Pasha's Film Reviews Etc.

4 1/2 /5 Mark is a 47 year old accountant, who had missed his train to Paris and stuck for the night in a provincial town. Here he meets Sylvie, with whom he spends the night wondering the town's streets and falls in love. They do not exchange phone numbers, promise each other to meet in a week's time... Alas that does not occur. Unexpectedly, Mark meets Sophie, Sylvie's sister. He does not know that the two women are related and begins dating Sophie. It is not long until three hearts are locked in a triangle of passion, lies and an ultimate betrayal. What will be the collateral damage and what is the right choice to make, when wherever you turn you hurt someone? Benoit Jacquot created a love triangle like no other - the movie is very dark even at the height of the positive moments in the characters lives. The main titles open with an alarming music, menacing piano cords that prepare you for a very tense viewing. This love story is shot like a thriller, with ...

5/5 THE CONNECTION (LA FRENCH) is based on real life events in Marseille in 1975. An honest judge Pierre Michele (Jean Dujardin) takes a stand against drug cartel called The French Connection and its mastermind Gaetan Zampa (Gilles Lelluoche). Michele is repulsed by any addiction. A gambling addict himself he sees what drugs can do to people of his city, but is his desire to pin down Zampa is also an addiction of the sort? Michele and Zampa both shown as charismatic men in control of their lives. Both married with kids, both in love with their wives. There's nothing infernal in Lellouche's portrayal of Zampa. Thinker, planner and tough negotiator he looks more like modern day businessman than a gangster. Dujardin's Michele is a little too perfect, however, with barely any downsides to his personality. THE CONNECTIONS is a solid gangster film the likes of CASINO. It is also an interesting (and expensive) period production. Clothes, cars, furniture, venue de...

5/5 Claire and Laura had been best friends all their lives. With Laura now gone Claire promises to look after her husband David. Little does she know when one day she walked into Laura's house she finds David in drag, wearing Laura's clothes. Thus begin an unlikely friendship between Claire and Virginia - David's feminine self. As new friends spend more and more time together it is becoming a problem for Claire to hide David's transformation from her husband Gille. But is the friendship between Clair and Virginia are as platonic as they seem? Francois Ozon creates yet another curious film about many sides of sexuality, relationship and love. Based on a short story by Ruth Rendell this movie is full of tension, of both sexual and dangerous kind. The beginning may take too long to introduce the characters, but as the main plot point is revealed you don't quite know what to expect. With light doses of humour, mixed with a sadness and loss, Ozon tells...

4/5 When you are young summer lasts forever - this is the case of Lea, Adrian and Theo who are sent to spent the summer in Provence with their grandparents. Paul, the grandfather they never met, is not at all happy with the idea of spending two months with the kids of his daughter with whom he cut all ties seventeen years ago. The teenagers, Lea and Adrian, think that they are “buried alive” in the countryside away from the Paris world they love so much. Only little Theo, who is deaf from birth, is happy wherever he goes. The grandmother tries to smooth things out but it is not long until the storm arrives and Paul and his grandchildren go head to head. The original name of the movie AVIS DE MISTRAL translates as THE WILL OF MISTRAL. The mistral is cold, dry, northern wind but without it the olives don’t grow. It is, of course, a reference to the man character Paul who is rough and pigheaded, but has a big heart.   The movie places us in the middle of the beaut...

4/5 Marithe works as a career adviser where she meets Carole - a woman who is trying to reinvent herself. Carole is different from anyone Marithe had ever helped - she is running a famous restaurant, she is known in the city and has a perfect husband. Only this perfect life doesn't seem to fit her well. Marithe and Carole almost become friends but one complication arises - Marithe seems to like Carole's husband too much. As a career adviser it is now in her interest to place Carole as far away from her relationship as the next step in her career can do. Emmanuelle Devos as Carole and Karin Viard as Marithe, as two middle aged women on the crossroads of their lives, are easily to identify with. Each and everyone of us had a thought about the future and what it's like to be truly content with one's life. There is no better way to realise what is missing than to see, that someone else has got it. ALMOST FRIENDS is a comedy and a drama at its best. Lig...

4/5 Antonine is almost fifty, but he is in great shape. He jogs, he eats well. He has a beautiful wife, wonderful friends and fantastic job. So it comes as a surprise when he suddenly has a heart attack. The near death experience triggers a change in him that is not to everyone's liking. On a trip to a countryside with his best friends Antoine will do everything he missed out on. He will eat, drink, relax, tell the truth and rediscover himself and those around him as if for the first time. BARBECUE is a dramatic comedy about relationships, their fragility but also their ability to survive. As Antoine turns into a judgemental unforgiving bastard we wonder if it is his trying to break out of life routine is to blame. Most of the movie takes place in the picturesque holiday home where friends drink, eat, talk and fight. The dynamic between the team of actors is fabulous and they are all believable as a long lasting company of friends - people with many shortcomings wh...

3/5 Lambert is a sex addict. Trying to overcome his addiction he decides to be abstinent for twelve months. But here comes Judith, a sex addict just like him. She makes it her goal to have sex with Lambert. Will he succumb to her charm or will the therapy win? And in the world gone crazy on accessible sex, is there still place for love? This romantic comedy about battle of sexes is solely lies on the shoulders of the leads Sophie Marceau and Patrick Bruel. Their dynamic is fun to watch and they both seem to be enjoying being in a film about the excess of sex in the age where romantic attraction is always on the back foot. The movie is light and bubbly like a glass of good champagne - it will not give you head ache the next morning, but is also not designed to have a lasting impression. The correct translation of the movie title is "Do you want me... Or not?" and says everything about the premise of the plot. The characters constantly trying to work out if t...