DVDebut: Obssesion has its day in Sophie Laloy's 2009 endeavor, YOU WILL BE MINE

According to the IMDB, French film worker Sophie Laloy (shown below) has labored mostly in cinema sound and has directed and co-written but a single full-length film. If and when you view that movie -- YOU WILL BE MINE -- you may understand just why. Ms Laloy's original title in French, Je te mangerais, translates as "I would eat you," and this pretty much describes the obsessive and utterly possessive feelings of one of our protagonists for the other. God knows, obsession has been the theme of a number of excellent movies, from Visconti's early work to Vertigo. But thanks to the nitwit behavior on view, together with some ridiculous plot twists, this film comes nowhere close to joining those ranks.

Fortunately, the film offers some pleasant distractions that just might make it worth your time. Chief among these is Isild Le Besco, (shown above and below), that actress of exotic blond beauty who tends to add interest to anything in which she appears. Here she plays the villainess role to that of co-star Judith Davis' turn as would-be heroine, though neither character is completely what she may initially seem.

This good/evil combination may be the filmmaker's point -- along with the difficulties of accepting one's own lesbian tendencies, given society's majority-rule, continuing stigma of same sex love. If so, Ms Laloy did not find a way to bring all this to remotely believable life, given the over-the-top behavior.

The film was made in 2008 and first released in France in 2009. While attitudes have changed some over the past decade, human behavior remains fairly consistent, and what we see in this movie doesn't pass muster. When the worst possible decision are made, over and over again, the viewer's suspension of disbelief goes into overdrive and finally collapses.

The plot offers up Ms Davis, above and below, as a talented student of classical piano who has the chance to study at a major academy. Due to her family's finances, she must move into the apartment of the daughter of  family friend, a medical student played by Ms Le Besco.

Possessiveness and libido come to the fore almost immediately and grow ever stronger as the movie progresses, turning itself, along with its characters, inside out in the process. Supporting performers includes Edith Scob as a helpful teacher at the academy and Johan Libérau (below, right) as Davis' would-be boyfriend. M. Libérau's copious endowment is given its own impressive full-frontal scene.

For those so inclined, that may be the highlight of the movie. Otherwise, it's a long slough through passion resisted and embraced, love and hate, and nonsensical actions on the road to ruin. Which young woman comes out ahead, and why, may surprise you. Or not.

From Film Movement (though at this time it can be found nowhere on this distributor's web site) and running 100 minutes, the movie finally hits DVD and digital this coming Tuesday, July 24 -- for purchase or rental. If you want to view this one, your best bet is probably via Amazon Prime.

Alanté Kavaïté's THE SUMMER OF SANGAILE: Lithuania's entry into this year's Oscar sweeps

TrustMovies can't quite imagine what some of the older members of the Academy will make of the hot lesbian love scenes in THE SUM-MER OF SANGAILE, the official Lithuanian entry into the upcoming Best Foreign Language Film contention. Whatever reaction those scenes produce, I can't help but think that members will be greatly impressed with the cinematic beauty and quiet, tender artfulness of this unusual movie. Its plot may be a mere wisp, involving the coming-of-age of its fragile heroine, yet the film's visuals -- beginning to end -- prove stunning.

That the film, written and directed by Alanté Kavaïté (shown at right), won the Sundance Film festival award for directing (world cinema -- dramatic) should give some indication of how surprising those visuals are. Beginning with our heroine, Sangaile (the lovely Julija Steponaityte, below), entranced by the amazing-if-frightening work of a local stunt pilot during his air show, the film almost immediately cuts to our other protagonist, Auste (Aiste Dirziute), also a looker but one whose true beauty emerges more slowly as the film progresses.

Auste (below), hugely attracted to Sangaile, sets about meeting and seducing the slightly younger girl, and she make no bones about any of this. A bright, creative young woman, gifted in fashion and photography (both the clothes and the photographs seen here are good enough to turn the heads of titans in both industries), Auste uses these skills to draw Sangaile -- who early on in the film has a clearly unsatisfying sexual encounter with a young man from Auste's group -- close, closer, then whew!

All the while, Ms Kavaïté's concern for the environment in which these girls exist -- the incredibly verdant countryside, the spacious sky, the local lake, the very different homes in which the two girls live -- into which come the almost profound art that Auste produces with the visual help of Sangaile combine to create a memorable fragment of a movie. (The outstanding cinematography is by Dominique Colin.)

Sangaile has health problems -- diabetes, perhaps, and vertigo that keeps her from pursuing her dream of flying -- and she also has a somewhat distant mother, a former ballerina who appears to have had some trouble honing her parenting skills.

For her part, Auste seems surprisingly competent as both an artist and autonomous person. She "manages" the relationship as best she can, while helping Sangaile toward her own autonomy. The movie, however, is finally more a visual feast than any deep exploration of character or relationship.

But as that, The Summer of Sangaile is well worth seeing as it gently yet luxuriously probes the place of family, friendship, sexuality, creativity and challenge in the lives of the young.

From Strand Releasing, in Lithuanian with English subtitles and running 97 minutes, this Lithuania/France/Netherlands co-production opens in New York City at the IFC Center this Friday, November 20, and in Los Angeles at the Sundance Sunset Cinema on December 4.

DROOL opens (in L.A.); Laura Harring stars in Nancy Kissam's comedy

How nice to see Laura Harring, the voluptuous young lady from Mulholland Drive (the one whose career did not take off like a house afire), in a leading role once again. It would have been even nicer to have seen her in a leading role in a good film. But, ardent movie lover that TrustMovies is, he takes what he can get. And in this case, he's got a colorful, over-the-top time-waster.


Written and directed by Nancy Kissam (shown at right with shades and cigar: The shot is courtesy of Slamdance, at which Ms Kissam's screenplay won an award), DROOL is brightly colored and, as it moves along, very predictable in almost every way.  That it lasts a mere 85 minutes is one of its saving graces.  The other can be found in the film's performances, all of which, though fairly broad, are good enough (even given what the poor actors are sometimes asked to do) to make the movie bearable.

For me, the biggest problem with so many gay and lesbian films is their insistence on a happy ending at all costs. I realize that most of us want this (Isn't that what movies are supposed to be about?) but it helps if we arrive there via a route that offers some surprise and characters who possess the quirks and nuances of reality.  Ms Kissam's set-up is heavy-handed enough, but from there she slams each event so hard it finally hurts, right up to the requisite bring-us-all-together -- races, sexes, the works! -- finale.  Oh, well.  It's all quite happy, as I mentioned.

In addition to the beautiful Ms Harring (above), the movie offers the gorgeous Jill Marie Jones (below) as a spicy new neighbor, Mummy man Oded Fehr as the abusive hubby, and Ashley Duggan Smith (bottom, left) and Christopher Newhouse (bottom, center left) as Harring's children.  Kissam draws consistent performances from her cast; everybody's on the same page: characterization via broad-stroke, felt-tip marker. Situations, events and people are all overdrawn, particularly in comparison to another comedy that also opened this week: The Paranoids.   The differences between the way these directors handle their films seem to me both striking and pertinent.  As quirky as is The Paranoids, it never loses touch with reality.  Drool -- in all its primary-color palette and "quirks" as big as boulders -- rarely seems to approach it.

Clearly these films are aimed at different audiences, and since comparisons are of course odious, I should just shut up and suggest that, if you prefer your films on the easy-to-digest side, give Drool a chance.  (That title comes from what the Harring character's hubby does, automatically, during sex.) The film opens today, January 22, via Strand Releasing, only in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Sunset 5 complex, on a daily, two-performance-only schedule.  Can a DVD release be far behind?