Movies showing in English at Chamonix Cinema
The following films are all currently playing in original language English (V/O) with French subtitles, at Chamonix's Cinema Vox, please visit the cinema website for show times.
ANOTHER YEAR
(Showing 26/01 27/01 28/01 29/01)
Gerri, a therapist, and Tom, a geologist, are happily married, but mildly concerned that their lawyer son is single. They don't quite realise, either, how Mary, a fragile work colleague of Gerri's, has come to depend on the couples' friendship, and over the course of a year and Sunday gatherings, Mary makes a faux pas that puts strain on the relationship.
The concept of four Sunday afternoons in different seasons, focusing on a happy, middle-aged couple and their friends and relations, does not seem to suggest that there's much happening. Watching a twee film about ‘cuppas' in the garden after sessions at the allotment, with surface dialogue that's all about trivia, seems more like TV fodder, but this film is good, even as its also as quintessentially English as it gets. Director Mike Leigh's method here, as with most of his films, is that it's a sitcom set-up in a drably realistic world, using the comedy of trivial dialogue and embarrassment to dig deep into the psyche: that is to say, every tiny incident, spoken line, or look, registers. Lee also always uses very good English actors; this time it's Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, and Lesley Manville. This film is rich in humour, warmth, suspense and profundity.
JACK GOES BOATING (Rendez-vous l'été prochain)
(Showing 26/01 27/01 28/01 29/01 30/01 31/01)
A limo driver's blind date ignites a humorous and poignant tale of love, friendship and betrayal focused around two working-class New York City couples.
Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a limo driver with vague hopes of getting a job with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). He has an obsession for reggae that's inspired him to attempt to grow his hair into dreadlocks, and he spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and fellow driver Clyde and Clyde's wife Lucy. Clyde and Lucy introduce him to Connie and they like each other. Being with Connie inspires Jack to learn to cook, to take swimming lessons in order to take Connie on a romantic boat ride, and to pursue a new career. Meanwhile, Lucy and Clyde's marriage begins to disintegrate.
Hoffman's directorial debut is a very independently spirited and produced film. Hoffman has made a career doing interesting, indie films such as Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Capote, and The Boat That Rocked among many others. During this career, he's also been the Artistic Director for an off-Broadway theatre company in NYC for ten years, which is where this play originates. In putting together this film, he has gathered around him some wonderful talent, both on-screen and off-screen, from both theatrical backgrounds and film backgrounds, both indie and studio financed. This film is a small, gently paced, gem.
SOMEWHERE
(Showing 02/02 05/02 07/02)
Actor Johnny Marco is convalescing after a minor injury at Los Angeles' Chateau Marmont hotel. He leads an empty life of watching pole dancers, picking up women, and sleepwalking through press conferences. But his listless state is interrupted when Cleo, his daughter from a broken-down relationship, comes to stay with him.
Like director (and screenwriter) Sofia Coppola's previous films (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation), there is a daddy-daughter, young-girls-trying-to-find-their-place in the world, theme to this story. And like these previous films, this is a well-made, gently paced and slyly witty film whose direction makes it original and truthful. Stephen Dorff as Johnny Marco, fills this inherently lazy man with a sad charm. Elle Fanning as his daughter is equally able - she's upbeat without being irritating and a mother figure to Johnny without seeming bossy or precocious.
While critics have argued that the ending is too ‘flat-footed', this reviewer believes that while this point is arguable, it's a matter of taste. Like Coppola's other films, this is an understated, languid film that if you give into its pace, charms, and soundtrack, you'll find yourself happily rewarded.
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: Part 1 (Harry Potter et les Reliques de la Mort)
(Showing 26/01 27/01 28/01 29/01 30/01 31/01 01/0203/02 05/02 06/02 08/02)
Part 1 of 2, the ultimate battle between light and darkness draws near. Voldemort and his Death Eaters hatch a plot to kill Harry Potter who not only finds himself on the run, but also with a long list of magical objects to track down.
The cosy trimmings of previous Harry Potter films – trains to school, lessons, quidditch matches – are not evident in this film, which is darker than the rest of the movies. However, there's too much detail in this film's plot, making it drag a bit throughout: there's the main quest to destroy several ‘horcruxes', objects containing Voldemort's soul, as well as a sub-quest to find three ‘deathly hallows', objects that give their owner power over death.
Even as it doesn't rate as one of the best Harry Potter films, the lead actors are fine and it's another adventure in the popular series with the familiar characters and there's enough magic and tension to make you want to see it and to look forward to Part 2.
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (Faites le Mur)
(Showing 02/02 03/02 04/02)
When LA Graffiti fan Thierry Guetta sets out to track down the elusive street artist Banksy, he finds the camera turned back on him.
For those who don't know who Banksy is, he's perhaps the most infamous artist alive. To some he's a genius; to others he's a vandal. His most provocative statement and the one that generates the most publicity, is the fact that Banksy's true identity is a guarded secret. He's made his ‘name' with a trademark stencil – style ‘guerrilla' art in public spaces from Bristol to the West Bank, and for doing headlining stunts such as leaving an inflatable doll dressed up as a Guantanamo prisoner in Disneyland or hanging a version of Mona Lisa, but with a smiley face, in the Louvre.
Even as you can't help asking “does Banksy exist?” and “If he does, did he direct this documentary?” this isn't a film about Banksy even as his presence is there throughout the film.
This film is a provocative documentary about artistic intent and irony. As one journalist aptly put it, this film is ‘like an exhilarating whirlwind…(that) sweeps you up and plonks you back in Kansas unmolested, very likely lied to and totally entertained.”
MEET THE PARENTS: LITTLE FOCKERS (Mon beau père et nous)
(Showing 26/01 27/01 28/01 29/01 30/01 31/01 01/02 02/02 04/02 06/02 07/02 08/02)
Ex-CIA agent Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) is still concerned that his son-in-law Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) isn't good enough for his daughter (Teri Polo) and suspects he's cheating on her with a sales rep (Jessica Alba), even as he's finally ready to trust Gaylord and bestow the position of ‘Godfocker' on him.
However, like the previous two films, Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, as a crowded supporting cast pop in for their cameos, the family begins to have a meltdown. And the cast and cameos in this film are impressive: Harvey Keitel, Dustin Hoffman, Blythe Danner, Barbra Streisand, Laura Dern…one remembers when Keitel, Hoffman, Streisand and De Niro were making amazing films that would go down in the Modern Classics realm.
There will inevitably be some laughs with a cast like this. And if you find the joke about the last name sounding rude, humorous, or an innocent flirtation taken for an affair, or children throwing up on grownups, or a four-year-old surprising his father by giving his grandpa a penile injection to counter the effects of an unwisely-taken erectile dysfunction medication and then drawing a picture of the incident while auditioning for a posh kindergarten, then this is the film for you.
HEREAFTER (Au-delà)
(Showing 10/02 11/02 12/02 13/02 14/02 15/02)
After a near-death experience during a tsunami, hard-boiled French TV journalist reassesses her life. After a car kills his twin-brother, a London boy is desperate to keep the close connection they had. And in San Francisco, lonely George (Matt Damon) is trying to find a way to live with his ‘gift,' which is the ability to talk with those who have died. Their lives will intersect and each will be forever changed by what they believe does, or doesn't, exist in the hereafter.
It's interesting and a bit frightening for those of us who are devotees of Director Clint Eastwood's work, that at 81 years old, he should tackle the question of what happens to us after we die.
Scriptwriter Peter Morgan is a master dramatist of major true-life political events and figures as seen in his films The Queen, The Last King of Scotland and Frost/Nixon and the actors are talented, yet this is not Eastwood's best film.
That said, the concept is good. Ultimately, Eastwood is a man who offers a poetic grace to all that he does. While some of his work is better than others, he's the reason one should see this film (that and the fact that part of it was shot here in Chamonix!).
THE KING'S SPEECH (Le Discours d'un Roi)
(Showing 09/02 10/02 11/02 12/02 13/02 14/02 15/02)
Prince George (Colin Firth) has been afflicted by a debilitating stammer since childhood. When his brother abdicates the throne, and war is looming, he hesitantly turns to Aussie Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), who is a speech therapist with unconventional methods, in order to be able to soothe a frightened nation.
Despite its decent cast and nice costumes, this film was initially low on the radar for greatness. However, after a sneak-peak at a film festival in America, bloggers and Tweeters announced it to be an Oscar favourite and the world opened its eyes to it. But this is not a pretentious film - this is a crowd pleaser. The script transforms history into an approachable form, and it's dramatic, witty and enlightening. It focuses on the unlikely friendship between the outspoken Aussie and the reluctant-speaking aristocrat. This is a story less about fixing a voice than fixing a mind that has been bullied by his father since boyhood and has not had a childhood in the face of the responsibilities for the throne.
Even as Firth doesn't have many words to say, he doesn't stop communicating sadness, yearning, and pain; intelligence and humour demanding an escape; and the self-possession of a man born to privilege. Rush as Logue, is in equally fine form, a brash man with a huge heart. Helena Bonham Carter is a lively Queen Elizabeth, portraying both a teasing wit and a devoted wife. The script, the actors and the loving shots of London make this a film worth watching.
BLACK SWAN
Showing 13/02 14/02 15/02)
Dancer Nina (Natalie Portman) lives a sheltered, ballet-obsessed live with her over-protective, ex-ballerina mother (Barbara Hershey). When Nina is promoted to prima for a new production of Swan Lake, her director (Vincent Cassel) encourages her to explore her dark side so that she can epitomize the dual role of the Swan Queen and the Black Swan. This exploration, combined with her insecurities over the ambitions of a new arrival at the company, pushes Nina towards the snapping point.
Director Darren Aronofsky intends for Black Swan to be the companion piece to his 2008 film The Wrestler. Despite the difference in subject matter, both play out in run-down, backstage interiors; both display a fascination with specialist professions, and lavish attention on minute, arcane rituals; both have cringe-inducing moments as a result of the potentially crippling physical challenges of these professions; both subtly examine the tension between age and ambition; and both are shot using mostly handheld cameras in order to invade the personal space of the actors/characters.
Black Swan won't be to everyone's taste, but it is an impressive offering from one of America's most exciting directing talents. Moreover, this film showcases Aronofsky's ability to coax career-best turns out of his leads actors, in this case Portman, who gives a flawless performance.
