Yes, another French movie. My son wants to go to France, ASAP, and is continuing to study French during the summer. Anyway, this is a wonderful movie. The character growth of both the main actors is extraordinary. The basic plot: a wealthy paraplegic white man doesn’t want to be treated with pity so he hires a young Senegalese man from the ghetto of Paris as his full-time caregiver.
Compassion, friendship, humor, and adventures tie these two men together in a beauty of a movie based on a true story.
Okay, watching the trailer again made me tear up, this is such a beautiful movie.
District B13 and District 13: Ultimatum
I begged my son to review these movies, but he sucks and never did, so it’s up to me. Intense action, parkour, martial arts, social issues, sexy men and women—add it together, and you have two great French action movies. These are fast-moving films set in a future Paris ghetto walled off from the rest of the city. I have watched these movies several times and enjoy them each time. If you are an action movie fan, you need to add District B13 and District 13: Ultimatum to your to watch list.
Bienvenue Chez Les Ch’sit
Apparently France is not all coveted beauty, they have a NORTH. A place where bad employees are transferred to, a place with weird accents, unrecognizable slang words, and cold. And fortunately for us, it is a place of fun characters, beauty, and drunken bicycling. A very enjoyable movie, but you need to be a good subtitle reader because they write in the odd accent to show you what is happening and why things are funny.
This was a weird, strange, quirky little movie. If you don’t mind that things just happen and don’t make sense, and if you don’t mind strange sudden dance routines and can let go of reality for a while, then I say check out The Fairy. It’s a French film about a fairy (what else?) who stays at a hotel and offers the night clerk three wishes.
A Cat in Paris is a fun animated movie. By day the cat, is the loving pet of a hurt little girl, by night he assists a cat burglar. This was a bit more violent than I thought it would be; they actually fist fight at one point. Of course, the cat makes sure the hero wins.
Not a movie for sensitive kids, or really young ones. But I thought it was very cute. I would watch it again.
I also have some awesome blogs for you to check out 🙂
Ready to get back into your routine now that summer is winding down and the kids are finally back at school, take inspiration for Ginger Calem’s Blog
Do you know your prepositions? Julie Glover helps us all figure them out.
Myndi Shafer is now a published author! Go check out her debut novel
I thought about doing an update of my general life and how things are going, because I know you all care 🙂 Not much to report- I have done yoga or gone to the gym every day this week. I’m more active on FB and Twitter again, and back to reading blogs. I have written some, but life has been crazy so unfortunately I didn’t get as much done as I was hoping too.
How was your week> Any excited plans for the weekend?
Amelie was my first French movie, and I feel in love with Audrey Tautou as an actress. Charming is a perfect description. This movie is so sweet and we see such a lovely growth arch in the characters. It’s also quirky and fun. This is a movie that has made my ‘watch over and over’ list.
And the garden gnome traveling the world- they stole that from this movie. Because this has subtitles I would recommend this for teens, so they can read fast enough to keep up. It is rated R and can’t remember all the reasons, but I know one of the characters works in a sex shop, so again how much you want to explain is up to you. Hey it might be a good teaching moment. LOL!
For my last Halloween horror movie fix I give you three new choices.
High Lane is a French horror movie about a group of young adults who go mountain climbing and there is a psycho killer waiting for them. The views were beautiful- it was filmed in Croatia and if heights and the possibility of falling scare you then this will be a very scary movie. I found it more gross then scary. I didn’t jump at anything, but did look away at some of the blood.
My big issue is the people did something horrendously stupid to get into the situation, and then they kept doing stupid stuff, which means I spent a lot of time yelling at the TV. While there wasn’t out right male bashing I don’t think the writer or director holds testosterone filled males in high regard.
The killer is great- huge, scary, vicious, mentally disturbed, and his movements are very animalistic almost like a gorilla. He’s almost worth watching the movie for.
One woman does go crazy and kick butt at one point, but remember my friends when you are beating up a psycho killer you don’t stop until they’re dead, because they will come after you.
It’s not a horrible movie, but I won’t watch it a second time.
For all of my amazing followers I sacrificed 3 hours of my life- 3 hours I can’t get back so I could review a truly horrible movie. Bandh Darwaza is a Bollywood horror movie from the late 70’s or early 80’s. There is singing and dancing as all Bollywood movies, which wasn’t good. The monster was a vampire who wasn’t scary and the ‘heroes’ in the movie were amazingly stupid and not likable. If you love really bad bad bad horror movies and maybe drinking during them then please go for it. Other wise just say no to Bandh Darwaza.
Finally a really good movie. Re-cycle, a Chinese movie, definitely has scary elements in it. I held my breath. I jumped. I almost made my husband sit next to me on the couch. This movie will be especially scary for writers!
Ting-Yin is a writer who gets sucked into a world of abandoned things including half formed characters. The plot is gripping, the visual effects are striking (except for the falling), the acting is great, and I was emotionally drawn into the movie. Re-cycle isn’t a classic horror movie, but much more of a psychological horror/ suspense movie. I liked it a lot and I highly recommend it. And when you’re done, be careful that your abandoned characters don’t come for you while your sleeping.
Lucky number thirteen is a French movie called Vampire Party. When one thinks of French movies you often get the stereotype of deep artsy angst driven drama. Well this move will blow that stereo type away. Three friends get invited to an exclusive party- they use helicopters to fly the guest to the castle- it looks like fun, and it will be for the vampires waiting for them. But wait- the prize guest at this party- the top ranking dentist in France, because these vampires need a dentist. I’m not kidding it is actually a spoof! At first hubby and I didn’t know it was a spoof. It looked like a standard vampire movie, Gothic clothing, seductive vamps, and then the need for a dentist came to light and we couldn’t stop laughing. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, I find most spoofs to be crude and boring after a while, but this one kept me entertained. The only trailer I could find is in German- go figure that one out- but here it is anyway.
I wanted to lighten things up a bit for my seventh Foreign Film Friday so I’m picking a kids movie “Kirikou and the Sorceress’ This is a French cartoon- so beautifully drawn it takes your breath away. It’s about a baby boy Kirikou who lives in a traditional African village- this means the kids are running around naked and the woman wear sarongs but no tops- this is in no way sexual, but simply how they live. Kirikou manages to outsmart the evil Sorceress who has been tormenting his village and saves them from her rule. You can get the French version- but it was done in English with lovely accents. It is a very fun movie that was shown at my local indie theater during their Children’s International Film Festival, I fell in love with it instantly! I will be reviewing at least two more of films directed by Michel Ocelot so if you enjoy Kirikou keep an eye out for more of his work. I couldn’t find a trailer but here is a clip.
Alica McKenna Johnson 