World War II France, the Holocaust, and Marguerite Duras combine in Emmanuel Finkiel's exceptional MEMOIR OF WAR

Marguerite Duras was certainly among France's most fascinating modern writers -- in terms of both her work and her life, the latter of which spanned 1914-1996. She was a prolific writer, with many of her works brought to the screen, and she was also a filmmaker of some note and even an occasional actress. Of everything TrustMovies has seen by her and about her, however, perhaps the strongest so far is the new film MEMOIR OF WAR by French filmmaker Emmanuel Finkiel, which, in its original French title, La douleur, translates simply as "the pain."

M. Finkiel (shown at right) has made a small but resonant work of art that manages to simultaneously capture a slice of World War II France under Nazi control; a very good sense of the kind of impressionistic writing at which Ms Duras sometimes excelled, as well as something of her difficult but decidedly bracing character; and most especially, I think, a clear-eyed look at the pain caused by the Holocaust -- by focusing not on the victims themselves but rather on those family members and friends who hoped against hope that their husbands/wives/ children/friends/lovers had somehow survived.

Though the star of this film is Mélanie Thierry (above), who is giving here the performance of her career (so far), for me and from this point onward, the face of The Holocaust will probably be that of the incredible actress, Shulamnit Adar, shown below, who has a major supporting role as the Jewish mother who awaits news of her handicapped daughter taken from her early in the Nazi's despicable war on humanity.

Ms Adar has a face that seems to register multiple feelings at once, each of them strong and true. What she goes through here and how she does it should imprint on your memory indelibly. The plot, such as it is, goes back and forth in time and involves Duras' husband (her married name was Antelme), his disappearance, her affair with his best friend Dionys (Benjamin Biolay, below),

and her having to chat up (and perhaps do a lot more than that) a French collaborator (Benoît Magimel, below) who may or may not be able to offer help to her imprisoned husband. The tale, as such, might not seem like much. But the manner in which the filmmaker chooses to tell is very much in keeping with the Duras style: impressionistic, elliptical, full of hesitation and the kind of self-condemnation that can easily double as self-exoneration.

Finkiel, who adapted Duras' autobiographical novel as well as directed, makes such excellent choices in terms of how much to show and how much to leave unseen, and he draws terrific performances from his cast, especially from Ms Thierry, who, as good as she has been elsewhere, has never had a role this encompassing and demanding.

How Finkiel weaves all this together so artfully yet provocatively is pretty close to brilliant. Memoir of War takes its place in the front rank of films about WWII France, the Holocaust, and a woman's sacrifices and needs.

From Music Box Films and running 127 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, August 17, in New York at Film Forum and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the following Friday, August 24, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center theaters and elsewhere, including here in South Florida at the Coral Gables Art Cinema in Miami. Over the weeks and months to come, it will play all around the country. Click here, then click on THEATERS on the task bar halfway down the screen to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. 

All about an amazing personality and career: Lisa Immordino Vreeland's LOVE, CECIL

Back in 2012, the granddaughter-in-law of the fashion maven Diana Vreeland, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, co-directed a documentary about the more famous Vreeland's life and work. It was a resounding success in many ways (even, to some extent, at the box-office), and in 2015, the younger Vreeland followed this up with another well-received documentary about Peggy Guggenheim. Now, Ms Vreeland has turned her attention to one of the fashion and photography icons of the mid-20th-Century, Cecil Beaton. The result -- LOVE, CECIL -- is yet another documentary home run.

Sure, Cecil Beaton was, as one of the interviewees admits rather far along in the film, a social-climbing snob. But he was also a supremely talented photographer, writer and designer, as so much of the work we see in this rapturously beautiful documentary thoroughly proves. And Ms Vreeland (shown at left), along with her editor, Bernadine Colish, and cinematographer, Shane Sigler, using a wealth of archival photographic treasures and a running narrative taken from Beaton's own witty and delightful diaries (read superbly by Rupert Everett), interspersed with amusing, telling and intelligent interviews with a wide range of prominent people, whips all this into an informative, entertaining and, yes, brittle (just as was Mr. Beaton) froth that allows this 98-minute movie to speed along quite nicely.

Gay and barely closeted (at a time when homosexuality was still a criminal offense in Britain), Beaton (shown above and below) managed to avoid any consequences from this (save perhaps his inability to latch on to any even vaguely permanent love relationship).

What got him most in trouble, stalling and nearly ending his career, turns out to be an anti-Semitic slur he buried, hardly able to be noticed, into some published art work for Conde Nast. Why this even happened remains a mystery (it seems to have been so to him, as well), as he was not noticeably anti-Semitic -- though god knows, plenty of his famous friends certainly were: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, for instance, along with other Hitler worshipers in the extended "royal family."

How and why he survived this event and quite literally "worked" his way out of it provides one of the more interesting episodes in a documentary chock full of them. His initial success in the USA and New York City enabled him to return to England with enough fame to build on and garner even more. His photographic work during World War II (for which he seems less known now) helped him regain his stature, as did his photography of the Royal Family and the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth.

As we learn what happens to his brother, father and mother (his two sisters disappear from the narrative early on, never to return) weight and sadness are added to Beaton's tale and life. Yet the man himself remains witty, charming and cleverly self-deprecating throughout.

Thanks to Vreeland's smart pacing and to Beaton's rather incredible life, nearly everything we see and hear proves a kind of "highlight." What a career this man had! By the time we get to the section in which an interviewer asks him to name some of the folk he does not like -- and why -- his bitchy, funny answers scorch the screen. (His take-down of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, in particular, seems absolutely on the nose.)

Among the interviewees, artist David Hockney's reminiscences prove especially fond and thoughtful. As old age approaches we meet Beaton's much-loved white cat and see the man himself struggling against the dying of the light. Once that cat has departed, it is but a matter of a very short time until Beaton does, too.

Vreeland's documentary is like a trip back to a time long gone -- one that perhaps is not so much missed (it's the mid-20th-Century, after all). Compared to our current times, however, and what looks like a world approaching corporate/wealthy Fascism leading a citizenry made up of far too much right-wing, racist scum, those days seem a paradise lost.

From Zeitgeist Films, Love, Cecil opens this Friday, June 29, in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and in Los Angeles on July 20 at the Landmark NuArt. Overall, the film is scheduled to play some 25 cities across the country, including, here in South Florida, the Living Room Theaters in Boca Raton on July 27 and the Coral Gables Art Cinema in Miami on August 10. Click here (then scroll down) to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters

DVDebut: Christophe Barratier's powerhouse, French-financial-crisis film, THE OUTSIDER

Having seen and enjoyed Christophe Barratier's three previous films -- The Chorus, Paris 36 and yet another War of the Buttons remake -- TrustMovies was anxious to see what this nostalgia-dipped filmmaker has been up to of late. Interestingly, his current film, THE OUTSIDER, is also his least nostalgic (unless you count the financial crisis of the decade past as a piece of nostalgia) and may very well be his best movie yet.

As co-adapted (with Laurent Turner) and directed by Barratier (shown below), from the memoir by Jérôme Kerviel -- the trader involved and responsible (with the help, of course, of his bosses) for what happend at one of France's larges and most "reputable" banks -- the movie is both crackerjack entertainment and yet another indictment of the world's financial establishment.

What Barratier, his cast and crew capture particularly well is the atmosphere of the trading room -- this is as good as I've seen; better, in fact, that the overblown and so-pleased-with-itself version Scorsese gave us in The Wolf of Wall Street and certainly on a par with The Big Short. Because the movie is based on Kerviel's story, as told by him, we of course get a biased viewpoint, and yet the filmmaker and his star, the excellent and increasingly versatile Arthur Dupont, (of One to Another, Bus Palladium and Haute Cuisine) show us both the relatively innocent young man who begins the tale and the hotshot, semi-sleazebag he eventually becomes.

Dupont's fine performance (the actor is shown above and below, left) also allows us to view the incremental changes in Kerviel as he moves along his path. This fellow was less a crook than a very good trader, as well as a smart, intuitive man.

The supporting cast is made up of some excellent actors, too, especially François-Xavier Demaison (above, right) who plays Kerviel's initial boss -- a fellow who is smart, nasty, smarmy, and just full of Jesus allusions. This is a terrific, award-calibre performance.

Romance is provided by the attractive and feisty Sabrina Ouazani (above, left), as the young IT woman Kerviel falls for, while Thomas Coumans (above, right) portrays Mathieu, his best friend at the bank, a man who tries to keep our would-be hero on the straight-and-narrow.

We get a taste of Kerviel's family life, too, as well as some of his extra-curricular activities (below) but mostly we see him turn from a quick-study innocent into a force of nature so far as trading is concerned. And when the shit finally hits the fan, we see in action the much-vaunted "team spirit" (that doubles as the movie's aka title), as team mates, and especially the bank's bosses, run for cover.

The Outsider is yet another necessary lesson in why the world's financial sector so desperately needs those very regulations that seem to be currently disappearing -- perhaps for good.

From Distrib Films US, reaching DVD via Icarus Film Home Video, the movie hit the street this past Tuesday, June 5 -- for purchase and/or rental.

World War II France & two energetic brothers power Christian Duguay's A BAG OF MARBLES

French-Canadian filmmaker Christian Duguay has worked a lot in film and television over his 34-year career, but it may be his latest film as director and co-adapter of the famous novel/memoir by Joseph Joffo, A BAG OF MARBLES (Un sac de billes), that will help, as much as any other of his work, to memorialize this talented journeyman filmmaker. A movie that might best be described as Holocaust-lite, it is also one of that increasingly popular sub-genre's better examples.

M. Duguay, shown at right, has directed and co-adapted this tale -- which deals with the adventures of two young brothers during World War II France who must separate from their parents and older siblings in order that all might survive -- with such boundless energy and skill that the fact that what goes on here, despite its very real urgency and life-and-death stakes, does in fact seem like a kind of adventure.

Hence Holocaust-lite. And yet the adventure is so enthralling, the performances so good all around, the direction on point and the writing adequate enough to carry us easily along.

One of the movie's initial scenes involves our hero brothers deliberately obscuring a sign that notes, as signage was required to do once the Nazis took over Paris, that the shop in question is Jewish-owned. Consequently two Nazi soldiers (above) come in, utterly unaware of where they are. This fun-and-games approach works well because of the youth and so-much-left-to-learn of our protagonists, while bringing to the movie a kind of completely natural joie de vivre that it maintains throughout.

Those two protags are played with lovely insouciance and growing pain and anger by Batyste Fleuial Palmieri, above, center (as the older of the two) and Dorian Le Clech (above, center, left, and below). Both are excellent but the movie belongs mostly to young Le Clech -- because his character narrates and much of the tale revolves around him.

In the roles of the boys' parents are French standard-bearers Patrick Bruel (center, below) and Elsa Zylberstein, and both are every bit as fine -- strong, caring, charismatic -- as you'd expect. Supporting cast members are aces, too, from the French who aid these kids, including various priests, and the Nazis who would love to see them deported to the camps.

Granted, the movie does make it seems that just about every French man and woman was pro-resistance (with a few notable exceptions), and that, of course, is to be taken with the proverbial and usual grain of salt.

Toward the end our little hero does something quite lovely concerning the Petain-and-Nazi loving family that has taken him in to work for it. This fits perfectly with all that has already transpired and aids enormously in showing us why this hugely popular memoir/novel has remained in the hearts and minds of Frenchmen for so long.

Locations move from 1940s Paris to both the French countryside and the Riviera, so visually, there's plenty of beauty in the film, as well. The movie goes easy on the violence, blood and gore; consequently, when an untoward moment suddenly occurs, it hits you like a punch to the solar plexus.

From Gaumont, in French with English subtitles and running a just-about-right 110 minutes, A Bag of Marbles opened to generally quite good reviews on our cultural coasts last week, and this week on Friday, April 20, hits elsewhere across the country, including South Florida -- where it will play the Miami area at the AMC Aventura 24, in Fort Lauderdale at The Classic Gateway (note: The Last Picture Show in Tamarac will screen the film beginning April 27), and in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters and the Regal Shadowood 16, It will also open this week at the Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth.

Alexander Janko's YEAR BY THE SEA -- adapted from the popular Joan Anderson memoir -- finally gets a NY/L.A. theatrical release

YEAR BY THE SEA is not the worst film I've seen this year. But given its provenance -- a NY Times best-selling memoir by Joan Anderson and a particularly starry, talented cast -- it is certainly the most disappointing. In fact, it opened down here in Southern Florida around six months ago, and at that time, I decided, rather than trash it, to simply let it die its quiet but necessary death. But now that it is opening in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere, it seems to me that a warning is in order for audiences that may be suckered in by that provenance.

Having not read the original memoir, TrustMovies can't vouch for the book's quality, but it surely must have been better than what's evolved onto the screen. As adapted and directed by Alexander Janko (shown at right: this is his first effort in both departments), the movie is one of those "telescoped," feel-good schlock-fests that will insult the intelligence of any audience with standards higher than very low mainstream. Most galling is the fact that the film probably imagines that it is "feminist"and progressive, simply because its heroine (along with most of the other characters) gets everything that she wants without letting us know about the hard work and painful setbacks that would of course accompany so much of this.

It's just all too easy. And when I say "all," I mean everything -- from curing an unfeeling, recalcitrant husband to finding gainful employment, solving the problem of a friend's physically abusive boyfriend, and yes, death and dying. Gheesh. If only. I found this movie, in its own special way, insulting, while my spouse likened it, as he sometimes does, to a kind of pornography: not of the sexual sort but regarding life itself in the manner that movies so often cheapen by making it all seem so easy and labor-free. If you want something badly enough, well, hey, you can just make it happen.

The subject here is -- according to the tag line on the poster, top -- "It's never too late to reclaim your life." And, as we see unveil before us, this reclaiming is all so much fun and easily done that, gosh, we can't imagine why everyone doesn't manage it. (Also, by the way, it does help a lot if you've got enough money to begin with.) So our heroine, a woman who has lived in the shadow of her uncaring hubby for far too long, decides to "reclaim."

In the talented cast are actors as good as Karen Allen (above, right, as that put-upon wife) and Michael Cristofer (above, left, as her entitled, unsympathetic husband). Both do the best they can with material that's sadly second-rate.

The real shock here comes in seeing actors as fine as S. Epatha Merkerson (above, center) and Celia Imrie (below) utterly wasted in roles that require them to do and be so little that their fans will probably wince. Ms Imrie -- very good in countless British films and television shows -- plays a character that is clearly meant to be wise and helpful but instead comes off like some nitwit Obi-wan Kenobi (dressed in super-bright colors). She has either been directed into poor choices or, absent that, simply flails and fails.

But, hey, the movie, with its seaside location, is very pretty to look at, while its paint-by-numbers style and content will be plenty easy to follow. So for those who demand happy endings, good feelings and great results with little labor, here is the movie for you.

Year By the Sea, running 114 minutes, opens this coming Friday in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and the following Friday, September 15, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal Town Center and Playhouse 7. Elsewhere? Click here to view all upcoming playdates, cities and theaters around the country.

That "red-diaper baby" grows up (somewhat) in the Kornbluth Brothers' LOVE & TAXES

For anyone who enjoyed his earlier monologue, Red Diaper Baby, and/or his office-place comedy Haiku Tunnel, the good news is that Josh Kornbluth is back with another witty, funny, self-deprecating look at himself and his life -- LOVE & TAXES  -- in which it comes out that the poor schmuck has not bothered to file or pay income tax for seven years. (Well, you know these "artist" types....)

The even-better news is that Josh's brother Jacob Kornbluth, shown below, right (with Robert Reich, who has a juicy little role in the film), is also back to direct and take the movie from mere monologue (where it begins) into dramatic reenactment, fantasy and frolic -- with the accent clearly on the latter.

If you've seen Josh's earlier work, you'll have a clearer idea of the unusual family from which he came and how he grew into the fellow he now is. Taken on its own terms, however, Love & Taxes should give you enough of this that you'll follow along mostly gleefully, as our hero (I use that word loosely) tries to come to terms with life, love and paying taxes.

To that end, he must interact with financial accountants, trustworthy and not so (the smartest/scariest of these is brought to fine life in a whip-smart performance by Helen Shumaker, below).

As success of a sort is bestowed upon Josh (the actor/writer is shown below) and his fortune appears to rise, he also discovers groupies (one of which becomes the love of his life, two photos below), Hollywood, the "option," and lots more.

As writer and performer, Josh Kornbluth is pretty much one-of-a-kind -- a chubby, cherubic, Jewish comic with a great gift for self-deprecating humor. He and his movie slowly pull you in and before you know it, you're rooting for the guy hook, line and sinker -- even as his foibles and foolishness keep threatening to derail his life. He is both "Everyman" and a bizarre mixture of "Schmuck" and "Mensch." The combination is endearing and funny.

Director Kornbluth fills his film with very smart visuals that keep the tale bubbling along via some lovely and charming fake backdrops that, while serving the tiny budget well, also add greatly to the movie's endearing qualities. Oddly enough, however -- given the Kornbluth brothers' background as red-diaper babies of a staunchly American Communist family (dad, at least) -- the movie is never even glancingly political.

Love & Taxes comes out four-square for paying your taxes because "what would happen if everybody refused to pay," as we're told at least a couple of times during the course of the film. But it says this without giving a thought to where those taxes go -- into the trough of greedy politicians who resolutely refuse to honor the wishes and/or needs of their constituents but instead do everything for the wealthy, powerful and corporate so that their re-election is thus ensured.

Granted, the movie would be quite another kettle of fish if any of this were acknowledged. Yes, the Kornbluth siblings' early life may have "cured" them of ever wanting to be "political" again. But I wonder what film might have emerged if some real politics were included into this mix of love and laughter and happy ending? The Kornbluths' dad, rather than "flying away," as Josh tells us, might have stuck around and even applauded.

Light, fluffy, tasty and enjoyable (and about as nourishing as Cool Whip), Love & Taxes -- via Abramorama and running a nicely-paced 90 minutes --  opens tomorrow, Friday, March 3, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and on Friday, March 10, in the L.A. area at Laemmle's Noho 7 and the Art Theater in Long Beach. To see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here.