Cinebanter #33: PARIS JE T'AIME
The MP3 file of Cinebanter 33 is available here.
In this episode, Michael and Tassoula pick apart the good and the bad from the collection of short films PARIS JE T'AIME. They also share their Last Five®, and Average Matt returns with his review of SHREK THE THIRD. The breakdown is as follows:
• 00:00 Intro
• 00:32 PARIS JE T'AIME Discussion
• Break
• 22:40 To Sum It Up
• Break
• 23:29 The Last Five®
• Break
• 42:41 Average Matt
• 50:27 Credits and Outtakes
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Michael's Last Five in this episode were: KNOCKED UP, DOWN THE VALLEY, SAVING FACE, BEER LEAGUE and APOCALYPTO. Tassoula's Last Five in this episode were: DOLPHINS, THE GODFATHER, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, PRIMO AMORE and 1941.
Special thanks to Brad Daane and Mark Cummins for providing the music in this episode.
Reviews and/or notes of every movie Michael sees can be found at his MichaelVox website.
Tassoula has reviews, musings and movie-related product links at Tassoula's Movie Review Blog.
Feedback is always welcome - you may leave comments here or e-mail the hosts at cinebanter@gmail.com.
We hope you enjoy the show!
Labels: Alexander Payne, Alfonso Cuaron, France, Gus Van Sant, MichaelVox, Natalie Portman, Paris, Paris Je T'aime, review, short films, Tassoula, Wes Craven
posted by Cinebanter @ 6:34 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Michael and Tassoula.
I havn't sent you a "Last Five" for a while ,so here goes...
Firstly, Michael, i cannot believe that you couldnt at least muster up
(" Paris) Jet'aime"..it's got to be the most familiar French phrase EVER in pop culture.. "I love you"....you MUST know the "sexy" record..by Serge Gainsbourg, with wife Jane Birkin,doing, twenty years or so earlier, what Donna Summer did on "i feel love"..this "multi-movie" sounds good, but,as i suspected,does not have a full nationwide release here..i'd have to go "up" to London... anyway!
"Last Five"
5. "Miami Vice"...pretty good.. with Michael Mann it's as much about the fantastic locations and the "boys toys" as anything isn't it?
in this case superfast boats..no need to set the characters up..we know what they do..as far as the T.V. show goes, i remember liking the title sequence with the Ferrari and the Jan Hammer music..pity he didnt get Jan Hammer (or Jan Akkermann even ),to do the score, instead we get a sub-"Nickleback" type band doing the awful "In the Air tonight" by Phil Collins..plot-wise ,there is a believable "love" story ("star crossed" ,of course, Drug dealer/undercover cop)..
Colin Farrell ..great eyebrows..Li Gong... beautiful,recognised her from"2046"
Jamie Foxx does very little ,very well...ultimately "eye candy", but it's
Michael Mann eye candy...
4 "Brick"..obviously VERY low-budget .Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great
Enjoyable ,but not as good as it thinks it is, i found myself preoccupied with the main conceit of this film..that is, the overt "Film Noir"/Raymond Chandleresque dialogue,wherein , the main/sympathetic characters speak in a poetic, elliptical , knowing and wise-cracking style..
Go with it ,and it is a familiar and enjoyable ride, with recognisable stock "noir" characters..the "femme fatale" , the geeky expert,and of course, the main character , the maverick "lone sleuth "/ "private eye", taking the law into his own hands, and getting beaten up a hell of alot,in the process...i watched this as an "on demand" download..
3 "Into the Blue" "eye candy" in every respect ..essentially a
"B" movie..i guess, Scott Caan is the biggest name here, Paul Walker
("Fast and the Furious") has a great set of 'abs, or he did when he did this...set mostly underwater, visually fantastic , like another episode of "Miami Vice" really...i'd guess this didnt make huge amounts at the box office , but does the job a lot better than some of the contemporary"blockbusters" ..undemanding , but well put together...
2 "the Wire"..second season
Thanks again Michael , for alerting me to this..second series is quicker-paced, funnier , the acting and directing got tighter..and when you hear Tom Waits start to wail his own song , you somehow know that they've upped the ante...
As expected , the finale leaves you suspended, contemplating the malaise...this time roaming the "boondocks" in a strange paradoxical state of invigorated despair...season three should arrive soon...
1 " A Scanner Darkly" This is another visual treat, but in a deliberately mannered way... "animatsised" is what i'm going to call it..as if the image has been "drawn over" or coated with blocky pantone colours.....this is by Richard Linklater
..did this bloke INVENT the word "Slacker"?...and "Waking Life",( which i should check out now).. apparently used the same technique...
This is an adaptation of a Philip K Dick novel, (none of which i have read) .. best known for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" ,which , of course became "Bladerunner" ..this is set to become another "stoner classic"...I grew out of all that twenty years ago of course...
Keanu Reeves is perfectly cast , as are Wynona Ryder ( the "old" Natalie Portman),Woody Harrellson and Robert Downey Jr...who's persona cannot be contained by the layer of unreality, that the animation brings...the score is also great , with a quirky guitar theme that reminds me of "Eels" at their best and ."Radiohead" also provide some of the sounds..(this would be around the time of "Kid A"
" Amnesiac" and "Hail to the Thief")
The book was written in 1977,and the intervening years have almost realised all of the "Orwellian" surveillance ("Scanning") society ,we see here, mobile phone triangulation via GPS,tiny camera technology, "profiling " on databases ... and as "future dystopias" go, the title screen may aswell say "next week" ..
"seven years from now"
seems like a token gesture ..but no matter...
The one bit of overt "Sci Fi" , is the "scramble suit" which is visually mesmerising...the latest in undercover surviellance technology..being employed in the "War on Drugs"...
It's ultimately downbeat,but I found this very funny ,clever and life -affirming , despite the obvious themes of "disconnect" alienation, and self destructive drug use...the end titles confirm that this must be largely auto-biographical, as a list of drug casualties , friends of Philip K, appear ...
The central character's predicament ,from what i can gather,also mirrors Dick's own ...addiction to prescription and "over the counter" drugs effectively putting you under the thumb of the big drug multi-corporations...the multi-nationals that are increasingly running the developed World..
Sounds like a real bummer doesn't it?..but the fate of Keanu's character provides hope ...
Cheers
Chris Morrell
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