Tag Archives: Louis Garrel

Godard Mon Amour Brilliant Movie by Hazanavicisu

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, who won the Best Picture Oscar for The Artist, which I totally recommend that you see The Artist if you haven’t seen it yet. It is brilliant.

With, that Hazanavicius brings us another brilliant movie called Godard Mon Amour. The movie is a true story of Jean-Luc Godard at a turning point in both his own groundbreaking career and in the art of cinema.

Just like the movie The Artist, which was set in the silent film era, Hazanavicius again tenderly transfers moviegoers back to a unique time and place in cinematic history. Known as France, in the late 1960s. We meet a Young actress Anne Wiazemsky, played by Stacy Martin, who achieved instant fame as the teenage star of Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar. She finds herself juggling political protests and artistic challenges in her married life with Jean-Luc Godard, played by Louis Garrel.

Goddard, for those who don’t know who he is, is the fearless, innovative and significant director of Breathless, Band of Outsiders and Contempt. As Wiazemsky country undergoes enormous cultural change, so too does her dynamic with her husband, as the great director becomes absorbed in the political and cultural moment and less emotionally available to his wife.

Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and four César Awards, including Best Actor and Best Director, and co-starring Bérénice Bejo of The Artist, Godard Mon Amour is a global sensation – both as a tribute to a crucial moment in cinema history and as the resounding artistic triumph in its own right.

Ed Potton of The Times of London said Godard Mon Amour “manages to be a biopic, postmodern comedy, stylistic homage and poignant relationship study all at once.”

“Garrel is wonderfully dead-on as the director,” said Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly, adding, “Martin manages to convey some of the heartaches in watching the man you love turn sour.”

Donald Clarke of The Irish Times called the film “occasionally disrespectful and hugely amusing … It’s carried off with an irreverence that would delight Mel Brooks.”

Such a wonder of just about two hours spent enjoying filmmaking and filmmaker Goddard, I hope you get a chance to see Godard Mon Amour because it is a great movie for any movie aficionado.

Ismael’s Ghosts: A Convoluted Story With Stellar Acting

Co-written and directed by Arnaud Desplechin, Ismael’s Ghosts is a convoluted story about Ismael’s life as a filmmaker. His wife Carlotta, played by Marion Cotillard, who ran away twenty-one years ago, returns and is back just as he is about to start shooting his next movie.

Please be patient as I try to explain the movie because it is French and there are so many layers to the movie.

On the other hand, Ismael, played by Mathieu Amalric, has been busy rebuilding a life for himself with Sylvia, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, and working on his next feature film. Ismael’s trials and tribulations open up the story becomes more and more layered with dissociated situations.

The one storyline that I found easy to follow was when Carlotta returns and moves into the beach house with Ismael and Sylvia. Creating an uncomfortable situation far beyond the old saying threes a crowd. Her arrival complicates their lives. I yearned to see this story unfold and be the only story in the movie.

Other situations become apparent with various ghosts from Ismael’s past. The story introduces several characters. One is Ivan, played by Louis Garrel, a diplomat who journeys around the world without understanding it. The same goes for the title character, Ismael. He is a film director who journeys through his life without understanding it either.

Desplechin says the movie is five films compressed into one. Ismael is harried. And yet up in his attic, Ismael tries to hold all the threads of what is happening together. Throughout the movie are twists and turns with each scene raw and brutal.

Gainsbourg is brilliant as Sylvia who teaches Ismael how to live. Her acting career is extensive with Antichrist directed by Lars Von Trier. She won Best Actress, Cannes Film Festival 2009. She played Jane Eyre in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre.

Gainsbourg’s scenes with Cotillard makes watching the movie worth it. Two powerhouse actresses playing off each other is real and heartbreaking. Cotillard’s acting career is just as impressive, though she is in more American movies than Gainsbourg. She worked with several American directors including Christopher Nolan, Robert Zemeckis, Woody Allen, and Rob Marshall. Cotillard won an Oscar, Cesar, and Golden Globe in 2008 for her role as Edith Piaf in the French movie La Vie En Rose directed by Olivier Dahan.

Amalric may seem familiar to Wes Anderson fans because he started in The Grand Budapest Hotel. One of my favorite Anderson movies.

Desplechin career is well-known in France and Ismael’s Ghosts received the honor with 2017 Cannes Film Festival – World Premiere and Opening Night Film.

Julie Peyr and Lea Mysius co-wrote the screenplay with Desplechin. Peyr also worked on the screenplay for Desplechin’s The Golden Days.

The movie is in French with English subtitles.