agey mother constantly wants to solve problems he doesn’t have—yet, she somehow couldn’t find time for his rather impressive gallery opening.

By selling and bartering scrap metal, Leloir and Guéret (but mostly Leloir) kit-bash together a rudimentary car, but since it is not up to legal specs, they camouflage it as a comfy cottage. Conveniently, it also provides sleeping accommodations when they light off on their sketchily planned trip out of Dodge.

Clearly, Gondry loves these kids, because M&G is rendered with great sensitivity. However, it lacks the raw vitality of Gondry’s surprisingly entertaining The We and the I. The screen rapport between co-leads Ange Dargent and Théophile Baquet is quite strong. In fact, Dargent also has suitably awkward but potent chemistry with Diane Besnier, who plays Laura, Microbe’s crushy, perhaps fatally platonic friend Laura. Audrey Tautou is laudable unrecognizable as Marie Thérèse Guéret, a 1970s mother in a post-millennium world.

However, the narrative follows a disappointingly safe and predictable course. It might also be a mistake to have so much scrap metal collecting in a film less than three years after Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant (if you’ve seen it, you know what we mean).

M&G is a very nice film about friendship and loyalty—kind of the end. It is probably the earthiest film of Gondry’s eccentric oeuvre, but it still often feels self-consciously precious. Nice is indeed the right word for it. Recommended for those who dig auteurist after school specials, Microbe and Gasoline opens tomorrow (7/1) in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.

Klapisch’s Chinese Dolls

The interconnected group of friends and lovers from Cédric Klapisch’s L’Auberge Espagnole and Russian Dolls represent a European microcosm, but to pursue their second chances at life and love they appropriately congregate in Lower Manhattan. Chinatown will see an influx of Francophone expats in Klapisch’s Chinese Puzzle (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Novelist Xavier Rousseau is way behind on his latest deadline. He has been a bit distracted by the dissolution of his marriage to the British Wendy. Following his soon to be ex-wife to New York for the sake of his kids, Rousseau kind of-sort of experiences fatherhood again as the sperm-donator for his best pal Isabelle and her Chinese-American partner Ju. With little money and fewer prospects, Rousseau crashes in Ju’s hipster-friendly Chinatown apartment. It will become quite homey when he hosts his former lover Martine and her two children during their New York vacation.

Will sudden proximity rekindle their relationship? Fortunately she is rather understanding of his green card marriage to a second generation Chinatown New Yorker, but keeping up appearances for immigration will lead to a lot of door slamming and mad dashing about. Yet, somehow it all still represents the mature phase of his life.

Although Puzzle is the concluding film of what Klapisch calls “The Trilogy of Xavier’s Travels” (picture that on the DVD boxed set), it easily stands alone. However, those who are emotionally invested in the prior two installments will take great satisfaction from the nontraditional familial bonds that develop between the characters. In fact, it might be the most unabashedly optimistic and upbeat film for all concerned, propelled along by Loïk Dury and Christophe “Disco” Minck’s infectiously peppy Cesar Award nominated score.

Like a comfortable old shoe, Romain Duris exudes loser likability as Rousseau. He also shares some pleasant (if not exactly scorching) screen chemistry with Audrey Tautou’s Martine. In a nice change of pace following films like The Kid with the Bike and Hereafter, Cécile de France shows a keen facility for slightly naughty physical comedy as the Belgian Isabelle. Strangely, the American marketing campaign is not playing up House of Cards’ Sandrine Holt as Ju, but she adds some class and dignity to the proceedings.

Puzzle is a breezy and buoyant film, but it is not utterly vacuous. It clearly celebrates family and friendship, suggesting playing the cards one has been dealt might just turn out to be a blessing. That it is an unusually attractive cast of characters grappling with impending middle age just makes it all the more cinematic. A can’t miss for fans of Xavier’s previous travels, Chinese Puzzle is recommended for Francophiles and international rom-com audiences when it opens this Friday (5/16) in New York at the Angelika Film Center downtown and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema uptown.

Claude Miller’s Therese

Thérèse Desqueyroux is not much of a home-maker.  She has servants for that sort of thing.  She is hardly mother of the year either.  She keeps up appearances as a dutiful wife, but she has no love and little respect for her husband.  Yet, embracing the woman of privilege as a feminist icon or a victim of bourgeoisie society is a tricky business.  The infamous protagonist of François Mauriac’s most celebrated novel will confound audiences again in the late Claude Miller’s final film, Thérèse (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

At first, the marriage of Thérèse Larroque and Bernard Desqueyroux makes perfect sense, because of their pines.  It is a way to combine the wooded estates of the two land-holding families.  Despite his wealth, her father is something of a leftwinger, which may have contributed to her contrary nature.  You will not find any of that in the rigidly conventional Desqueyroux family.  Alas, Bernard is a better hunter than a husband, but his newlywed wife seems even less interested in their domestic life together.

It turns out Thérèse’s childhood best friend and now sister-in-law has a more idealistic and melodramatic approach to love.  She has fallen for Jean Azevedo, the son of a wealthy local Jewish merchant.  Obviously, he is quite unacceptable to a family concerned about upholding their social standing.  It falls to the new Madame Desqueyroux to deal with this unwanted to suitor, who turns out to be considerably less serious about her sister-in-law than she is about him.  However, he awakens yearnings in Thérèse that only intensify her resentment of her uncouth husband.

A former protégé of Truffaut, Miller was a master of cinematic ambiguity and Thérèse Desqueyroux is a fitting character to grace his cinematic au revoir.  When she attempts to murder Bernard by manipulating his prescribed arsenic drops, her motivations are not entirely clear.  More boorish than brutish in Miller’s adaptation, he is no longer the abusive savage of Mauriac’s novel, but a rather sympathetic fool.  Clearly, the constraints of polite society rankle Mme. Desqueyroux, but they will remain regardless of her husband’s fate.  We have a clear sense the imp of perverse initially spurred her rash behavior, yet she continues her course of action in a coldly calculated manner.

Audrey Tautou’s icy detachment perfectly suits this Desqueyroux.  She is a tragic enigma, jealously guarding her conflicting thoughts and emotions from everyone around her.  In a bizarre case of dramatic jujitsu, Gilles Lellouche nearly steals the picture as Bernard Desqueyroux, who does his duty and keeps a stiff upper lip, because that is what gentlemen do.  His final scenes with Tautou have a finely wrought air of melancholy that come to define the film overall.

Perhaps Mauriac might have taken issue with Miller’s choices, but his Thérèse is a very good film.  It might appear to be a conventional period piece on the surface (especially without the original flashback structure), but its razor sharp portrayal of the dark complexities of human nature distinguishes it from the field.  Recommended for fans of French cinema and literary adaptations, Thérèse opens this Friday (8/23) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.

Delicacy: French Rebounding

Markus Lundl might look a little goofy, but he is Swedish, so give him a break. Granted, he is far from faultless, but for one young French widow that is rather the point. She had perfection and now it is time to move on. She will deal with her bereavement and unlikely rebound in David and Stéphane Foenkinos’ Delicacy, adapted from the former filmmaker-brother’s novel, which opens this Wednesday in New York (trailer here).

Nathalie Kerr’s first husband François was ideal in every way, including their fate-blessed meeting. Unfortunately, fate would soon rip him away. For three years, Kerr closes down emotionally, throwing herself into her work. Then one day, she notices the goofy Swede on her project management team. Almost in spite of herself, she begins a halting courtship with the surprised Lundl. Their implausible relationship definitely raises eyebrows around the office, particularly with Kerr’s sexually harassing boss. (It is a Scandinavian company, so one would think they would be accustomed to contemporary workplace protections.)

While Delicacy spends a fair amount of time with Kerr’s initial happiness and subsequent mourning period, it really starts to click when Lundl enters the picture. As her unexpected love interest, Belgian born François Damiens looks Swedish enough and projects the perfect sad clown aura. Though Audrey Tautou largely gives her sprightly Amelie persona the deep freeze, she plays off Damiens quite well.

Yes, we have been down this road before. Indeed, the Foenkinos brothers freely mix elements of the goony guy wish fulfillment fable with a female recovery story worthy of the Lifetime network. Yet, they give it an eccentric charm and the occasional mad flourish to keep more discriminating viewers hooked.

Delicacy has nice chemistry, which counts for a lot with this sort of film. The Brothers Foenkinos are also somewhat more willing to plum their characters’ dark angsty places, helping differentiate the film from the rom-com pack (making it more of a truffle than a bonbon). Still, it remains haunted by inevitable comparisons to Tautou’s thematically related prior films. Ultimately, it is quite a pleasant if not essential viewing experience. Recommended for Francophiles and unqualified romantics, it opens this Wednesday (3/14) in New York, uptown at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and downtown at the Landmark Sunshine.

French Rendezvous ’12: Headwinds

Paul Anderen is a writer, so he must be impossible to live with. His wife Sarah seemed to think so. After a particularly spiteful argument, she might have walked out on him and their two children. While her fate remains a mystery, Anderen will have to become the responsible parent he never was in Jalil Lespert’s Headwinds (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Rendezvous with French Cinema in New York.

Though initially a suspect, Anderen was eventually cleared of any involvement in her disappearance. That provides him little closure, but allows him to move on with his life, at least to extent. Returning to the old family cottage in the coastal city of Saint Malo, Anderen accepts a job with his more dutiful brother Alex. He still has issues, but he begins to make the odd human connection here and there. However, when he befriends one of the laborers who helped move him in, he finds himself once again under police suspicion when the man kidnaps his own son as part of a custody dispute.

Headwinds is sort of like a French version of The Descendants without the entitled sense of Noblesse oblige. It also has the hint of a crime drama sprinkled in here and there, but the focus falls squarely on Anderen and his steadily developing parental chops.

The biggest star in Headwinds disappears after the first ten minutes, but one can easily believe a guy like Anderen would have a hard time getting over the apparent loss of Audrey Tautou. As the bereft husband who will not allow himself to grieve, Benoît Magimel is convincingly human in a myriad of insecure and self-defeating ways. Yet, he also has some rather brutally honest confrontations with Antoine Duléry, quite nicely nuanced as his resentful older brother. The kids are just alright. Descendants probably has the advantage over Headwinds on that score. However, Isabelle Carré adds an intriguingly compassionate note as Josée Combe, the local copper.

Arguably, Headwinds does not hold a lot of surprises in store for viewers, except its willingness to face every difficult scene head-on, without copping out. It is melodrama, but pretty good melodrama. Again, if Alexander Payne’s film had the perfect level of sentimentality for you, then by all means check out Headwinds. It screens as a selection of Rendezvous with French Cinema tomorrow and Friday (3/8 & 3/9) at the Walter Reade Theater.

Chanel: The Beginning

Her name is synonymous with style. Disdaining corsets and frilly ornamentation, Coco Chanel’s look was perfectly suited to the liberated flapper era, yet she maintained her position at the pinnacle of the fashion world until her death in 1971. However, it is Chanel’s early years that fascinated director Anne Fontaine, who focuses on the “rags” portion of her rags-to-riches story in Coco Before Chanel (trailer here), which opens in New York tomorrow.

A trailblazing model of independence, Chanel famously never married. She certainly had her share of lovers though, perhaps including Igor Stravinsky, but that will have to wait for an upcoming film (also from the same distributor, Sony Pictures Classics). Yet throughout Before, Fontaine clearly implies the pain of finding herself suddenly orphaned (along with her sister Adrienne) was the greatest formative experience of Chanel’s life, fueling her drive to succeed and shaping her relationships with men.

When the audience first meets the Chanel sisters, they are performing songs in a rowdy nightclub, where they are expected to shill champagne in between numbers. Actually, neither is much of a vocal stylist, but Coco is a wizard with needle and thread. When it becomes clear they have no future in cabaret, both sisters become secret lovers of ostensibly upstanding society gentlemen. Though she chafes at the expectations of her new position in life, Chanel has yet to become the future paragon of independence. Essentially, Before could have been titled A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Kept Woman.

Audrey Tautou plays Chanel as part Audrey Hepburn and part Elaine Stritch. Frankly, the Stritch half is more fun. At times, her peevish appeal to her wealthy lovers seems a bit obscure. Still, Benoît Poelvoorde becomes convincingly captivated by her, finding unexpected depth and humanity as her initially lecherous lover-keeper, Etienne Balsan.

With the carefully worded credit line of: “freely adapted from the book by Edmonde Charles-Roux,” Before seems to roughly conform to Chanel’s biography, passing a cursory wiki inspection (with allowances made for dramatic license). Fontaine and her co-screenwriters only take Chanel up to her first big triumph as a designer, so those hoping for high fashion intrigue should look elsewhere (perhaps the 1981 biographical melodrama Chanel Solitaire starring Timothy Dalton and Rutger Hauer will be running on cable). Likewise, Before completely avoids Chanel’s controversial activities during World War II. It is just scrappy young Chanel trying to find her place in the world.

Though scandalous things happen during the film, they are largely unseen and rarely spoken of directly. In fact, Before is a conventionally respectable prestige picture, but it is unlikely to be a player during awards season or to factor on many critics’ top ten lists. While certainly a good fix for Francophiles, most viewers will simply find it a modestly pleasant diversion. It opens tomorrow (9/25) in New York at the Angelika Film Center and Paris Theatre.