Home video debut for Philippe Garrel's leisurely, laughable THE SALT OF TEARS

The relationship that a callow, manipulative young man named Luc develops with three different young women provides most of the content for THE SALT OF TEARS, the latest film from Philippe Garrel (shown below), a French filmmaker whose sensibility seems forever stuck back in the 1960s even when, as here, he's desperately trying to come to terms with life and love in the 21st Century. 

Motherless for most of his life, Luc does have a bond with his father (he's followed Dad's line of work), but seems to gravitate toward clingy, uncertain young women.

A fairly prolific filmmaker, M. Garrel already has 37 directorial credits and 32 for writing. For my taste, his movies have always remained in the (at best) "iffy" category. This one doesn't begin to achieve even that level.

Here, he relies on narration to fill in too many of the blanks --  from history and character to what his hero, Luc, is thinking and feeling. 

Garrel tells instead of shows -- except when he does both, in far too tiresome a fashion. Further, that narration too often comes through as both pretentious and empty.

Luc is played by the handsome newcomer Logann Antuofermo (above, left), whom we'll probably see again under better circumstances, while two of the three women are portrayed by Louise Chevillotte (above, right), whose needy, clingy character seems clearly responsible for Luc's learning how to "finger" so very well, and

Oulaya Amamra (above, right), who plays the young woman Luc accosts at a bus stop, finagling his way into her affection (and perhaps into her womb: Our boy proves very fertile). These two characters seem like hold-overs from another age, and even the faintest feminist is likely to cringe while watching them. ("You're the one who matters, Luc!" implores one of these, when it is already too clear that he neither does nor should.)

The third woman, Betsy, however, is quite another matter: self-supporting and self-sufficient, too. At least until we discover she needs to be fucking two men -- one by day, the other by night -- in order to be really satisfied. As played by Souheila Yacoub (above, right), Betsy helps brings the movie to some life during its final third.

Far too leisurely paced and predictable, The Salt of Tears is probably most embarrassing when it asks us to feel so sorry for poor Luc because he can't afford to eat lunch out with his classmates. And that narration grows ever more self-serving, pompous and finally very nearly as stupid as seems our asinine hero -- whose thought and action (via that narration, of course) regarding his father at film's end may very likely draw your biggest guffaw. (That's André Wilms, above, as Luc's dad.) 

There is an excellent dance scene at a club, due to its being shot at enough distance to allow us to see and enjoy the choreography, while the focus is on the faces as well as the bodies of the participants. The cinematography (by Renato Berta, of Fairytale) is also very fine. Otherwise, The Salt of Tears is mostly flatfooted nonsense.

From Distrib Films US (distributed here in the U.S. via Icarus Home Video) and running 101 minutes, the movie hit home video on DVD at the end of last month and is available now. Click here and/or here for more information.

Anne Fontaine is back -- with another terrific, timely and important film -- NIGHT SHIFT

If I had to pick one of the most under-rated filmmakers currently working, I would suggest, at the top my list, the Belgian-born, César-winning writer/ director Anne Fontaine (shown below), who, over her nearly 30-year career, has given us a wonderful variety of fascinating and varied movies of differing genres (often mashing genres together to unsettling and unusual effect) that are as thought-provoking as they are entertaining. 

From Dry Cleaning (which was the first of her films that I saw) and How I Killed My Father through The Girl From Monaco, Coco Before Chanel, My Worst Nightmare, Adore, Gemma Bovary, The Innocents and now NIGHT SHIFT (Police was the film's original French title), Ms Fontaine consistently upends our expectations while sucking us into stories that entertain, surprise and unsettle.

How, at this particular point in time, might a filmmaker induce her audience to feel sympathy for, of all things, the police? Yet by the finale of Night Shift, TrustMovies felt as though no movie he could remember had enabled him to empathize more fully with the three members of the Paris police force -- two men and one woman -- whom we meet here.

Who these three are, their relationship to each other and to the man (Payman Maadi, above) they must escort to the airport (he is a political prisoner seeking refuge who is now being sent back to his home country to face possible torture and death) is all that we learn during the film, but the details of character and background, as well the events we witness, keep us glued as well as constantly adjusting our perspective, just as do these very human and even humane police.

The three officers are played by the excellent actors Virginie Efira (above, left, and most recently seen here in Sibyl), Grégory Gadebois (below, right, whom I've seen previously in smaller roles; he's the standout here), and Omar Sy (above, right, and currently turning heads and hearts as the star of the Netflix series Lupin). All three are quite wonderful in their roles, as they slowly and very surely reveal their lives and their complexity via mostly quiet scenes of work life and home life -- the latter affecting the former despite each officer's attempts to prevent this.

It's that work life, however, that nails it for the audience, as our three "heroes" meet the prisoner they are about to escort and have to piece together the "facts" of the situation. Yes, he could be a terrorist, but he is most likely not. So what next? By this time, we know enough about these three "workers" to fully understand and appreciate the conundrum in which they find themselves. 

How all this plays out also plays to Ms Fontaine's particular filmmaking strengths. Her movie is remarkably satisfying in the manner that it refuses to make anything too easy. It leaves open so many doors and yet allows us to use our own imagination in ways both broad and small so that what might happen and what does may not be impossibly far apart. This is a consistently engrossing, surprisingly humane view of a situation horrendously difficult, despite its being increasingly commonplace.

From Distrib Films US and distributed on DVD via Icarus Home Video, the movie hit the street this past week -- for purchase (and eventually, I hope, for rental, too). 

Tip-top acting anchors Filippo Meneghetti's seniors-in-the-closet melodrama, TWO OF US

Here's a subject you don't see tackled all that often at the movies: The fear of coming out to your family regarding your sexual preference, once you've reached the age of an elderly grandmother. 

As difficult as it can be to deal with leaving the closet as a young man or woman, almost anything we've seen in this regard utterly pales by comparison to what happens -- the events and subsequent trauma -- to our two heroines of  TWO OF US, the French film submitted this year for "Oscar" consideration as Best International Film and which, just today, has been nominated in the Best Motion Picture--Foreign Language category for this year's Golden Globe Award.

As directed (and co-written with Malysone Bovarasmy and Florence Vignon) by Filippo Meneghetti, shown at right, the film is part cautionary tale, part black comedy, part blackmail thriller, mostly love story and absolutely all melodrama -- grounded via its two fine leading performances by popular German actress, Fassbinder favorite Barbara Sukowa (as Nina, above and below, right) and Martine Chevallier of France's famed Comédie Française (as Madeleine, at left, above and below).

Early on we get a strange and lovely impressionistic dream sequence of these two women in childhood which shows us how very close they were (or at least might have been). Otherwise, there's no real history here, yet it is clear from their proximity -- they're neighbors who spend their days and their nights together -- that these two are about as connected to one another as two people can be.

The sale of Madeleine's apartment, a move to Rome, the need to explain to family members (which of course means coming of their closet), betrayal, major health issues, followed by that aforementioned blackmail follow hot upon the heels of each previous "event" until it may be a bit difficult from some in the audience to repress a snicker, if not an outright guffaw.

And yet so grounded and utterly committed are the two leading actresses (quite typical of their entire oeuvre) that we tail along obediently, if not always that happily. Two of Us works best as love story/cautionary tale. How this particular closet can become hell on earth for both parties involved -- even if Nina would have happily come clean about the couple's sexuality long ago -- is convincingly, if heavy-handedly, presented. And thanks to the melodrama and the performances, the movie does hold your attention.

Subsidiary characters such as Madeleine's daughter (played by Léa Drucker, seated, above, and below with Chevallier), son, caregiver and even the caregiver's son are all paper-thin, existing merely to move the plot machinations ever onward. 

Eventually the behavior on view become faintly absurd and then full-out ridiculous. But, hey, this is all the result of secrets and lies, and of course that closet -- particularly when one is part of a family that appears to believe: Better dead than lesbian. 

So there's coincidence aplenty, a breathless escape, a last-minute change of heart, and those two grand performances. TrustMovies' take on Two of Us is that the film's heart is definitely in the right place, even if its mind -- as has that of one of its heroine's -- seems to have gone into stroke mode. Really? This is the movie the French cultural establishment imagined might win the Oscar?

From Magnolia Pictures, in French with English subtitles, and running an acceptable 96 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, February 5, and will be available digitally pretty much everywhere, it seems. Click here to learn where and how you can view it at home, and here, should you simply want more information.

An original amazement to be cherished: Frank Beauvais' JUST DON'T THINK I'LL SCREAM

Not only have I never seen anything like this movie, I have also never seen a film in which the narrator seems to have so incredibly much in common with me: How I think and feel about so very many things, from politics and protest to culture and movies, life, love and death. And that's for starters. 

TrustMovies also must admit that Frank Beauvais (shown at right), the writer and director of JUST DON'T THINK I'LL SCREAM (Ne croyez surtout pas que je hurle) is one hell of a lot younger, brighter and better-spoken than am I. Still, this man's sensibility seem so close to my own that I was hooked on his amazing one-off of a movie from his very first words and their accompanying images. He held me in thrall for the following 75 minutes, as well. 

These are not exactly his images, by the way. No, he's cribbed them from the 400 movies he managed to watch during the time, back in 2016, when he moved from Paris  to a tiny town in the Alsace region.  They are mostly generic-looking images that work well with his narration and move at a very fast pace, so don't even try to identify the films from which they come. 

Only a single of these images immediately stood out to me, one from the 1953 horror movie in 3D, The Maze (above), by which I was greatly charmed and scared as a twelve-year-old kid. Otherwise, the images speed past in very nearly a blur, due unfortunately to my not being able to understand French, and so my eye remained on the almost constant English subtitles which (excellently, I suspect) translate M. Beauvais' lovely, graceful, sad and angry words. (No movie I've ever seen has more made me wish that I could speak and understand the French language.)

Just Don't Think I'll Scream details our hero's life (and this guy is indeed a hero, so far as I'm concerned), after his current relationship is severed and he moves to a town so cut off from just about everything that Beauvais, who does not drive, effectively becomes a kind of house-bound hermit, keeping up with world news, watching his movies, and tackling a few other projects. 

Early on he explains to us that as he continues watching all these movies, "the films are no longer windows; they're mirrors." We learn something of his mom, who lives in a nearby village and whom he dearly loves, and of his late father, from whom he was estranged. Among the thoughtful and precise little gems of information he drops along the way is how one's possessions can so easily becomes a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. 

What seems particularly strange and prescient is how this little film, the events of which took place back in 2016, was cobbled together long before the entry of Covid19 into our world. Yet in its exploration of isolation and the need for digital entertainment, it seems in some ways the perfect reflection of our current time. (The end credits, by the way, list every single film from which a still has been used.)

Perhaps I am dead wrong about my having so much in common with M. Beauvais. Instead, it may be that his stunning combination of narration and "found" film visuals is merely one of the best explorations of "character" I have yet encountered. In any case, as "partial" autobiographies go, this movie is nonpareil, as the French might say.

From KimStim, in French with English subtitles and running just 75 minutes, Just Don't Think I'll Scream opens virtually at Film Forum in New York City and at 15 other virtual theaters across the country tomorrow, Friday, January 29. To learn where and how you can view, click here and scroll down. Clearly, the film is not meant for all tastes. But if you possess anything near to Beauvais' particular sensibility, I'd suggest that you're probably a shoo-in viewer.

A Russian emigrant diddles around in France: Claude Chamis' THE WANDERINGS OF IVAN

That sometimes fine line between art and pomposity gets a real workout in the latest offering from NQV, the 2018 film from French filmmaker Claude Chamis entitled THE WANDERINGS OF IVAN. 

Tracking a recent young emigrant from Russia as he wanders around a French city and then some woodland area nearby, the movie stars a hunky, auburn-haired actor named Aram Arakelyan (at right and below) who's got a great body and a handsome face that unfortunately he keeps pretty much in a single expression throughout the entire movie. Meanwhile, the so-so script graces us with a voiceover in which Ivan talks (and talks and talks) about the friends he left in Russia. Also tossed in is a little bit about how he left them -- but almost no why.

The movie opens with Ivan asleep in the automobile of the surprised young woman who finds him there and screams for him to get out. He then wanders around begging for money, which almost no one gives him. Are we to think that France is full of an uncaring populace? Rather like the rest of the western (and maybe eastern) world, I suppose.

The woods where he wanders turns out to be a major gay cruising spot, but Ivan's having no part of this. Well, he is willing to take the money from a john (Franck Zerbib, above) and then run instead of suck, but what happens here turns out to be a lot worse than merely that. 

Along the way, he gets to kiss one young woman (Camille Freychet, above) and then fuck an older one (Corine Watrin, below) and barely interact with a few of these woods' male hookers -- to just about no avail (and hardly more interest)  whatsoever. 

One of those hookers (Benjamin Baclet, foreground, below) gifts another (Pablo Alarson, background, below) with a book of philosophic musings (of course, this is a French film!), quite a lot of the content of which is droned at us via the narration. Uh.... yeah. These musings/life lessons are not dumb exactly, but the movie itself eventually becomes so. And pointless -- unless the point is to point out how difficult it is these days to make any connection with our fellow man.

There are no real characters here -- including Ivan himself -- just a bunch of good-looking ciphers. Meanwhile, the cinematography is nice, performances are mostly of the "look away so meaningfully" sort, and the film's finale may leave you with but a single question, "Who gives a shit?" As you can probably tell by now, TrustMovies didn't.

From NQV Media (whose offerings I usually recommend more highly than this one) and running just 75 minutes, The Wanderings of Ivan hit digital streaming last week and is available now. You can view it by clicking here, then scrolling down to the line that begins with WATCH and making the proper choice among several possibilities.

Another fine French courtroon drama exploring the way we live now: Stéphane Demoustier's THE GIRL WITH A BRACELET

When it rains, it pours. Here's the second post in a row to feature a good French film dealing with a murder trial: This time it's director/co-writer Stéphane Demoustier's THE GIRL WITH A BRACELET.

Instead of trying a husband for his wife's murder, we have a teenager accused of killing her best friend. As the facts/ suppositions of the case unfold, the question of guilt (about a lot of things other than the murder itself) begins to taint more than merely the defendant herself.

Parental responsibility, social media, sibling rivalry, teen friendship and (very) casual sex -- all of this and more is woven into this unusual and unusually dark and unsettling tale brought to fine life by M. Demoustier (shown at right), his co-writers and the excellent cast assembled here. 

The actors are particularly well cast. The pivotal role of Lise, the defendant in the case, is played by newcomer Melissa Guers (above and below), and Ms Guers captures so much about the difficult life of today's teenager. Sure, the teen years have always been hard (raging hormones, breaking away from parental control, peer pressure, etc.), but toss in our current and ever-more-crappy social media, and how much worse can it possibly get?

As for the parents, well, dad's too controlling, while mom perhaps is not stern enough. (That's Roschdy Zem and Chiara Mastroianni, respectively left and center, below, as Lise's father and mother.) There plenty of blame here to go around, but the filmmaker does not pile the weight on too heavily or unfairly, TrustMovies thinks. Instead he makes us think. And that's one of the points of this intelligent, questioning movie.

While much of the dialog is of the expected "courtroom" sort, the film cleverly catches you off-guard at numerous times, among these when Lise's mom levels a dead-on accusation at the prosecutor, and Lise herself questions why the court seems to so easily accept the testimony of a young male witness over that of her own. 

That prosecutor (above) is played by the excellent actress Anaïs Demoustier, who brings the right degree of professionalism and strength to the role, while Annie Mercier (below) as Lise's lawyer proves equally so on the opposite end -- even as the movie itself (as do so many French films) seems to come down on the side of "innocent until clearly proven guilty." 

Yet, by the very quiet and non-melodramatic conclusion, enough doubt remains to make you question everything all over again. Especially the manner in which children are being adapted into society in our current ever-more-fraught times.

From Icarus Home Video and Distrib Films US, in French with English subtitles and running a fast 95 minutes, The Girl With a Bracelet hit the street yesterday, Tuesday, September 22, on DVD and is available now digitally at virtual cinemas. Click here and then follow instructions to access a virtual viewing.

Virtual debut for Antoine Raimbault's crackerjack courtroom procedural, CONVICTION

Not merely clever -- in its editing, dialog, direction and performances -- the 2018 movie CONVICTION, directed and co-written by Antoine Raimbault, is actually smart. If you're a fan of courtroom procedurals, here's one you ought not miss. Based on an actual murder trial in which the defendant was found innocent (and the subsequent trial for the very same offense: French law clearly differs from ours here in the USA), the film gives us a defense case built in good part around transcripts of legally recorded phone calls that the prosecution had in its possession but didn't really bother much about. 

As we learn when the end credits roll, filmmaker Raimbault (shown at left; this is his first full-length feature) based much of his tale on the facts of the trial(s), yet one extremely important character here turns out to be entirely fictional. If this sounds like a major flaw, it is not. Who this is and how this character fits into the whole work surprisingly well in terms of the story told, the suspense engendered, the pacing and much else. 

In retrospect,  you may realize that there are actually two complete tales being told here -- one reality-based, the other fictional. Yet Raimbault has managed to elide them convincingly enough to approach something pretty seamless.

In the leading role is one of France's finest actresses, Marina Foïs (above, left, of The Workshop and Polisse), who excels once again as a juror on that first trial who convinces a crack defense attorney to take on the case for the second trial. Co-starring, and as good as he has ever been, is Belgium-born Olivier Gourmet (above, right) as the attorney. Their scenes together crackle with high energy and utter conviction (and not the kind these two hope to prevent).

In the unusual role of the somewhat questionable defendant is an actor I've long admired, Laurent Lucas (above) -- who can play everything from a creepy murderer (Who Killed Bambi?) to dark comedy (With a Friend Like Harry) with equal aplomb. Here, Lucas barely changes expression throughout the movie yet creates something oddly indelible anyway. He's got a face you just want to watch.

Ms Foïs has a hunky love interest and a needy offspring, while the Lucas character has three kids of his own (above) who are missing their disappeared mom and their imprisoned dad, but all the supporting characters pretty much pale next to the three leads, who keep us -- along with the smart, tight tale told here -- riveted throughout. If you enjoy courtroom sagas, legal eagles and the often difficult task of serving justice, Conviction should certainly do the trick.

From Distrib Films US, in French with English subtitles and running a just-right 110 minutes, the movie opens in virtual theaters this weekend, including Laemmle Theaters in the Los Angeles area. Click here and scroll down to learn how to view it. In South Florida, click here for virtual viewing via The Movies of Delray and Lake Worth. (Remember: you do not have to be anywhere near the particular virtual theater to be able to see the movie in question.)