After taking a liking to Spike Jonze’s latest Her (US 2013), I did something that I never do before writing a review: I went to the internet and glanced over other reviews. I had to know: was Her my fancy only, or was I authorized to enjoy it by the highest authorities in the genre?…
If I had not known that Ritournelle de la Faim was written by a nobel laureate who had been producing literary work critically acclaimed since 1963, I would say that the novel is the work of a genius in the making. Interspersed with magical moments, especially in its first few pages, it is nonetheless structurally unequal…
Gravity is one of those movies that seems to have been born out of a constraint rather than an interest in a human story: most of it had to happen in orbit, where, as the prologue reminds that part of the audience who forgot science, gravity and sound are less of a thing, and oh,…
Ozpetek’s probably best known work so far, Facing Windows (2003, Italy), is a great mix of themes and styles that aren’t always explored to a satisfactory or clarified point. While this is perhaps on purpose (Ozpetek might be an expert in audience frustration), pointing out the unfinished tunnels that the director has started to dig…
If I were Marguerite Yourcenar attempting to write The Abyss (L’Oeuvre au Noir, 1969, France), I would expect tone to be the greatest challlenge. To write the fictional story of an errant doctor, astrologist and intellectual throughout sixteenth century Europe, one needs to carefully strike the balance between anachronism and erudition, simplistic reductions and overweight…
I must confess: I read L’Elegance du Hérisson (Muriel Barbery, 2006, English translation 2008) a little bit like I would have a fantasy novel from my youth (and I wasn’t reading Azimov) or the newest bestselling thriller. I read it fast and feverishly and perhaps a little passively; something of the experience reminded me of…
Vergil’s Aeneid is one of those literary crags that, along with its Greek epic predecessors and the works of Shakespeare, Milton or Goethe, stand petrified when you try to stir them but melt into oceans when you attempt to determine their shape. With any other work (masterpieces included), it will be easier to give the…
This film by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi explores the complex relationships between Marie, Ahmad, her ex-husband who comes back from Iran to finalize their divorce, Samir, her current boyfriend whom she wants to marry, and Lucie, the daughter of her first husband, who markedly dislikes Samir and comes home late at night to demonstrate her…
Oh Boy is 24 hours in the life of Niko, a young and aimless Berliner who has given up on his studies to “think about me and you”. As he parses through the rising challenges of an idle life – he loses his license and his father stops providing financial support – we meet his…
Beware when you read the recent Naissance d’un Pont (Birth of a Bridge, Maylis de Kerangal, 2010): somewhere between the frontispiece and the finale, your way of life, your line of work, your life philosophy or at least one thing that you hold dear will come under the blows of the narrator’s biting derision. In…
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