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Members Reviews
| I never would have seen this film if it weren't for Tim Young's talk on World Cinema at the Film Festival. I'm really glad I did now becuase it was a great experience, days later the beautiful imagery of the film is still with me. |
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S.
Brown
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| Having now had a chance to see the film, I'm happy to agree with the Sight and Sound editorial putting it up there with the very best of world cinema - of all time. Making the aficionados put some mental effort into their enjoyment of the arts is nothing new, and usually to the artist's credit: which do you prefer, T.S.Eliot or John Betjeman? Samuel Beckett or J.B.Priestly? Picasso or David Shepherd? Julian Barnes or John Grisham? So where Claire denis is concerned, our lingering reflections over the interpretation of some of her images or 'unstated' narrative may make us recall Beau Travail in 10 years' time rather more readily than, say, Gladiator. What about that ending?! If we're looking for layers of meaning in a film, or richness of interpretation, it was a goldmine... A personal response would be that Galoup resembled a butterfly, beating frenetically at the bars of his cage-like disco booth, inapte a la vie (unfit for life) as he said at the beginning of the film. Probably absurd to those of you who found different symbols, but just one man's view - it doesn't really matter as long as the artist evokes some response and arouses admiration for her creation. I'd love to hear what you think! . |
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Rod
Evans
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If you would like to review this film click here.
Justly acclaimed wherever it’s
been seen, this extraordinary movie by the sadly underrated Claire Denis
is sure to prove, artistically at least, one of the highlight releases of
the year. Inspired by ‘Billy Budd’ (both Melville’s novel and Britten’s
opera, passages of which embellish the lovely soundtrack), it centres on
Galoup (Denis Lavant, of Léos Carax’s first three features)
who, while holed up in Marseille, recalls his time as a sergeant-major for
the French Foreign Legion in Djibouti.
Full Notes Available Here
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