Tag: Lola Créton

REVIEW: Les salauds [Bastards] [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“You think your instinct is proof?” I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, but the English translation of Claire Denis‘ newest film Les salauds [Bastards] definitely hits its mark by the end. Who those “bastards” are, however, stays somewhat obscure for most of its duration besides the villain Sandra (Julie Bataille) hopes we’ll focus our sights upon at the start. Her husband Jacques’ (Laurent Grévill) suicide is what sets the mystery in motion and their business partner Edouard Laporte (Michel Subor)—their financial bail out to be exact—is her prime…

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TIFF12 REVIEW: Après mai [Something in the Air] [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“I live in fantasy. When reality knocks I don’t open.” Sex, drugs, art, and revolution—such was the life of a young European in 1971. Or at least it was the life of a young director at 17 trying to reconcile the state of his country and his ambitions for the future. Taking us along for the rapid ascent into adulthood of a group of school-aged French radicals, Olivier Assayas‘ semi-autobiographical film Après mai [Something in the Air] is a slice of life at a time of wholesale liberation. These Trotskyites…

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REVIEW: Barbe Bleue [Bluebeard] [2009]

Jared Mobarak

“Then an ogress eats them” By intertwining the Charles Perrault fairy tale La Barbe bleue with present-day sisters on their own forbidden journey to the attic housing their copy of that exact story, Catherine Breillat is able to visually captivate, humor, and ultimately shock her audience. In Barbe Bleue [Bluebeard], the writer/director decides to update the fantasy half by evolving her beastly villain from bloodthirsty monster to a misunderstood aristocrat hoping beyond hope that he can find a woman who will truly love him. While she plays with the story…

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