This is the kind of weather for movie-goers… Great news : this week, great long movies, light-hearted or totally feminist are playing. Each Parisienne can choose her fave movie.
Confident Royal: the blockbuster
If you liked: the wonderful series The Crown, the biopic The Queen or Les liaisons dangereuses, the two cult films of Stephen Frears.
You will like: Confident Royal, by the same director.
Its cool potential : scandal around the crown! The latest film of the English director goes back on a royal story held secret for a long time. Normal: it created quite a stir under the reign of Queen Victoria… Shocking ! To such an extent that Edouard VII did all he could at his mother’s death to erase this episode from the history of the Monarchy... A marvelous insight on the loneliness of power.
The story: the elderly Queen Victoria (incarnated by Judi Dench), is totally bored at the court whose protocol seems really tedious after 40 years of reign. Her interest in life is sparked by a young Indian valet, Abdul Karim, who obtains her favours and becomes her teacher, because despite her status as Empress of India, she ignores everything about this country. Her “Munshi” (“ spiritual guide”), opens up for her the doors on an unknown and fascinating land. A special and very avant-garde friendship is going to awaken hostility and racism in Buckingham.
Royal Confident by Stephen Frears with Judi Dench and Ali Fazal. Sortie en salles le 4 octobre.
Le sens de la fête : the good comedy
If you liked: the Intouchables humour by the same Toledano-Nakache duo , the inimitable style of Jean-Pierre Bacri in Le goût des autres by Agnès Jaoui, and the joyful mess that takes place during the wedding of Russian Dolls by Cédric Klapisch.
You will like: Le Sens de la fête, the new hilarious comedy by Eric Toledano andOlivier Nakache.
Its cool potential : the improbable alliance of the funniest characters in French cinema, combined in a delicious casting. Jean-Pierre Bacri of course (the role was written for him), Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve, Vincent Macaigne and Alban Ivanov.
The story: while a wedding is the most beautiful day in the life of a couple, it’s a total brainteaser for the staff in charge of the organisation. Bacri is at the head of a company of wedding planners on the edge of a burn out, you must admit just that is funny in itself), surrounded by incompetents who are constantly quibbling, stealing in the buffet and flirting with the bride. And of course that’s without counting the megalomaniac groom who is in his own world and doing as he pleases.
Le sens de la fête by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache with Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jean-Paul Rouve and Gilles Lellouche. To be released on the 4th of October.
Téhéran Tabou: the nugget
If you liked: Taxi Téhéran, the documentary-fiction by Jafar Pahani and A separation by Asghar Fahradi, both nominated in Berlin, or Divines by Hounia Benyamina on feminine emancipation in the suburbs.
You will like: Téhéran Tabou, le film d’animation choc d’Ali Soozandeh.
Its cool potential : buzz in Cannes during the festival, this chorale film offsets all the taboos of Iranian society : drugs, prostitution, sexuality and corruption. To wit: since the director did not receive the authorisation to film in Iran, the actors were filmed on a green background, drawn and propelled in an animated decor. The result? Incredible realism.
The story: in Teneran, three strong women and musician with intermingled destinies try to emancipate despite the taboos imposed by religion. So what do you do about your son when you are a prostitute and he is not signed up for school? How do you pay for the operation to resew the hymen of a women when you took her virginity? Is it possible to work without the agreement of your husband? Here are the many questions that must be answered with, as background, the ongoing hypocrisy of a schizophrenic society
Téhéran Tabou by Ali Soozandeh with Elmira Rafizadeh, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, Arash Marandi. Released on the 4th of October.
