Being French, I thought it might be interesting if I posted a review of a French movie that I like. So, first of fall, I have to say that I am not a fan of the modern french cinema. For me, the golden age of the french cinema is the New Wave (please watch Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard). It took me some time to think about a french movie realeased after 1990 that I like but I did it. There is a new generation, trying to give french cinema its quality back. This generation is represented particularly by two talented young female directors : Maiwenn and Valérie Donzelli.

The movie that I chose is called La Guerre Est Déclarée (Declaration of War) by Valérie Donzelli.

Romeo and Juliette (by chosing these names she shows a desire to make the story universal) met at the party and it is love at first sight. Shortly afterwards, they have a child together and will discover that he has cancer. The two main characters are played by Valérie Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaim, whom co-written the screenplay. This story is actually theirs.

This is first and foremost, a love story. It is the story of a couple’s struggle against their child’s illness. It is a very touchy subject but Valérie Donzelli succeeds in making a deeply moving and gracious movie. The strenght of the movie is to never play with the suspence of the child’s possible death. In fact we know from the beggining that he survives. But this does not make the movie less heartrending.

The movie is really audacious because even if it deals with a very touchy topic, the director decided to give an important place to humour, poesy, theater and music. This could have been totally bad taste but this is actually the beauty of the movie. The poesy, theater and music add an oneiric side to the realism of the movie.

I love how the music has an important role in the movie. Sometimes, the music even replace the characters’ voices. When the news of the child’s cancer is told to each member of the family, Vivaldi’s 4 seasons is played over their voices. Everything is alway right and of good taste, the music is here to sublime the  emotions in each scene and it works wonderfuly. The soundtrack is just amazing.

I also love that the director dares to mix drama and humour. For example there is a scene in the movie in which the two main characters have to sleep in the hospital, the night before their child’s  first operation. They began to talk about what could go wrong and what they fear. This scene could have been really serious and hard to handle but the humour changes everything. It finishes with them agreeing that the worst would be that their child will end up « blind, deaf, mute, dwarf, gay, black and that he’ll vote far-right »

This is a movie with a seduction of high intelligence. Watch it, you will shed quality tears.

Here is the imdb link :  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1931470/

If you are interested in watching more french movies like that, you should watch Polisse by Maiwenn : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JXIWSP3axIV

Peeping Tom is a reflexion and a mise en abime about cinema and the process of recording sound and image.

The blind mother represent the sound aspect of the movie. But why using a blind character in a movie about voyeurism ? First, someone who is blind developpes other sensory capacities that someone who is able to see doesn’t have. The blind is capable to analyse and process any auditive informations. In that sense, the importance that sounds is going to have for the blind can be seen as auditive voyeurism. Sound is a communication vector that can be perceived by anyone. The blind is exploring every aspect of it whereas other people just assimilate the essential. For example, Helen’s mother knows when Mark is home and she also knows he is always in his screening room, watching his movies. She tells him : « I visit this room every night. The blinds always visit the rooms they live under »

The sound in Peeping Tom becomes complementary of the image. The blind character is here to add to the theme of voyeurism and penetrate in the voyeur’s intimate space itself in a way that he does not expect. In fact, Mark is focused on his visual sphere and do everything he can to hide his actions from the sighted. The sound for Mark will end up being  something that he does not control and what is going to give him away.

The confrontation between image and sound will reach its climax when Mark is projecting Vivian’s murder while Helen’s mother is in the room. The movie doesn’t have any sound, and us, spectators, are witnessing the horrible scene. We are between Mark and Helen’s mother. Mark see and act, the spectator observes, and the blind character questiones and is trying to guess what is going on.

Also, Mark’s father was extremely voyeur and Helen has a blind mother. They both appear as a sound/image complementary couple. The film is the setting of Mark and Helen’s meeting. What can happen when two people – which relation with two important senses were disturbed or even, perverted – meet?