Thanks for the memories!

Powerful

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Angèle is a young woman, trying to renew contact with her son, living with his grandparents. She is, after serving some years in prison, conscious of the difficulty to be a mother. A good mother. She is the reason for her husbands death. But, as she says: an accident. With her not easy background she meets the shy fisherman Tony to work for him (in mind a marriage that makes possible to get her child - be near him. The grandparents have the custody. Her son, having not seen his mother during prison-time is cautious. Angèle must prove the judge in charge of her case her capability as a mother and married woman. Angèle's background, the shy Tony, his suspicious mother and her sons grandparents are serious difficulties waiting for her to take. But: now and then polarities are not a hinder but the help as only way of understanding when nothing is left and the base for marriage. Yohan asks Tony if muscles bites. The answer: the three drive to the beach for the answer of the boy's question. His question can be regarded as metaphor. Both Angèle and Tony are closed as clams. But sometimes: if time and space permits polarities to decide can polarities be of help for each other. Clams do not bite

They've done it again: French cinema has added a new female director to its already swollen pantheon so now the likes of Danielle Thompson, Marion Vernous, Tonie Marshall, Nicole Garcia, Anne Fontaine, Agnes Jaoui et al can make way for Alix Delacorte to take her place alongside them. This is nothing short of a minor gem and the fact that it reminds us superficially of other charming films - Je vous trouve tres beau, Marius et Jeannette - is a positive rather than a negative. Not unlike The Apartment it starts out as one thing and then seamlessly becomes something else. Working from her own Original screenplay Delacorte has chosen all her actors well, none more than the two leads, Clotilde Hesme and Gregory Gadebois, a pair I noticed first in small roles in yet another exceptional French film Le Chignon d'Olga. For the first two or three reels Delacorte is happy to let us see the negative aspects of Angele and have her unable to penetrate the defensive shell of Gadebois and conclude the relationship has nowhere to go and then, the humanity that has been simmering beneath the surface in both cases bursts out joyously and we have a charming love story on our hands. Like Ariane Ariscade the face of Clotilde Hesme in repose in not so prepossessing but when she smiles she can, just like Ariscade, light up a whole city. Two well deserved Caesars for the two leads prove that just occasionally Awards committees can get it right.

I was so surprised; I really wanted to love this movie. I absolutely love French cinema - it is my favorite country for films, with Spain in a close second. However, I can sum up why I hated this movie in two words: Gregory Gadebois. I just hated his character, his acting, and was annoyed every time he was on screen. I didn't want these two to even be friends. I like slice of life films. "Le Havre" is a new all-time favorite. I wonder, too, if my dislike of fishing also may have impacted my feelings about this movie. I did stick with it. I loved Clotilde Hesme in "Love Songs" but she was dull in this movie. I also found the supporting characters quite dull and without any charm or interest. The editing was pedestrian. The camera-work didn't show me anything new. Watching someone ride their bicycle endlessly doesn't add any enjoyment to my life! The unerotic sex scene at the very beginning was not a good way to begin a movie! Usually, when I see French films I want to go to where the film was made, but this was definitely not the case with this graceless dull movie. I sincerely hope this will be Gregory Gadebois last movie; I could live with never seeing this particular "actor" (ahem) ever again!

My Filipino friend picks up the French movies, well nearly all the times French. Most of the time,including the four of us, we are only a dozen of people in the cinema. And now the time is right for the movie to start - here it comes, slow, with some unusual beauty, bestial beauty? It's too early to know - the main character seems aloof, troubled and things are a little strange, the story goes on still fairly slow...Is something going to happen? But soon our patience gets rewarded, this slow introduction starts to reveal the why and how. People interact, cautiously. I did get on the French news, here down under, that fishing as a profession suffered hardship with European quota imposition and I understand what is happening to this small community. It's nice to have some insight in what is going on, else it could be perceived as fabricated. But really here little is fabricated just narrated in a beautiful way in a beautiful but very real setting, yes with perhaps unlikely events but not impossible. What'll become of Angele and Tony? Well just like me you'll need to sit through to find out the right way, that is do not start with the last page or here reading comments with spoilers. That's right it would spoil it!