Filmmaniak

Un film familial d'animation capable de toucher autant les enfants que le public adulte et qui traite de l'amitié entre un garçon lumineux et une fille pleine d'imagination vivant dans un immeuble, reflet d'une société confrontée à l'avidité, à l'anxiété et à l'incapacité d'écouter. Il aborde en profondeur le thème de l'acceptation de la différence et montre de manière sensible comment la compréhension mutuelle et le partage, malgré les différences, peuvent vous aider à vous accepter vous-même avec beaucoup plus de confiance. Le film transmet de précieuses leçons sans avoir besoin de tout expliquer littéralement et mélange des éléments de fantaisie magique avec les difficultés réelles de l'adolescence et de la parentalité, ainsi que des allusions à d'autres sujets sérieux, sans perdre pour autant son charme féerique éclatant. De plus, il travaille magnifiquement et consciemment avec les couleurs et la lumière.

This lavishly spectacular epic looks back at the wildly ecstatic and tragically sad stories of movie stars whose dreams and livelihoods went up in smoke when interest in them waned. The return to the 1920s, when talkies were ascendent, serves not only as an expression of love for films as such, but also as an extraordinarily sharp criticism of Hollywood as a factory built on oppression and the trampling of human rights. This hypnotising picture switches between genres depending on the prevailing moods of the characters – the first third of Babylon is a dreamily magical and merry narcotic trip, the second third is more of a comedy and the rest is drama-oriented with crime elements. Though the film as a whole may not seem entirely cohesive and it flirts with bombastic excess right from the start, its individual parts are masterfully directed in most cases. Throughout its runtime, however, it is primarily a stylised and exaggerated behind-the-scenes look into filmmaking that illustrates how many of the films that we love and admire were often made in a sea of iniquity, blood, sweat, vomit and excrement.

Smugglers is an entertaining action thriller with a lot of exaggeration, combining proven formulas and motifs known from Bond films, numerous heist movies and South Korean hits. This lightweight story about professional divers who make the switch from harvesting mussels off the sea floor to smuggling goods, and then having to learn the ropes of the black market among gangsters, the coast guard and trade inspectors, touches on the social issue of exploitation of female workers, but it is primarily a popcorn genre spectacle in which scheming and dirty tricks are ever present. An undemanding, stylish flick whose highlights are two action sequences in the second half of the film – a bloody brawl in a hotel corridor and the heroines’ underwater battle with divers and sharks.

Qui aurait cru qu'un film d'animation sur la fabrication du whisky serait émouvant. Le protagoniste principal est un jeune journaliste chargé d'écrire un article sur une distillerie japonaise, mais finit par écrire une série d'articles en continu, au cours desquels il élargit ses connaissances sur le whisky et plonge progressivement dans les secrets de l'entreprise familiale qui a traversé de nombreuses crises. L'effort des personnages pour atteindre le mélange parfait de saveurs, qui serait la continuation d'une tradition interrompue il y a des années, est étroitement lié à la dynamique des relations familiales, à la responsabilité envers la réputation de l'entreprise, à la solidarité avec des employés déterminés et à l'honneur personnel. Le jeune journaliste apprend également à aimer son travail et découvre que beaucoup de gens ont vécu une situation similaire à la sienne, finissant par être heureux dans un autre emploi que celui dont ils avaient rêvé. Ajoutez à cela une animation agréable, des personnages sympathiques et bien écrits et toute une série de moments émotionnellement tendres.

The only thing worse than finding a spider in your apartment is losing a spider in your apartment. Just such an event in the film results in the infestation of a whole apartment building with venomous fiddlebacks (or whatever they were) from the basement to the attic, where the spiders multiply at a startling rate, each time growing significantly larger than their antecedents, in which case the film flirts a bit with science fiction at the end. The realistic setting of an apartment building in a social housing estate and the fresh, energetic approach of the young filmmaker are exactly what the arachno-horror genre need. After the long exposition with the introduction of the characters, the action gains proper intensity, which it constantly escalates so that some scenes border on being unbearable, especially for people who are repelled by spiders. Absolutely everyone will squirm in their seats. Vermin is the best spider horror movie since Arachnophobia from 1990.

Un drame avec des éléments d'horreur sur une femme de ménage philippine et mère célibataire qui parviennent à trouver un emploi et un logement dans une maison britannique somptueuse, qui cache cependant de nombreux secrets lorsqu'on y regarde de plus près. Ce film est une critique sociale singulière et stylistiquement marquante qui aborde le thème des immigrants cherchant à s'intégrer dans la société ainsi que des problématiques liées au post-colonialisme. Vous trouverez ici des techniques cinématographiques typiques des films d'horreur sur les maisons hantées, mais elles sont utilisées comme moyens de mettre en évidence les vraies horreurs vécues par les immigrés, qui font régulièrement face aux préjugés, aux généralisations et au mépris. Ce film, né de la colère envers le comportement de la société face aux minorités, dont le réalisateur débutant d'origine philippine formule clairement et de manière percutante les thèses malgré quelques embûches dans la narration, rend hommage à la culture de ses ancêtres et raconte les conditions de vie de nombreuses personnes à travers les personnages de la mère et de la fille, ce qui conduit à des performances d'acteurs authentiques.

It was said that The Wind Rises would most likely be Miyazaki’s last film, but that turned out not to be the case. And The Boy and the Heron will not necessarily be the final chapter of his career either, though it is possible to see from it a bit of creative repetition as he looks back to his own work and passes the torch to the younger generation in the end, which is also presented in the story. In any case, the master of animation and film narrative has not eased up in terms of the number of ideas, the diversity of his visions and the depth of the ideas presented; his film looks beautiful and overflows with the magical, dreamlike, fairy-tale elements that can be alternately cruel and tender. The introduction of the film is uncomplicated and practically devoid of the supernatural, but as soon as the titular heron smiles and begins speaking with a human voice and the main (unfortunately not very interesting) protagonist falls into the fantasy world, in which he must come to terms with the loss of his mother and with feelings of pain, loneliness, anger and sadness, Miyazaki’s powers of imagination and playfulness kick into high gear. However, the effort to say as much as possible in the space of two hours leads to the fact that the film is very dense in places and doesn’t let some of the scenes fade out properly. At the same time, Miyazaki returns to his tried-and-try story formulas (he most noticeably draws from his own Spirited Away) and frequently used trademarks. The Boy and the Heron is practically a catalogue of everything that can be associated with Miyazaki’s films, but it doesn’t reach the level of his best works.

No words, and yet so much emotion. The friendship between a dog and a robot in 1980s New York has only just begun when the two protagonists are separated from each other (due to consumer negligence and underestimation of the effects of corrosion) and the film tells their stories separately. However, each of them has the same dreams about the other, from which the film gets its title. After the initial joy, the plot takes a quite sad turn, so the prevailing feeling from the film is rather melancholy, which is reversed in the end, though that does not entirely involve a fairy-tale happy ending. Though the animation is simple, it contains a very large number of endearing and funny details and works very effectively with the characters’ facial expressions and body language. The film will also be appreciated by adults (perhaps even more than children) who have life experience and are aware that true friendship requires a joint effort and is a commitment to looking after one another. Robot Dreams is deeper and emotionally more complex than it may appear at first glance.

Une chasse aux sorcières moderne dans un environnement urbain, dont la principale protagoniste est une guérisseuse orientale, en réalité une charlatane qui parasite les souffrances des crédules, victime de l'hystérie collective résultant de préjugés et de calomnies, avec des conséquences dévastatrices pour elle. Un drame réaliste sur les effets néfastes des actes motivés par la conviction religieuse, où la lutte pour la survie devient une lutte pour sauver son fils. Le film parvient à susciter de la compassion pour l'héroïne, même si elle n'est pas présentée de manière positive au départ, en plus de posséder des personnages bien écrits, des situations fortes, de nombreux animaux exotiques et une scène qui vous fera tordre les doigts de pied par son caractère désagréable.

This well-known story of the air crash in the snow-covered Andes whose survivors had to resort to cannibalism had already been told in the 1993 American film Alive. In comparison with that film, Bayona offers a more modern take with top-quality filmmaking (including excellent camerawork and an intense scene involving the crash itself). In addition to that, he returns this story about the power of the human will and tenacity to the Spanish-speaking realm. But that’s basically all there is to it, because the film naturally doesn’t have much to surprise us with in terms of plot. With few exceptions, the individual characters are interchangeable and their agonisingly bad fortune serves mainly to make an emotional impact on viewers. However, the film is likable in that it is a truly honest and thoroughly realistic survival drama that is unburdened by the necessity of cramming the plot with personal conflicts between the characters, who can thus focus more on the practical side of their own survival. The low degree of pathos and the very subtle and humane approach to the issue of eating human flesh are also pleasing.