Author: Sasa

Tout est parfait

They don’t say “Jesus” or even “Jeez” but they say “Christ” instead. It makes sense, “Jésu” does sound too weird for kids to pick it up. Canadian is such an incredibly weird, distant language.

Perhaps distance yet familiarity is what makes this film so fascinating for me. Even though I never had to grieve for anybody, it is a sentiment that, nevertheless, is very familiar to me. Even though I used to be a somewhat suicidal teenager, I have never been into drugs nor any type of clichéd teenage activities. And finally, even though I understand both English and French, the Canadian medley feels close yet far away, just like the entire movie.

Here is where the appeal of this movie lies: It might indulge itself in clichés and take itself very, very seriously, but at the same time, it feels incredibly truthful. Nothing really happens in there, yet whatever happens feels much more real. People kiss in the movie like I did 10 years ago, they drive their parents crazy exactly the same way I did, they have a boring life like most of my life used to be as well. Apart from the suicides, which are shown in a way reminiscent of realistic novels from the 19th century, nothing is dramatized in the film. It is also realistic not to find answers to everything. Even so, the film manages to end on a positive note.

Sure, the film leaves questions open. Except for Sacha who had a sad childhood, it is not truly revealed why the kids did it, but it makes sense that they might even tell the reason in their suicide video letters. It might just as well be for the beauty of the tragedy, who knows. But the real tragedy is that Josh lived on, and the revelation about that is so much more impressive and touching than giving out some satisfying ‘reasons’.

By the way, the girl in the bus from the beginning is such a beauty?

I don’t think there is any right way of dealing with grief, especially in a movie. I thought that “Six Feet Under” did a great job but especially the Nate/Lisa thing got a little over the top dramatic, and “Trois Couleurs: Bleu” was great but for most of the film, we barely saw anything besides Juliette Binoche swimming. This film, in comparison to that, shows so many aspects of the main character’s coping with his world, and despite the slowness of the narration there is a strange richness to it that I liked very much.

The music here is the exact opposite of “Les amours imaginaires”. While that one is primarily ironic and a device to a ridicule scene, the music in this film actually manages to enhance its mood successfully, which I would say is fairly unusual for a rather uncomplicated film like this. It is another sign that shows how well the film plunges into the character’s world, admittedly a world full clichés of teenager-ism where music is its main element.

Another Canadian film with lovely music that I thought I wouldn’t like but ended up enjoying very, very much – that pretty much sums up my impression of “Tout est parfait”. It’s a typical underrated, badly distributed film and I am glad that they exist. How am I going to find the next one?

Les amours imaginaires

The movie, despite the Canadian accent, feels incredibly Nouvelle Vague. The scene cuts, the strange pretentiousness, the sort of hollow yet artsy dialogues – I loved them. This film is probably funnier than a Nouvelle Vague, because it’s making fun of itself. Curiously enough, I find this approach extremely healing. For somebody who is constantly afraid of the ‘coup de foudre’ happening to me and who knows very well the disastrous consequences when it happens, I find it extremely refreshing when the concept of ‘amour fou’ is taken down from its pedestal of ultimate romanticism and mocked like one mocks bourgeois hypocrisy. Hipsterdom is modern bourgeoisie.

The best thing about the film is how music is used, perhaps the most poignant aspect of the film’s irony and subtle humor. Okay, maybe it wasn’t actually that subtle – the whole thing is more or less about how the main characters fail at life, at communicating their feelings properly and even having anything like a relationship. In that respect, the end is also absolutely perfect.

There is one aspect of the film I personally don’t like though; I don’t quite understand why in the world the film cannot focus on the main characters. They are sort of unlikable, sort of stereotypical and, ultimately, they don’t do very much. It is painful to see how these humans are even capable of lying to each other and themselves. But whenever that incredible awkwardness becomes funny, I get to enjoy myself.
I think the movie would have been better if they had explored the main characters more, and have put all those little pieces of random people being interviewed into another film. Incidentally those interviews make the film feel pretentious, yet at the same time some of the things they say are just so painfully true, oh my god. So Nouvelle Vague hipster-style.

I love the umbrella! And Le Garrel!

Ultimately, I would say that the film is pretty much the exact opposite of what I am, or what I want to be, for that matter. I’m way beyond the time of being a smoky student who seems to never do anything serious, I don’t listen to that kind of music (though I thoroughly enjoyed it in this film), I don’t wear that kind of clothes and especially I am not into that type of man. In short, no identification potential of at all. But one has to appreciate how it’s surprisingly well-done with a script so full of seemingly effortless humor. Without even a German Wikipedia article, this is definitely an underrated film.

If only they didn’t use that cheesy song…