A feeling of familiarity
Yesterday evening I went to the cinema and saw Lost River, a film written and directed by Ryan Gosling. It got mixed reviews over here, and honestly I didn't like it. It looked like Gosling wanted to emulate Nicolas Winding Refn - his film especially recalled Only God Forgives -, but when Windeing Refn's movies are atmospheric, intriguing and a bit subversive, Lost River is rather weird, bordering on boring, show-off and even a bit pretentious in places.
Anyway, watching it was strange because of its cast, which was so familiar, espcially for someone who watches tv series!
In the lead parts we've got Joan from Mad Men (Christina Hendricks) and Fitz from Agents of SHIELD (Iain De Caestecker) - he's Ryan Gosling's alter ego here, playing a part that Gosling would have played had his film been directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and he even kinda looks like him, albeit cuter and less sexy -, and Eleven from Doctor Who (Matt Smith), whom I barely recognized at first although I knew he was on the film, who plays a very bad boy!
To add to the feeling of familiarity, Gosling also cast the excellent Reda Kateb, a French actor who won the César for best actor over here this year (for Hippocrate), and whom I saw in two films since the beginning of 2015: Loin des Hommes, in which he starred along Viggo Mortensen and L'Astragale, a lovely film I saw last week!
BTW I would recommend L'Astragale over Lost River in a heartbeat. It's an adpatation of an autobiography written by Albertine Sarrazin, directed by Brigitte Sy who was late Philippe Garrel's wife and is still Louis Garrel's mother (he does a cameo in the film).
The astralagus is a foot bone that young Albertine (marvellous Leïla Bekhti) breaks when she jumps to escape her prison. She can't walk so she crawls on the road and she's saved by Julien (Reda Kateb), a gangster with a golden heart. Thanks to him she hides in Paris, she learns to walk again, and she waits for him (which includes working as a prostitue to get money) while he's living a life of "crime" (break-ins) away. The film recreates the shady Paris of the late 50's but it's mostly a love story and a good one, for Albertine has fallen madly in love with Julien. It isn't soppy at all, and Bekhti and Kateb make a wonderful couple on screen.
Sometimes life does imitates art. It's quite fascinating in this case.
Albertine's name for instance seemed to have foreshadowed her fate. She was born to belong to literature. When you're French and you hear the name Albertine, you immediately think of a famous character by Proust in La Recherche du Temps Perdu. Okay, maybe you think about it only when you're well-read, but still, it isn't a common name.
In Proust's novel, Albertine is the narrator's love interest, his mistress with whom he even lives at some point and a possible bride (but they never make it to marriage)...until she disappears some day. She's also someone with sapphic inclinations which drives the narrator mad and jealous. La Prisonnière is the title of the book in which their relationship and his jealousy are depicted. The following book is Albertine Disparue, but the alternative title is La Fugitive!
How can we not think that Albertine Sarrazin's life strangely echoes Proust's Albertine beyond her name?
Albertine "started" as a prisoner since she was in prison after she robbed a shop with her friend (and lover) Marie- played by Esther Garrel in the movie-, and after her escape she is on the run so she's a fugitive during L'Astragale. Julien is the big love of her life, but she does have homosexual relationships as well (at least with Marie). Like her proustian counterpart she had a very short life (not a spoiler for the film at all), dying from a medical malpractice while she was only 29 years old.
Anyway, watching it was strange because of its cast, which was so familiar, espcially for someone who watches tv series!
In the lead parts we've got Joan from Mad Men (Christina Hendricks) and Fitz from Agents of SHIELD (Iain De Caestecker) - he's Ryan Gosling's alter ego here, playing a part that Gosling would have played had his film been directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and he even kinda looks like him, albeit cuter and less sexy -, and Eleven from Doctor Who (Matt Smith), whom I barely recognized at first although I knew he was on the film, who plays a very bad boy!
To add to the feeling of familiarity, Gosling also cast the excellent Reda Kateb, a French actor who won the César for best actor over here this year (for Hippocrate), and whom I saw in two films since the beginning of 2015: Loin des Hommes, in which he starred along Viggo Mortensen and L'Astragale, a lovely film I saw last week!
BTW I would recommend L'Astragale over Lost River in a heartbeat. It's an adpatation of an autobiography written by Albertine Sarrazin, directed by Brigitte Sy who was late Philippe Garrel's wife and is still Louis Garrel's mother (he does a cameo in the film).
The astralagus is a foot bone that young Albertine (marvellous Leïla Bekhti) breaks when she jumps to escape her prison. She can't walk so she crawls on the road and she's saved by Julien (Reda Kateb), a gangster with a golden heart. Thanks to him she hides in Paris, she learns to walk again, and she waits for him (which includes working as a prostitue to get money) while he's living a life of "crime" (break-ins) away. The film recreates the shady Paris of the late 50's but it's mostly a love story and a good one, for Albertine has fallen madly in love with Julien. It isn't soppy at all, and Bekhti and Kateb make a wonderful couple on screen.
Click to viewSometimes life does imitates art. It's quite fascinating in this case.
Albertine's name for instance seemed to have foreshadowed her fate. She was born to belong to literature. When you're French and you hear the name Albertine, you immediately think of a famous character by Proust in La Recherche du Temps Perdu. Okay, maybe you think about it only when you're well-read, but still, it isn't a common name.
In Proust's novel, Albertine is the narrator's love interest, his mistress with whom he even lives at some point and a possible bride (but they never make it to marriage)...until she disappears some day. She's also someone with sapphic inclinations which drives the narrator mad and jealous. La Prisonnière is the title of the book in which their relationship and his jealousy are depicted. The following book is Albertine Disparue, but the alternative title is La Fugitive!
How can we not think that Albertine Sarrazin's life strangely echoes Proust's Albertine beyond her name?
Albertine "started" as a prisoner since she was in prison after she robbed a shop with her friend (and lover) Marie- played by Esther Garrel in the movie-, and after her escape she is on the run so she's a fugitive during L'Astragale. Julien is the big love of her life, but she does have homosexual relationships as well (at least with Marie). Like her proustian counterpart she had a very short life (not a spoiler for the film at all), dying from a medical malpractice while she was only 29 years old.