last year's film diary was cute, but i stopped writing in it after the first week of the festival. this year's goal: write a blurb on every film i see; let them be short, improperly punctuated, just get them written. fifteen days. you'll know what i like. hang on.
opening night: "potiche," france, dir. françois ozon
the newmark theater was even more crowded than for "i am love" last year (see that film if you haven't). the crowd was much younger, too. ozon attracts the men who moviego with other men, and the theater stunk of too much cologne. i got compliments on my boots.
"potiche," with catherine deneuve and gérard depardieu wasn't what i expected. ozon made it more in the vein of "angel" than his earlier, more seriously depicted films like "swimming pool" and "time to leave." the actors' performances bordered on campy, and the flashbacks and imagined scenes were imbued with kitsch, both stylistically and technically. set in the late seventies, "potiche" made good use of that era's bright and varied color palette to evoke the playfulness and lightheartedness of the dialogue and action. as a result, in "potiche," ozon seems more like pedro almodóvar than himself, but maybe he's been going a new route, since the "angel" was characterized by similar elements. i haven't seen "hideaway." i feel bad drawing the parallel between two high profile gay directors (the two?), but also i don't. the comparison is apt. ozon's film, however, didn't have the depth of character or winding plot that mark almodóvar's films, its only plot twist seemingly intended more for humor than overall narrative effect.
it's about a woman, a housewife, who awakens to the cause of women at large after managing for a short time the umbrella factory that her father owned and that passed to her draconian husband when they were married. there are rabbits doing it in the woods in the opening scene, which is introduced in ballooned multi-colored titles. funny ha ha, and depardieu has gotten big. i was yawning for most of the first half.
free drinks at nel centro. no you can't take my picture for your blog.
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