Tag Archives: French

lisa-child-5
Jul. 24.

The Favourite Game

By minmin Posted in Movie
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“The Favourite Game”, also called “Le jeu de l’ange”, is a Canadian film. The plot setting of “The Favourite game” begins with this piece of pure whiteness in a park of Montréal and also ends there:

The favourite Game Setting

The story is about Leo’s relationship with two women Shell and Lisa. In real life, Leo is deeply being in love with Shell. I captured a couple of fantastic scenes of them:

When they fell in love, their image in the moon was absolutely beautiful and I captured the moments when the night was approaching to them and they were gradually merged into the moon:

Moon

Moon 2

Moon 3

This sunset image is also almost perfect:

Sunset

When they separated, Shell’s sadness was artfully expressed through the car mirror:

Sad

Sad 2

Sad 3

Sad 4

Here comes Leo’s “true love” in his childhood memory:

“Lisa the child had evaded me and was still perfect, suddenly making all other women less perfect. They were still beautiful, but somehow less crucial.”

“Lisa the child, that perfection remained, preserving the past. Everything could be preserved forever, like my connection to Shell, and in that moment, I remembered.”

The Favourite Game Lisa The Favourite Game Lisa 2 The Favourite Game Lisa 3 The Favourite Game Lisa 4 The Favourite Game Lisa 5

“I remember flying over the snow and landing. And then I carefully stood up to look behind me at a perfect imprint, both human and angelic, in the perfect whiteness behind me, and that, that was the favourite game.”

The Favourite Game

A perfect novelist and a perfect director made this film perfect in their sense of being perfect.

True love is pure and perfect and it is a series of perfect moments in your memories, especially the childhood memory, almost angelic, the pure perfect whiteness.

I think that the film should be called “The angelic game” to match “Le jeu de l’ange”.

“The Favourite Game” was adapted from the novel of the same title. The author of the novel is the Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen. The protagonist of the novel is also called “Leo” and it’s an autobiographical novel.

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen is a typical idealist, a hopeless romantic perfectionist. Only a perfect childhood memory meets his sense of “true love”, which is non-existent in real life.

He’s after all a prince charming with a charm that doesn’t grow old with age. He’s featured in a new Sony commercial “2 Worlds” in which he recites a specially written verse called “That’s What I Heard You Say”.

Leonard Cohen – A thousand kisses deep

(Spoken Poem)

Don’t matter if the road is long
Don’t matter if it’s steep
Don’t matter if the moon is gone
And the darkness is complete
Don’t matter if we lose our way
It’s written that we’ll meet
At least, that’s what I heard you say
A thousand kisses deep

I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat
You see, I’m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second hand physique
With all he is and all he was
A thousand kisses deep

I know you had to lie to me
I know you had to cheat
You learned it on your father’s knee
And at your mother’s feet
But did you have to fight your way
Across the burning street
When all our vital interests lay
A thousand kisses deep

I’m turning tricks
I’m getting fixed
I’m back on boogie street
I’d like to quit the business
But I’m in it, so to speak
The thought of you is peaceful
And the file on you complete
Except what I forgot to do
A thousand kisses deep

Don’t matter if you’re rich and strong
Don’t matter if you’re weak
Don’t matter if you write a song
The nightingales repeat
Don’t matter if it’s nine to five
Or timeless and unique
You ditch your life to stay alive
A thousand kisses deep

The ponies run
The girls are young
The odds are there to beat
You win a while, and then it’s done
Your little winning streak
And summon now to deal with your invincible defeat
You live your life as if it’s real
A thousand kisses deep

I hear their voices in the wine
That sometimes did me seek
The band is playing Auld Lang Syne
But the heart will not retreat
There’s no forsaking what you love
No existential leap
As witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep

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La_moustache-300x200
May. 13.

La Moustache

By minmin Posted in Movie
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“La moustache” is a counter-logic film.

“What if I shaved my mustache?” Mark asked his wife Agnes. “No idea. I like it. I’ve never known you without it.” When Mark shaved the mustache he had in the past decade, his wife, old friends, and colleagues all denied that he had had his mustache. But the problem was that, when his wife was indifferent, Mark did not immediately tell his wife that he shaved his mustache, but quietly waited for the attention from his wife. When Mark fussed about this petty thing, there’s a dialogue between the young couple. Agnes: “It’s hard to say it?” Mark: “not difficult, but no need to say.” “Say” has two meanings: 1. Pronounce, utter the words; 2. Express, articulate (à sortir, à avouer). This minor detail pointed out the common problems in life.

Even more terrible is that Mark clearly heard his father’s telephone recording that asked him and his wife to dinner the next day, but when he mentioned it to his wife, his wife said that his father already passed away two years ago, and Mark was almost insane. What would Mark do? Two possibilities: commit suicide, or go to China. Why China? In order to leave France, go to a very different place.

Mark hurriedly pulled out a passport, went straight to the airport with nothing but money, and a flight happened to fly Hong Kong, he then went to Hong Kong. Why Hong Kong? Because it’s a free port, and Hong Kong is an island surrounded by the sea; Mark needed water to wash away the past, reborn.

Mark constantly took the ferries between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and finally took fishing vessel to an island. When the time was passing, his mustache was growing slowly. Prior to this Mark wrote an unsent postcard, “without your eyes, I can not see.” As if at the same time he was saying, “with you, I’m mad.” The world is drunk I alone am sober.

One day, he returned to the small hotel. The owner told him, his wife was in the room. When he opened the door, his wife was lying in bed, and the closet was covered with her clothes, dresser filled with cosmetics, as if his wife had been staying for a very long time. His wife said, “I still like the way you do not grow a mustache”, he took the razor again. This time his wife did not turn a blind eye, but responded immediately, expressing that she noted his change and that she liked it.

The film ended like this. Mark knew to escape did not solve the problem. At the beginning he was pursuing hard of the recognition, and now he got it. But would his life be Zhouzhuang or butterfly? He did not know, he did not want to know, and he would continue to live in the eyes of others. Was the outcome positive or negative? Mark did not commit suicide; it’s of course positive. The world is drunk and I alone am sober, and Mark went back to be crazy and live in the eye of others; this certainly had its negative side. The director changed the ending of committing suicide to that others were paying attention to Mark and from Mark’s being isolated to his facing the eyes of others; it’s positive, strongly positive.

La moustache

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personae
Oct. 07.

La Vie Avec Mon Pere

By minmin Posted in Movie
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It’s a successful Québec film with Hollywood taste. There’s no intense story but “the life with my father” You will probably overlook it with a not romantic title, however, you will find the title just right when you watch the film. It is romantic but not ordinarily romantic. The success is at how it portrayed the personae to their most delicate.

Famous writer François wrote only one novel in his life – but what a novel! He likes the women, the wine but most of all his sons, Paul and Patrick. Two brothers are opposite: Paul is an unconventional apprentice writer while Patrick directs a multinational corporation of the pharmaceutical industry. After a long absence, François reappears in their life, alone, without a penny and sick, but always with the same rage to laugh, to like … to live, all simple.

Here is the conversation between François and Paul:

François: How’s the writing?
Paul: I’m blocked. When I sit down at the computer … I go blank.
François: Forget reality. See where the words take you.
Paul: I can’t start if I don’t have the ending.
François: I started my best sentences not knowing how I was going to end them. What if they don’t end?

The film’s title is “the life with my father” but it indeed is about life in general. Writing is rewriting life. We start our life without knowing how we are going to end and why should it end?

Then is François’ monologue:

One son makes empty promises (Paul); the other sees only obstacles (Patrick). What’ll happen when I’m gone? You’re constantly sniping, contradicting each other … It’s not about getting anywhere. What matters is leaving, looking. It’s not about destination. What matters is what happens along the way. That’s what’s amazing. The detours, the hitches along the way … the encounters, too, especially the encounters. Success, failure, illness, they’re just distractions, really. Life puts things in our way. What matters is how we respond to them and what we leave behind.

This is exactly what he leaves behind.

He is worried about his sons’ snipe and contradiction to each other when he’s gone so he asked Patrick to promise him:

He (Paul) is a good boy, you know. He’s more fragile; that’s all. You’re strong. I’m not worried about you … For a long time I thought you’d be the writer (but Patrick didn’t while Paul would)… Promise me one thing; look after Paul. Unconditionally, okay?

He asked Paul the same.

Paul published his first novel about the life with his father and is successful. When he’s asked, “you’ve capitalized on your dad’s success” Patrick answered for him, “What can a father bequeath other than an attitude? A house? Money? Anyone can have those. A father’s words first enable us to interpret the world. Paul could have written his book without his father’s. But he couldn’t write it if his dad hadn’t been part of his life.”

That’s what François leaves behind.

The film is also beautiful at its pure white theme. Here are some unforgettable scenes to share with you:

François’ illusion of this gorgeous blonde:

Blonde

Family reunion at skating rink:

Life with my father

Last but not the least, the novelist, the director made this delicate film, finely portrayed personae, and, the actors and actress’ performance is also impressive. I luckily captured the image when Paul, Patrick and Paul’s girlfriend Sylvie were together, and when they were at their most beautiful moment – smile, Paul’s loveliness, Patrick’s charm and Sylvie’s grace. Everyone is imperfect but this image perfectly shows their most beautiful side. I omit François but his beauty is at his wisdom, his words.

Helen Florent

By the way, Hélène Florent who played Sylvie’s role is a very special actress; although her role is not as important as the rest three characters her performance is remarkable.

There is another Québec film very similar; it’s called “the Barbarian Invasions” and it’s Academy Award Winner. However, I prefer “La Vie avec Mon Père”.

“the Barbarian Invasions” may contain more prolong contents or may have some successful trivia or you may talk about the “meaning” it brings you; but “La Vie avec Mon Père” is finer.

Two fathers (main characters) in two films both like women but “the Barbarian Invasions” shows this in a less beautiful way, and therefore, leaves the main character less meaningful.

The theme of “La Vie avec Mon Père” is pure white – winter with snow; the theme of “the Barbarian Invasions” is mature autumn which is also great, however, it didn’t make enough use of this beautiful season; on the other hand, if the main character is not beautiful, then the beautiful season loses its meaning to be beautiful.

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