This is a demonstration of rare courage on the part of Leah Remini and Mike Rinder to overtly speak out about what Scientology really does, behind what is "says". Very brave, when you think of what Scientology dares doing to critics, using lawyers at high expenses to ruin and destroy critics personal life, even relatives to a very extended degree. This is also the first time that revelations about Scientology behaviour are so worldwide exposed. I guess the IMDb popularity notation can only go down by votes from Scientologists themselves trying to maintain Scientology image. But most of them do not look at this program, they just vote it down...
Reviews
20 Reviews
Surveillance
(2013 TV Movie)
Good suspense
10 September 2014
A good movie: good script, well-crafted, solid and captivating plot, good interpretation and a message of good value on integrity conditioning happiness. Pierre wants to square his life, making it stable, so that he could get granted half-time custody of his son he loves. He is willing to obey orders as a security guard at his new job. Of course, nature drives him to be zealous with integrity. But this integrity is not servility. He always thinks by himself. That puts it on the tightrope of the professional promotion scheme with constant threat of being fired if results fall. Little by little, the dilemma grows and his integrity is challenged more and more. The story is well fed and not boring at all. If one goes a bit further than the apparent look of an happy end, one might as well catch a good life lesson of what can often happen to someone who is naturally good and looking for simple and clean life. Why should the movie end on anything else ?
Marrying Off Mom
(2013 TV Movie)
A very pleasant surprise
10 February 2014
A little flick, very simply made, without 'frou-frou', no special effects, but just very efficient. The story is crisp. Several themes are tackled with around this mom. We see the teenage selfishness, a too immature teenager who refuses the new boyfriend of her mother to such a point she can do everything to make their love fail. We see these 50 year adults, divorced or widowed, looking for a new mate, a new match. We see the 'petit-bourgeois' prejudices about the artists yell victory for and eventually face defeat. The scenario is very nice, with beautiful dialogues and good punches. It is perfect to spend a pleasant evening in family. I should recommend it warmly.
Brassens, la mauvaise réputation
(2011 TV Movie)
Finally a movie about the life of Georges Brassens
9 February 2014
Finally a movie about the life of Georges Brassens! Although his life is not a spectacle in itself, I found it quite interesting to know him better, to better understand the character. I sang and played almost all his songs in the 60s, without knowing that he was still living with Jeanne and Marcel, sharing their home. His poetry is carved with words so well chosen and so true, so simple behind the glare of their apparent literary sophistication, and blending such a mixture of the vulgar and the learned. He really was a special being, a rare poet, distant from show business, yet ultimately show business could not flee from him. The film did a great job, beautiful rendition too. And the episodes in the life of Jo which caused the source of some of his songs are a revelation, e.g. 'Une jolie vache (A pretty cow)', 'Un petit coin de parapluie (A little corner under an umbrella)' ... A must see. -
Desert Flower
(2009)
How can we stop this?
31 January 2014
The true story of Waris Dirie, a Somalia girl from a desert region and promised to a miserable local life, who fled to England and eventually became a top model. But the real story, the one that begins the day that changed her life, is another one. Hard and repulsive story, heir of a Somali tradition of 3000 years. A strong and true message, which calls for our humanity. Superb interpretation. Simple direction, valuing the natural interpretation, and decorated with a lot of beautiful film views. Another important point of the message is this distinction between the Somalia tradition and the Coran recommendations. See and support absolutely.
Exploding Sun
(2013 TV Movie)
What a pity
18 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
What a pity that theme sci -fi rich is so miserably wasted ! I do not know this author , Jeff Schechter, but he demonstrates here several weaknesses. I suppose he has at least sit down with an astrophysics or modern cosmology teacher to get some clues about phenomena and processes involved in the operating process of the sun or stars. But even if he took notes , he obviously did not understand much and made every effort on this point to have it all wrong in his scenario. He is constantly mistaken in speed, distance, time , effects on Earth's atmosphere. He transforms electromagnetic effects into solid shelling that special effects are quick to express explosion and firing devastating material. Then there are inconsistencies in other areas such as building structure, windows crashing to reappear intact as if by magic. And then there is the human situations. Some were so easy to solve such as Afghanistan's where Julia Ormond abandons his critical American colleague injured while it would have been so simple to carry him in a makeshift stretcher by people who accompanied them. And all that goes on and on in a happy inconsistency. The U.S. president leaving the incompetent commander appointed against his will continue to lead spatial operations instead to cancel the abused appointment and reinstate former director, resulting in the entire suite of disaster! Frankly, Jeff Schechter, should return to the classroom. Otherwise, interpretation and direction are about the same quality level, but it's hard to judge on such a scenario. What I regret most is that the author, in his scientific misunderstanding, has severed us a great opportunity to popularize the technology of scalar waves . It would have made the film much more interesting!
Mohamed Dubois
(2013)
Better allo-cine translation
16 November 2013
Berthier's Bank heir, Arnaud Dubois looks more like someone who should be called... Mohamed. Besides, would he not rather be the son of Said, his mother's former tennis coach in Djerba? After a dispute with his father, he decides to leave the cozy nest of Vésinet. He crosses paths with Mustafa, who introduces him to his sister Sabrina Arnaud whom Arbaud immediately falls in love with. But he soon realizes that the only way to seduce her is to let her think that he is a Beur like her and that his name is ... Mohamed. He then settles in the Sabrina's town, where he will do anything to fit.
This is a very sympathetic and social and above all entertaining comedy. It is far from recurrent clichés, despite some critics; It delivers a realistic, just and positive picture of French suburbs. Moreover, Eric Judor is magnificent as usual. Just run for it!
This is a very sympathetic and social and above all entertaining comedy. It is far from recurrent clichés, despite some critics; It delivers a realistic, just and positive picture of French suburbs. Moreover, Eric Judor is magnificent as usual. Just run for it!
Deep in the Woods
(2010)
A true story
5 August 2013
This story, while the scenario may seem weird and unreal, is a real fact story which happened in the Var department of France in 1865. The are very official and serious judiciary documents reporting those facts found by the police investigation then. On can find a good transcript of that in the Charles Lancelin'book named "La sorcellerie des campagnes" pages 86 to 91. Once one is aware of this, the message to be found in this film has nothing to do with displaying sex relationships or investigating boy and girl relationships in the XIXth century in France or anything "normal" like that. The message is about the strength of hypnotism and magnetism can exert on weak minds or nervous minds. The whole enquiry shown at the end of the film tends to stress that but the writer and the director of the film had obviously some difficulty getting that point out obviously enough to get it through the public. Nevertheless, this film is a very acceptable effort to tell us an account of this magnetism relationship which can occur when both magnetizer is quite strong and magnetized one is easily overwhelmed. One must not see this as an ambiguous situation where the magnetized one could have escaped easily, whatever the physical distance, as it is essentially a mind rapture, beyond physical dimensions.
Bombón: El Perro
(2004)
A good good dog
23 December 2011
Simple and original scenario, on the topic of friendship, in a context which would almost recall the US in the Thirties, if one were not in Argentina. One would regard this as almost a script of Steinbeck
The character of Juan is very touching, in his powerful kindness which not only makes him endure its loneliness but makes him live a professional turn which is a true gift, a candy from the sky
Bombon ('Bombon' means candy) of the Dog. Beautiful story, beautiful message. A subtle humour and all in simplicity. Sympathetic acting. Even the dog is playing convincingly, although he does not have much to do sometimes... But this can change eventually to the better. Excellent realization. To see and enjoy. It's an 8 out of 10.
Hogfather
(2006 TV Movie)
Very little interest
18 December 2011
I thought this was a movie with an imaginative scenario, sophisticated and exciting. User reviews were generally laudatory. But I found this a disappointment as the script is disjointed, constantly jumping non- sequitur, building unrelated pieces, giving out a product not very nice or even pushing asleep. So the characters lack of consistency, follow-up. From time to time, some scenes make you laugh, but it is a story modelled on a Christmas story left out of an unattractive taste and especially without head or tail. It's a shame, but it seemed a waste of time. It seems like you could endlessly write such story without going anywhere and it is far from a real fairy tale which would make you dream or something. I would not recommend it as there are much more interesting tales for children than this.
Alternate title
21 March 2011
In French Canada, Quebec, this episode title is "Le rêve d'une autre vie".
This is the story of a woman who leaves her lover and her own country in order to go and find a job in another foreign country.
The young woman had everything to be happy in her life but she decides to quit, to leave her comfortable universe and her nice lover and goes for a new job in a different country.
While doing so, along that way, she meets a handsome man, Robert.
Tis is again one of these German series B entirely devoted to decorous manners, nice external decorum, and very little brilliant content to says the least.
This is the story of a woman who leaves her lover and her own country in order to go and find a job in another foreign country.
The young woman had everything to be happy in her life but she decides to quit, to leave her comfortable universe and her nice lover and goes for a new job in a different country.
While doing so, along that way, she meets a handsome man, Robert.
Tis is again one of these German series B entirely devoted to decorous manners, nice external decorum, and very little brilliant content to says the least.
The Art of Breaking Up
(2005)
Not for the anti-'opéra-bouffe' mind
21 March 2011
This film is actually an 'opéra-bouffe' in filmmaking. I must say it takes the taste for the Feydeau's kind and the Belle Epoque to love the movie. But in the genre, it is very successful. The actors play really well, keeping the strong pace and freshness typical of opéra-bouffe. I was surprised and delighted to see Emmanuelle Béart so comfortable in the role and its lines. She really embodies the typical Belle Epoque beautiful lady whom all the gentlemen turn around with the decorous gallantry of the times. Were my grandfather still alive, I should still see him doubled up with laughter and fun in the middle of this world of his thirties.
Rare and brilliantly treated theme
4 February 2011
Good thematic movie on a topic rarely discussed, the potential sudden drop of women after childbirth, that sort of depression or panic and that sometimes makes them flip out. What I find amazing in this film, in addition to this rare theme, is to see how human relationships, when they really are so, with such tenderness, are the basis of the healing process of mental or psychological discomfort. Even with these appearances of madness, the extreme human condition turns to the best with love, tenderness. When the mind falls back into that state of childhood, low awareness, low responsiveness to the world, when it is so overwhelmed, there is nothing like the milk of human kindness to take it out of its dysfunction. Psychoanalysis, in the rare corners or meanders of its complexity where one can still recognize the dignity of its mission, owes its small and rare successes to those times when it engaged into tracks where it has dared to accept the lesson of love and to let aside intellectual analysis that tends to judge and evaluate in the patient's place. Overall, this film is a message: if human beings can be grand enough to be tender to their neighbour and try to understand instead of judging, then we can see the birth and growth of a real human society, otherwise society becomes just a social mirage. Beautiful playing and directing. To see and to think carefully about.
In My Country
(2004)
Wonderful talk about reconciliation in South Africa
25 January 2011
I am amazed to see the negative review this film got in North America. It is a wonderful film. The interpretation is excellent, very moving. Direction achieves its target very efficiently, without lengths. What better message than that of Love, that of seeking reconciliation? Force and violence never came to anything lasting. Admittedly, it very often took force and struggle and blood to achieve peace. But it has never lasted otherwise than by the love of man, the type of love which made us educate, cultivate, teach people everything we knew so that they would go even further in this direction, along this work, and so that by increasing human brotherhood love, we could achieve a more calm, more live-able, more fertile society, with a future still ahead. I tip my hat to the general attitude of the black people of South Africa, who has followed the lead of Mandela to see an end of war in the reconciliation process, an end to hatred, an end to insecurity, to this imaginary threat which used to inflame the minds contagiously and drove men to kill each other. It is difficult to bring a better message to the audience of a film. Very brilliant screenplay. Absolutely worth seeing. And I would add that one can see in that message the old axiom: it is not enough to be honest and to act according to his faith, beliefs, convictions; this attitude is just an elementary basics; what is needed is to act according to truth; and if one wants to know where the truth lies: it's what leads to more life, the solution that produces the most life, not one that respects one's personal beliefs, it would be much too easy ...
If Lucy Fell
(1996)
Stupido
25 January 2011
Implausible betting, especially the way the script brings it and the performers and the play make it. A few twists of the plot may attract some interest, but overall, the film is perfectly stupid, "eau de rose", despite his unrealistic disguise behind NY American artists. Some gags are trying to make us believe that nothing is serious there, but the insistence of the scenario, the traditional Disney-type music of U.S. cinema, relentlessly trying to highlight ten times with bold lines all the time any love emotion when it is supposed to be present. We feel that it addresses an audience which it does not think too much good about its ability to feel and judge for itself, or is it because if fear of misinterpretation or direction that would betray the intentions of the writer, the author. Why such a thick layer of musical peanut butter (brain?). Sarah Jessica is doing its best, obviously, but has not yet be seen out of the cart of the series B
Scenario is rather confused, message stinks the scent of rosewater usual easy clichés. Not much to be grabbed out of this, in my opinion.
Heart and Souls
(1993)
Wonderful spiritual tale!
25 January 2011
The film is almost a movie theme, as it addresses the dimension of the afterlife, life after death. It is based on numerous accounts of experienced people who have had contact with spiritual beings without bodies who had actually lived shortly before as human beings. As the arbitrary and irrational authoritarian influence of religions was released off our societies, western world ones first and then worldwide, we saw these previously taboo stories emerge in the sets of the modern world. The phenomenon of the medium itself, that human being capable to pose as intermediary, "channel" between dead people, in any case without physical bodies perceptible to our five senses, and us, human beings of flesh and bone and many other things, has become a landmark of progress of science. Rigid attitudes of allegedly "scientific" refusal do not resist anymore to facts which are multiplying, and science can now say that it does not understand these realities, they are just mysteries, but not hallucinations or bullshit anymore. Too many duly documented, official, even legally sworn about witnessings have piled up in the files of our governments. So this film is both a joyful comedy and a message of tolerance, and it pitches its scenario into our arms and makes us share what human life looks like when it is in touch with this new dimension on a natural daily basis. It also touches on this phase of childhood where so many parents have oppressed, consciously or by blind faith, the natural occurrence of this communication with the afterlife on the part of their children playing with these "imaginary friends", as they say. .. Excellent performance, great achievement, not always easy to make. A must see!
Once Around
(1991)
Surprising Love.
16 December 2010
A splendid scenario about love, a masterpiece of play on the part of Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter. This scenario is original because it brings the idea, the topic of a rich, disproportionate, dazzling, invading and perfectly sincere love which happens to submerge all the family of beautiful woman involved, and this is due to the fact they forgot that kind of love they haven't known for a long time; one could love so much, and the joy could be so large, so big, so powerful, that the faith carried in such a love would upset any false life, superficial, timid, afraid way of living. Dreyfus plays this feeling with wonder, while incarnating the perfect American salesman, with the teeth long enough to stripe the floor, although this personality remains of local colour for people who use to be born salesmen. On the other hand, he is a tsunami. And Renata needs some, she takes it. But the family has a hard time taking that. Beautiful intrigue. Beautiful message. To be seen absolutely, don't miss it.
Absurdistan
(2008)
Excellent poetic tale
29 November 2010
A very refreshing scenario, for children as well as grown-ups, out of a rare realization build-up. Marvelous interpretation of the kind. The direction is a topmost in buffoonery and lightness in the gags. The message is a simple tale, but it makes it possible to run through most of essential human relationships. To be seen, absolutely. A gem, a jewel. It is one of the first Turkish movie I have ever seen but it is definitely worth seeing. It reminds me of old Italian movie making in the fifties, but with a much higher emotional tone, much less seriousness. Of course some of the scenes would need some better physics to make more sense or be more realistic, but this is absolutely not the purpose of the film. It relies on absurdity to make us feel totally enjoyed with the message.
L'abbé Constantin
(1933)
Very refreshing
19 September 2010
It's a pleasure to see such an old black and white in the middle of the contemporary movie maelstrom. Other times, other mores, other scenery.
I had never seen Claude Dauphin and Jean Martinelli that young, neither Françoise Rosay and Pauline Carton moreover. And when one can see such times movies, in the beginning of the thirties, when this film was itself completely contemporary then, and one knows the apocalypse coming in France and Europe 6 years later, one can understand also the Frenc people surprise in front of that dark age. In 1933, there was a very strong wind of insouciance, lightness, even irresponsibility, the one of an teenager who fears nothing since he knows nothing.
Excellent interpretation. Direction is almost uncritizable since it represents a museum piece of our movie history. Dialogs are sweet and subtle, with delicious humour.
See this.
I had never seen Claude Dauphin and Jean Martinelli that young, neither Françoise Rosay and Pauline Carton moreover. And when one can see such times movies, in the beginning of the thirties, when this film was itself completely contemporary then, and one knows the apocalypse coming in France and Europe 6 years later, one can understand also the Frenc people surprise in front of that dark age. In 1933, there was a very strong wind of insouciance, lightness, even irresponsibility, the one of an teenager who fears nothing since he knows nothing.
Excellent interpretation. Direction is almost uncritizable since it represents a museum piece of our movie history. Dialogs are sweet and subtle, with delicious humour.
See this.
Der Stich des Skorpion
(2004 TV Movie)
Excellent historical film
18 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
(May contain spoilers) I always appreciate to learn what happened in the world through those historical films, and this one is moreover magnificently played, directed and built on a solid and moving scenario. The man's personality is particularly impressive. I admired this ex-prisoner courage who engaged in passing East-Germans to the West, even when this courage turns to be obsession sometimes, especially when he goes as far as risking his wife and his daughter's lives. I guess very few people would have the nerves to go even half that far. It is nevertheless still a true and admirable story. His wife's eventual suicide brings us to a sad end though...
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