Dreadful nights have filled my schedule this and the last year as my lifestyle drastically changed. It's been hard for me to keep in touch with recent cinema. This is me saying I haven't had the pleasure of delving into as many as I want to. Still I have allowed myself occasionally to lift my spirit and enjoy some recommended ones. I hope they are enough to narrow down a few.
I know the deadline is past, however, as @papacrusher aptly made the rule not to include or consider any staff in the contest to be fair to everyone, I suppose it wouldn't be a problem.
Annette (2021)
Dir. Leos Carax
I've fervently talked about Leos Carax whenever I had the chance. He's a French filmmaker and known for his unique stories and unconventional narrative storytelling.
In the film Annette, a rock opera musical film, that is more like a surreal journey through parenthood, personal and on-set lives and self reflection.
A stand-up comedian (Adam Driver) marries a virtuoso opera singer (Marion Cotillard) and their daughter Annette is born. Annette is shown as a puppet, devoid of life. It is used as a symbol of course. As life goes on for the married couple, things start to deteriorate.
However bland this synopsis may seem, the film plays like a thriller. Beautifully shot. Fabulously made with the key score returning once in a while to haunt the audience.
The French Dispatch (2021)
Dir. Wes Anderson
Whenever I watched a Wes Anderson film, I've always marveled at those neat set designs. Furniture, decorations, people all blended in the same color theme. Everything neatly placed, like in a doll house. He is not minimalistic, his frames do incorporate tons of things for the audience to see, and then you can guess these nuances are exclusively his. However, these are mearly the style. Wes sometimes fall short in substance. I'm glad this film wasn't one of them. This is an anthology film and each of the short stories are connected to the main plot.
A fictional French newspaper is run by an eccentric man with equally eccentric reporters. Each story covers one journalist of the paper and their unique story covering method.
There's some homage to french cinema, to the root. One scene is clearly inspired by Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle. I see some allegory to Jean-luc Goddard and his rebellious spirit. Perhaps the entire French new wave.
As usual Anderson casted an ensemble cast, so many talented actors in one film that it's hard for anyone to shine. However I liked the prisoner artist arc the most.
Memoria (2021)
Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
This Thai auteur is renowned for his therapeutic films. However when I saw his 2021 release Memoria, starring Tilda Swinton as the lead, I was having mixed emotions.
Tilda Swinton's character hears a loud bang, that anyone else can't. She searches for the source of the noise.
While the film, in a broader sense, is a sci-fi, it merely uses that as an excuse, to make a causal relation in the story elements so it doesn't feel too ambiguous. Even then the film remains so and it's mostly leaning towards being a philosophical drama instead. I thought about the gimmick the filmmaker incorporated at the end to explain or maybe it was an attempt to logically explain things and it left me a bit dissatisfied. However I'm way too enchanted by the frames to be bothered about it.
Shitttttttt! French Dispatch was 2021 movie!!!!
Yes it was! 😄
Damn I didn’t notice 😑😑😑
Aww... No worries. What, you wanted to include it in your entry?
of course! I would have written an amazing review if it's French Dispatch! -_-
Perhaps I would have won the prize!
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Thank you for your Cine TV contest entry. It's great to see some films that I don't know.
Is the contest over?
it was over when I entered.
Btw a new one is posted. You can participate that.
Yes
Ah. Okay.