French Actresses Shine In Ozon's In The House

By Jan Aaron

Adapted from Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga's Boy in the Last Row, Francois Ozon's In The House [Dans La Maison] presents themes that deal with the creative process, and the very essence of fiction. Which permits us to invent more desirable lives, for the both the author and the reader.

In a nutshell: A literature teacher at the purposely named Gaustave Flaubert Lyceum, Germain (Fabrice Luchini) is at wits end over his grammatically challenged students unwillingness to learn.

So when a written assignment Claude (Ernst Umhauer) turns in, an essay meticulously relating his weekend that's perplexing and troubling, Germain is intrigued. It's the first of a number of essays by Claude, and each ends with 'to be continued.' Germain is completely enthralled, urging his student in more daring directions. And counseling him to love his characters, and get involved with them.

Claude's tales actually revolve around the so called 'normal' life of his classmate, Rapha, whom he envies and desires. With the house playing a lead role in the film, production designer, Arnaud de Moleron, winks with at us by giving Rapha's family a tidy two-story cottage straight out of a fairytale. The image becomes more poignant when, late in the film, a scene near the end shows Claude's domicile and family situation.

There's a hint of sexual electricity between Claude and Rapha, a dimwit, he's tutoring in math. When Rapha reads an essay in class considering the possibility that Claude has overtaken his dad, his perpetually jolly father, Rapha Sr. (Denis Menochet), his best friend, Claude's reaction is agonizing.

Claude, always polite, charms everyone as he eases himself into Rapha's family. But his real desire is Rapha's beautiful bored mother, Esther (lovely Emanuelle Seigner) who drifts through the house in cloud of perfume and pretty floral print frocks. The two female stars in Francois Ozon's darkly teasing In the House, Kristin Scott Thomas, 53, and Emanuelle Siegner, 41, have aged so gracefully, it almost can make almost any woman look forward to growing older.

Germain shares each of Claude's essays with his frustrated spouse Jeanne (the fine, sarcastic Scott Thomas). She manages an art gallery where her job is in jeopardy, and she becomes equally obsessed with Claude's essays. While the gallery art she represents is beyond belief bad, it also serves to distinguish her from Germain's classic tastes.

While the ending of this film makes criminals of the main characters, it also refuses to make them without salvation. The main pleasure of the film? When it's all said and done or written up, is the clever ways director Ozon finds how ordinary family life becomes more magnificent seen through Claude's POV.

Jan Aaron writes for Education Update, and is a member of The Women Film Critics Circle

HE SAID, SHE SAID....The Sapphires

 A MACHO CRITIC FREE ZONE

HE SAID....

By Gerald Wright

'...As an Air Force Vietnam veteran and "Baby-Boomer", I recall this time in history as the Civil Rights Movement and the protests of the Vietnam War being on the front page headlines.'

READ THE REVIEW HERE

Gerald Wright
National Association of Black Journalists
HDfest.com
Film Showcase


SHE SAID....

By Thelma Adams

'...Sure, there's a bit of formula, and an extra measure of feel-good, but this underdog story set in the aftermath of Australia's Stolen Generation hits home with heart and humor.'

CONTINUE READING HERE

Thelma Adams writes for Yahoo! Movies and at ThelmaAdams.com. Thelma is a member of The Women Film Critics Circle.

Women Film Critics Circle Awards 2012

ICI-BAS [Down-Below] The male fantasy horror of 'rape romance' on screen. A WFCC Hall Of Shame pick in tribute to the unnamed Indian student and rape murder victim, in the kind of traditional culture where women and girls are pressured to marry their rapists.

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
A Royal Affair

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Zero Dark Thirty

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
Two Days In NY [Julie Delpy]
  
BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
   
 BEST ACTOR
 Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
   
BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Quvenzhanee Wallis, Beast Of The Southern Wild
   
BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Maggie Smith, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Where Do We Go Now

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Zero Dark Thirty

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE **TIE
 Killer Joe
 Think Like A Man
 
BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Lincoln
   
WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Killer Joe
 
BEST THEATRICALLY UNRELEASED MOVIE BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Hemingway And Gellhorn

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Zero Dark Thirty
   
BEST ANIMATED FEMALES
Brave
   
BEST FAMILY FILM **TIE
Life Of Pi
Rise Of The Guardians

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Barbra Streisand

ACTING AND ACTIVISM.AWARD
Sally Field
Field is a dedicated advocate for women's rights. She has served on the Board of Directors of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international women's NGO, and has co-hosted the Global Leadership Awards. Field suffers from osteoporosis and has become a vocal advocate for women's health issues, encouraging early diagnosis of such conditions through technology, such as bone density scans.
   
*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women **TIE
 Compliance
 The Invisible War

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
  Middle Of Nowhere
   
*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
  A Royal Affair

COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
  Helen Hunt, The Sessions

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD [Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
  Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
  
 BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT A WOMAN
 Queen Of Versailles
   
 WOMEN’S WORK: BEST ENSEMBLE
 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel   
 
BEST SCREEN COUPLE
 Moonrise Kingdom: Bill Murray and Frances McDormand
   
*WFCC HALL OF SHAME* 

Bachelorette with Kirsten Dunst, had all sorts of ditzy former high school classmates getting together for the wedding of a girl they used to make fun of. Just stupid on so many levels: male strippers, drinking, general girly silliness.

Ici-Bas [Down Below]. Rape romance: A raped nun (Celine Sallette) falls in love with her rapist.

Skyfall: 'Bond Girl' is only on screen long enough to sell trailers and products like OPI's 'Skyfall Collection' of nail polishes, and gets bumped off at the end of Act II; M turns into a cowering incompetent and gets bumped off at the end of Act III; and the female sharp-shooter in Act I loses her nerve and leaves 'Field Operations' to become an office assistant in Act III. I loved the Sean Connery/James Bond films as a kid. Women got to be part of the action; the Bond Girl was always there to celebrate success at the end. But as a 50th anniversary tribute to the Bond series made in 2012, Skyfall truly broke my heart!

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD

 *Helena Bonham Carter
  Les Miserables    

 
BEST LINE IN A MOVIE 2012

  "...You can't kill the animals in a movie, only the women." - Christopher Walken/Seven Psychopaths

 JUST KIDDING AWARD:
 Best Male Images In A Movie: Magic Mike


*Please Note: The WFCC Top Ten Hall Of Shame represents the ‘don’t tell me to shut up’ sidebar contribution of individual members, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the entire Circle. Also, members may be objecting to particular characters in a film, and not the entire movie. Clarification: If an aspect of the movie is intentionally negative to make a point, rather than offensive, that is not under consideration for this category.

 *ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: Adrienne Shelly was a promising actress and filmmaker who was brutally strangled in her apartment in 2006 at the age of forty by a construction worker in the building, after she complained about noise. Her killer tried to cover up his crime by hanging her from a shower20rack in her bathroom, to make it look like a suicide. He later confessed that he was having a “bad day.” Shelly, who left behind a baby daughter, had just completed her film Waitress, which she also starred in, and which was honored at Sundance after her death.

 *JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: The daughter of a laundress and a musician, Baker overcame being born black, female and poor, and marriage at age fifteen, to become an internationally acclaimed legendary performer, starring in the films Princess Tam Tam, Moulin Rouge and Zou Zou. She also survived the race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois as a child, and later expatriated to France to escape US racism. After participating heroically in the underground French Resistance during WWII, Baker returned to the US where she was a crusader for racial equality. Her activism led to attacks against her by reporter Walter Winchell who denounced her as a communist, leading her to wage a battle against him. Baker was instrumental in ending segregation in many theaters and clubs, where she refused to perform unless integration was implemented.

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: Karen Morley was a promising Hollywood star in the 1930s, in such films as Mata Hari and Our Daily Bread. She was driven out of Hollywood for her leftist political convictions by the Blacklist and for refusing to testify against other actors, while Robert Taylor and Sterling Hayden were informants against her. And also for daring to have a child and become a mother, unacceptable for female stars in those days. Morley maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life, running for Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She passed away in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93.

HE SAID, SHE SAID....Django Unchained: Infotainment As History

 HE SAID....

By Gerald Wright

'...In this film there are limited glimpses of black and white scenes of sadism in the shameful chapter in America's history. I wondered if the film's purpose was to sanitize this and use off-beat humor to make it bearable? When you have KKK members arguing about the correct head of their hoods, it doesn't make bigotry hilarious...'

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

Gerald Wright
National Association of Black Journalists
HDfest.com
Film Showcase


SHE SAID....

'...DiCaprio's cartoonish plantation potentate villain aside - this is an idyllic South including stylishly attired compliant, when not outright conspiratorial with the Massa slaves happily prancing about the grounds, and women among them eagerly serving as seductive bordello babes on the premises. All possibly revealing a lot less about Old Dixie, than the sugar coated present, where popular culture is layered over with cruelty and violence for laughs, and whatever sells...'

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

Prairie Miller
Newsblaze Newswire

Ballet In Cinema: Dancing Stars From A Cinema Seat

By Jan Aaron

Ballet superstar David Hallberg made movie history at the Big Cinema in NYC. During a live HD transmission of the Bolshoi Ballet's Sleeping Beauty, he became the first American to join this famous Moscow company as a Principal Dancer.

I mention this now as just one example of how the magic of Ballet In Cinema can transport you to distant venues. There is of course, much more to see than Mr. Hallberg. Through several seasons, I've enjoyed the other famous companies in classics such as Britain's Royal Ballet in the classics like Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker Suite.

There have also been screenings of former Bolshoi Director Alex Ratmansky's Bright Stream satire on Russian farmers. Among the new offerings I look forward to in 2013, are The Royal Ballet's  Alice's Adventures in  Wonderland, and La Scala's Notre-Dame de Paris.

Most indelible in my memory is Silent Screen, choreographed by Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot for the Nederlands Dans Theater. Seemingly set up like a film, with three large screens that show film fragments, the ballet highlights a couple in love and a little girl as they go through various emotional phases. The changing rhythms and original formations for ten dancers create surprising cinematic effects. It features layered music by Philip Glass' Glassworks.

Seeing ballet on the big screen has advantages: fabulous close-ups focusing on  pas de deux and demanding footwork. Plus during intermissions, interviews with choreographers and set designers.

You also get to see gorgeous venues like the enormous horseshoe shaped Bolshoi in Moscow. And watch the audience settle in plush seats.

More information about Ballet In Cinema and the various venues, is online at: Balletincinema.com