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The Diving Bell And The Butterfly [2007]

starring: Mathieu Amalric, Lopez Garmendia, Emma De Caunes, Jean-Philippe Watkins, Nicolas Le Riche
directed by: Julian Schnabel

June 09, 2008
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is a gripping French film based on a true story about a renowned magazine editor,who after suffering a devastating stroke became paralysed,only able to communicate by blinking one of his eyes. The acting in the film is of a very high standard throughout as we watch the immobile Jean-Do face up to his life altering circumstances at first with despair but then with resignation and finally acceptance of his horrible fate. He is lucky in that he has the love of two women,his wife and mistress to keep him going , as well as his three children and several attentive speech therapists and helpers. Their support bolsters his spirits and enable him to "write" his memoirs and share his experiences of life as a victim ... Read More:

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The Singer [2006]

starring: Mathieu Amalric, Gerard Depardieu, Cecile De France

February 11, 2008
We follow Alain Moreau (played by Depardieu) as he performs to small audiences in clubs. There is a sense that this is the twilight of his career. Generally he seems to be performing for an ageing audience but at one of his gigs he meets a younger woman (played by Cécile De France) and the film charts the on-off relationship between them. Towards the end of the film, Moreau gets a chance to play to a much larger venue. But will he have the nerve to make this transition?

As other reviewers have pointed out, this is not a film where a lot happens. Nor is it entirely novel or surprising to report that the acting performances are very good. The central relationship seemed realistically portrayed but it remained difficult to see exactly what ... Read More:

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Munich [2005]

starring: Eric Bana, Hiam Abbass, Ziad Adwan, Sharon Alexander, Mosko Alkalai
directed by: Steven Spielberg

June 12, 2006
I think that people will look back on Steven Spielberg's career in years to come and wonder why this film didn't merit the reaction of some of Spielberg's other "historical epics". It's a good old-fashioned thriller in many aspects, except that this is a plausible semi-factual account of the search for the terrorists behind Black September and the Munich massacres.

The premise is relatively simple, a group is put together, all of them specialists and all of them put under cover by Mossad to seek out and kill the gunmen that escaped from Munich after the 1972 killings of Israeli athletes and coaches at the Munich Olympics on 6th September 1972. However, Spielberg never gets too involved in the "rights" and "wrongs" of this story - you know that he feels ... Read More:

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Heartbeat Detector

starring: Mathieu Amalric, Michael Londsdale
directed by: Nicolas Klotz

September 22, 2008
This film is riveting and utterly engrossing. Upcoming Bond baddie Matthieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) gets a film to himself here - already a reason to watch - and the film that he gets is a chilling, provocative look at corporate life that will make you think twice about putting on your suit to go into the office again. The way that Nazi Germany creeps into the picture is terrifying. A staggering piece of cinema.

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I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed [2005]

starring: Charles Berling, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Simon Abkarian, Josiane Balasko, Mathieu Amalric
directed by: Serge Le Peron

February 12, 2007
This political thriller (French) recalls the true story of Georges Figon, a French movie producer who witnesses the assassination of Moroccan Ben Barka by French secret Service.
I know this because I read it on the back of the dvd box in my local dvd library (VOGUE VIDEO Edinburgh dvds are £1.50 per night). The front of the dvd box is cluttered with 5* reviews from well established movie magazines.
However I found myself completely lost in this movie as I do not have a degree in Franco-Moroccan political history. I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the labyrinth plot; the director foolishly decided to use a Rashomon-style triple narrative to recall main events. This lack of contextual explanation meant I knew or cared why the films events took place.
Avoid.

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Kings And Queen [2004]

starring: Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Catherine Deneuve
directed by: Arnaud Desplechin

November 14, 2005
In this film we follow two parallell stories showing the lives of two people, each accompanied by it's own type of music, highlighting their different tones and ways. The lives of these two people are revealed to stand in a special relationship to each other, which eventually brings them into the same scene, and not by chance. At the end they also appear together, yet apart. The explanation of this apartness is revealed, puzzling all the different bits of the film together, affectuating a sort of catharsis. The film is truly brilliantly constructed by an integration of form and content. It is the story of a man and a woman who's lives are separate yet belong together in some special way. Part of plot cirles around her desire to tie him to her son. The matter is considered forwards and back, while ... Read More:

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Kings and Queen [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

starring: Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Catherine Deneuve, Maurice Garrel, Nathalie Boutefeu
directed by: Arnaud Desplechin

November 22, 2005
Emanuelle Devos plays Nora a successful 35 year old art gallery owner whose current boyfriend/fiance provides her with the queenly lifestyle to which she aspires, however the viewer gradually learns he has a darkside which Nora either denies or ... or to which she is strangely attracted. Initially, Nora seems a pulled together highly successful person but as the deep inner layers of her life are explored and peeled back, many facets of her complex and confusing nature are revealed using flashbacks to her past life. Her personality and life decisions are shown in a most ingenious manner by the director. This film is a totally satisfying viewing experience despite the temptation to just shake her up with a good heart-to-heart talk about the decisions she is contemplating related to raising her son. Then ... Read More:

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Late August, Early September [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

starring: Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Ledoyen, François Cluzet, Jeanne Balibar, Alex Descas
directed by: Olivier Assayas

May 27, 2003
I liked this. For starters, it was well written and the characters seemed very real to me. Wuss that I am, I definitely felt a tear in my eye at one point (maybe two). It was acted well too. I'm becoming a big fan of Virginie Ledoyen's - who is excellent in her tempestuous role here - but the film mostly centres on Gabriel, and Mathieu Amalric was great in that role. The subtitles were easy to follow whilst still watching the film, although it occasionally jarred when the handful of French words I know and recognised were slightly different to the translation I was reading. This is an excellent 'slice of life' film, and one that has a definite, satisfying conclusion. I don't think I loved this film, but I liked it very, very much, and there were no real bad points to it. Not my favourite film perhaps, ... Read More:

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Heartbeat Detector [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

starring: Lou Castel, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Edith Scob, Mathieu Amalric, Delphine Chuillot
directed by: Nicolas Klotz

July 08, 2008
I liked this. For starters, it was well written and the characters seemed very real to me. Wuss that I am, I definitely felt a tear in my eye at one point (maybe two). It was acted well too. I'm becoming a big fan of Virginie Ledoyen's - who is excellent in her tempestuous role here - but the film mostly centres on Gabriel, and Mathieu Amalric was great in that role. The subtitles were easy to follow whilst still watching the film, although it occasionally jarred when the handful of French words I know and recognised were slightly different to the translation I was reading. This is an excellent 'slice of life' film, and one that has a definite, satisfying conclusion. I don't think I loved this film, but I liked it very, very much, and there were no real bad points to it. Not my favourite film perhaps, ... Read More:

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny, Patrick Chesnais
directed by: Julian Schnabel

April 29, 2008
Can I just start by saying: this film is outstanding. It clearly benefits from the remarkableness of Jean-Dominique Bauby's book - the notion of a man with 'locked-in' syndrome being able to write such a poetic story about his experiences using only the blinking of his left-eye to signal the letters of the words is, in itself, awe-inspring. It would seem an almost impossible task to turn such a book into a film, but it has been done here with considerable skill.

The film adopts a highly phenomenological approach, using blurred shots, muffled sounds, metaphor clips, flashbacks, to tell the story in a perfectly-timed and engaging fashion. Some of the frames, to my mind are incredibly powerful in evoking all the senses - one that particularly sticks in my mind is the 15 second shot of his girlfriend's ... Read More: