Thursday, 21 May 2026

May 22nd 2026

The Richest Woman in the World
Becoming Kafka
Mother Mary
The Sheep Detectives
Life Could be a Dream

This week's films are a very diverse lot with my faves being the latest French film starring the wonderful Isabelle Huppert, along with a zany, beautiful story of a flock of sheep who have more brains than one would ever imagine.


The Richest Woman in the World
Dir: Thierry Klifa

© Palace - based upon a true French scandal
Marianne Farrere (Isabelle Huppert) is a billionaire heiress to a vast cosmetics company. A magazine photo-shoot sees her meeting larger-than-life photographer Pierre Alain Fantin (Laurent Lafitte) who suddenly injects a hefty dose of joie-de-vivre and irreverence into her regimented life with staid husband Guy (Andre Marcon). Pierre quickly charms his way into Marianne's affections, and she is soon gifting him vast amounts of money to prop up his life and career. Marianne's daughter, Frederique (Marina Fois), legal heir to her mother's fortune, is horrified, as is her husband Jean-Marc (Mathieu Demy) along with the family's loyal butler Jerome (Raphael Personnaz). What they all decide to do about the situation will have far-reaching ramifications. This story is a free adaptation of a true scandalous case which captivated all of France back in 2007, known as the Bettencourt Case, and revolving around the L'Oreal cosmetics empire. While I recoil at the character of Pierre, with his boorishness and vulgarity, I'm blown over by Lafitte's blustering performance which still manages to make us see his appeal to the stitched-up Marianne. And of course Huppert is simply perfect in this role, as she goes from ice-queen elegance to a woman besotted by this "charmer", and rediscovering her inner devil. This film has been much loved in France and thoroughly enjoyed by yours truly.
4 - highly recommended 

Franz: Becoming Kafka
Dir: Agnieszka Holland

© Sharmill - very original film-making style
for a very original writer
Most people know the name Kafka, but not all have read him or understand his philosophical world view. And that includes me, making it hard for me to review this much-awarded film by an iconic director. The film is described as a "kaleidoscopic mosaic" of the writer's life, and that certainly sums up the daring and innovative style of the filmmaking. We meet Franz at age 7 (Daniel Dongres), dominated by his overbearing father Hermann (Peter Kurth). Then we are introduced to the life and writings of the adult Franz (Idan Weiss). Absurdism, surrealism and existentialism are translated into many of the visuals employed, these scenes transmitting the feeling  of the man and his unconventional take on life. And of course we also get the actuality of his life, especially his fraught relationships with significant women, and his early death from tuberculosis. The film is visually excellent, and every performance feels real. I have the suspicion that this is a seriously good attempt to filmically capture something almost unfathomable, but without having read him, I'm left a little bewildered and less enlightened about the man than I would wish. 
3.5 - well recommended

Mother Mary
Dir: David Lowery

© VVS - some strong acting but a
scattered plot
Gaga-style pop icon Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) has a new song, and to perform it she needs a new dress. For some years she's been estranged from her loyal costume designer and former closest friend Sam (Michaela Coel), but now she comes back to ask Sam to make the dress for her. Rain-bedraggled, almost plain without her stage makeup, and totally at Sam's mercy, Mary is subjected to all Sam's hurt and wrath over having been sidelined and rejected. There is a ton of strong psychological fodder to be mined in this story, and that's where it works best - an examination of artistic insecurities, the cult of fame worship, but mostly the dynamics of friendship. However, after an impressive start, which features a couple of glitzy set pieces of Mother Mary's stage performances, the film veers off into an irrelevant, contrived, quasi-supernatural nonsense involving a seance - and that's where it lost me. Yes, Hathaway impresses in that she does her own singing, but her performance lacks the power of a real-life diva. Coel is full-on impressive as the spurned friend, but the argy-bargy talk fest that ensues, followed by the pseudo exorcism of Mary's inner demons feels contrived and plain silly. The film doesn't know what is wants to be, and, while I enjoyed it in parts, I didn't ultimately care about the characters! 
2.5 - maybe

The Sheep Detectives
Dir: Kyle Balda

© Sony - so lovely - for all ages
George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is a caring shepherd who lives in the quaint English village of Denbrook. Every night he gathers his flock around him and reads aloud to them from murder mystery books. Little does he know they understand everything and discuss the cases among themselves! When George is found dead, the distraught sheep decide to solve the mystery themselves. Before you go dimissing this radical idea, let me tell you, within minutes I was drawn into the plot wholeheartedly, so appealing are the sheep characters, and so cleverly written is the script. Using a mix of real sheep, computer-generated imagery and animatronic puppets, the film brings its woolly stars to life with humour, philosophy,  and sheer delight. While there is plenty of fun, underneath it all are wonderful life lessons for children and indeed all ages: moving beyond one's comfort zone, accepting others' differences, even coping with the concept of death. The film boasts a top-notch role call of actors. Among the live action cast are Nicholas Braun (who played Greg in Succession) as the local bumbling police officer, Molly Gordon (Claire in The Bear) as Rebecca, George's daughter, and the ever-splendid Emma Thomson as George's lawyer.  The sheep are voiced by such well known actors as Bryan Cranson, Rhys Derby, Bella Ramsey and more. Despite some levels of predictability, this is a gorgeous film everyone can enjoy and is much-needed in today's fraught world.
4 - highly recommended

Life Could Be a Dream
Dir: Jasmin Tarasin

© Maslow - good theme not given
serious enough treatment
Sarah (Maeve Dermody) is a real estate agent and mother of 40, with a 13-year-old son Otis (Sonny McGee). Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that she has been enduring an abusive marriage involving financial coercive control. She decides to flee with Otis, taking refuge in an opulent mansion that she is in charge of selling. Together the pair hang out and strengthen their bond, with Otis being a vital support for his mother. The issue of domestic violence is such a serious one, and yet the film's style is too languid, its cinematography too beautiful, to reflect any of the horror and fear. Plot-wise my credibility is totally stretched being asked to believe that the pair would be able to move into this home, let alone that it is still a fully functioning liveable house! Performances are fine, but again the sweet interlude of Otis meeting local lass Sati (Noam Sen-Gupta) seems to detract from the main intended theme. Unfortunately, despite all the good intentions of tackling a relevant and important issue, the film ends up being too flimsy for its purported subject matter. 
2.5 - maybe





 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)