Same psychological vein as the film where a small girl wants absolutely her mom, deceased in a car accident where she was present, to come back from the other side. She is too young to carry the mourning of the adults... Thinking day and night of her mom, dreaming of her, seeing her in her nightmares, feeling guilty, finally her mom returns... in her small head... In the film "Le crime des renards", a black panting thriller,Marinette, 4 years old, is present when her small friend Nicolas, the son of her father's mistress, dies in the water. While the two adulterous lovers are in bed, Marinette sees Nicolas drowning in a small pond. Her father constrains her skilfully to silence. But the drama of the secret is too heavy for her to carry. Nicolas is buried, but a strange mystery hovers over his death... Jean-Noel sees his sister suffering... sees the heavy secrecy ruining her tiny heart, he sees the intrigues of the adults... and guesses... As in a psychological thriller, he searches, finds and saves his sister from hell. All the actors are remarkable in their respective role. Little Marinette is incredible of accuracy. The spectators rove in the meanders of the lies, the regrets, the culpabilities, the violated consciences, the irrational behaviors...
Reviews
6 Reviews
Machaho
(1995)
Crime of honor
29 August 2004
In Kabylie, rude mountain region in the north of Algeria. Arezki finds the young Larbi exhausted, buried under the snow. He takes him in and nurses him until he's recovered. The host seduces Arezki's daughter. She is pregnant. This is an unsupportable shame to the father of the female sinner. Arezki claims vengeance. He leaves his house and takes the oath not to come back before having killed Larbi who betrayed him under his own roof. - Frightening tradition. The seducer must pay with his blood the price of the baffled honor. Sober direction, and hard as the cruel law. Strength of the actor Arezki between his goodness and the contradictions where the customs enclose him. Austere, magnificent landscapes. The film got lots of prices.
Maria, figlia del suo figlio
(2000 TV Movie)
His mother kept all these things in her heart.
3 January 2003
This téléfilm film on the life of Mary, Joseph's wife and Jesus' mother, from the conception of Jesus to the Assumption into heaven at the side of her son, is a biblical story. That means, it follows the texts of the Holy Scriptures to the letter. A couple of scenes are taken from apocryphal writings. It's the very human story of a village woman called to a transcendental task: to be the mother of God. The mystical experiences, difficult to film are approached with humanity. There is no exaggerated sentimentality. The plot follows the life of Jesus as mentioned in the Gospels. Nice historical reconstruction of the sites, the costumes and the customs.
The Call
(1936)
A road-movie in the Sahara to mystic heights
11 August 2002
This is a straight on, not always edifying biography of Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), the French explorer of North Africa, who became a hermit in the Sahara. The film of 1936 was re-edited in 1996 in 'Les Grands Classiques'. The direction is good. Poirier's work witnesses of his fondness of an aesthetic to which he has remained faithful in a lot of his films, but that became rather a receipt than a style. The first half of the film, de Foucauld's youth and military career, is more theater than film., although some of his searches for plastics have nice results, and his humor and sarcasm are estimable. He pictures well the ridicule of the nobility he belonged to. When de Foucauld discovers the immense silence of the desert, it becomes serious, and we enter a world of transcendence with an exotic taste. In his extraordinary trip, we can follow his climb to mystic heights, that alas! ends in his assassination near Tamanrasset. Worth seeing.
Lenin: The Train
(1988 TV Movie)
By Train To The October Revolution
13 June 2002
Before viewing 'Lenin: The Train' for the second time, I went and visited the On Line Encyclopedia to remember the Russia-1917-story. So, I found back Lenin, his mistress Inès, and all the people they had met on their way to the Revolution. This time they were very familiar to me. In this road motion picture, they are credible human beings. Damiani is a good director. The special atmosphere of travelling by train, I have always been fond of, is there. The regular knocking of the wheels on the rails, and the train that whistles are part of the cast and the drama. It's a film where we find a small bit of war and great moral battle; a few distressing scenes when people are killed; love and treason, shown with discretion, penetrate the soul. If there are some boring scenes in this 170 minutes film for which the 8/10 rate has not been robbed, they are washed away by the nice music. Go and see. Brilliant!
La mort du Chinois
(1998)
A harebrained, cockeyed, enthusing film
11 June 2002
La mort du chinois is a 'cracked' light comedy, where Michel writes stories for children with animals that speak. Hélène, his wife, leaves him... So, Michel has no more inspiration... Nor Gérard, his Cassanova friend, neither his new girlfriend Lise can console him. He loses himself in alcohol and drugs... and here the film finds its deeper moments and originality. I adore absurdities, and La mort du chinois gives us them. The hero is lost in a delirium full of... animals. These are surprising even strong moments with wunderful ideas, intersected, yes, by some more heavy gags, but the actors and the whole harebrained, cockeyed film are enthusing.
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