Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

jadavix "Les Salauds" is one of those slow moving thrillers where it is up to us to piece together exactly what's happening and, more importantly, what has happened to the characters to put them in the situation they are in. We see a fair bit that's troubling, and it's not hard to put together a naked woman, bleeding from the crotch, wandering down a Paris street at night-time, and the later image of a bloody corn cob. Some of the other stuff is more opaque, notably, who each person is and why they are interacting. This is also more important to the story."Les Salauds" tells a tragic story of incest and sexual slavery that is robbed of some of its power by the telling. When the final revelation comes, it's not that shocking, maybe because the aforementioned sights were already so disturbing, or because we are kept in the dark about who the characters are, seemingly to set the stage for one such revelation.There are much, much worse movies in the vein of "don't show, don't tell" - see "The Headless Woman" for an example - but "Les Salauds" is nonetheless unsatisfying in its conclusion. I felt like we didn't get enough from the characters to be surprised about them, as the movie wants us to be.

l_rawjalaurence BASTARDS focuses on the experiences of sea-captain Marco (Vincent Lindon), who returns from his ship to find his sister Sandra (Julie Bataille) in trouble. He moves into the apartment above rich business person Edouard (Michel Subor), whom Sandra holds responsible for her troubles. As Marco becomes more involved in the case, so he discovers to his cost that the intrigues are more complicated than he anticipated. Set in contemporary Paris, Claire Denis creates a claustrophobic thriller, full of close-ups and tight two-shots in which the protagonists' faces seldom fall out of view. This helps reinforce the film's principal theme, which is to show how actions often have unforeseen and unintended consequences. Although Marco believes he is doing the right thing, his actions are misunderstood to such an extent that Edouard moves away, taking Sandra's little son with him. Perhaps this is due to Sandra's penchant for not telling Marco the truth about herself and her life; but Denis seems to suggest that Marco fails to consider the ways in which his behavior might be viewed by others. We never know who the "bastards" of the film actually are; perhaps it's one of those terms of abuse that people apply to others, especially when they are in tight situations. The plot remains taut throughout, and there is an unexpected dénouement that deserves our attention. Definitely worth a watch.

writers_reign On the whole Claire Dennis doesn't do accessible, it's far too plebeian and might actually entertain the masses rather than stimulate the academic-pseud axis. So it's a tad ironic that her new release features Vincent Lindon, one of the finest French actors of his generation who is incapable of turning in a bad performance even in a crock of merde like this; the irony is that Lindon also starred in the virtual two-hander Vendredi soir, with Valerie Lemercier, which remains arguably Dennis' most accessible film to date and for all I know she hired Lindon again with the idea of coming full circle. The plot, such as it is, is a succession of improbabilities the first of which took place off screen when Lindon signed over his share of the family shoe manufacturing business to his sister and brother-in-law who promptly ran it into the ground. Having established himself as a master mariner he walks away from THAT career equally impulsively in order to support his sister in the wake of her recent widowhood and a wild child daughter. With no visible means of support he moves into a luxury apartment building where Chiara Mastroianni enjoys a large apartment paid for by her older, sadistic, controlling, millionaire lover who is also - by sheer coincidence you understand - involved in the degradation of Lindon's niece. Naturally she is having sex with Lindon within hours of his moving in. Both Lindon and Mastroianni give excellent performances albeit as meaningless as beautiful fauna flourishing around a cesspool.

Sindre Kaspersen French author, screenwriter, film professor and director Claire Denis' twelfth feature film which she co-wrote with French screenwriter Jean-Pol Fargeau, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 66th Cannes International Film Festival in 2013, was screened in the Masters section at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, was shot on locations in France and is a France-Germany co-production which was produced by producers Vincent Maraval, Olivier Théry-Lapiney and Laurence Clerc. It tells the story about a former naval officer named Marco Silvestri whom after learning that something has happened to his friend named Jacques, leaves his job to support his sister named Sandra, then learns that her daughter named Justine has been hospitalized and begins studying a woman named Raphäelle who lives with her son named Joseph and her husband named Edouardo. Distinctly and masterfully directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws a multifaceted portrayal of a French father, brother and captain on a ship whom whilst looking for his niece acquaints a married mother whose main concern in life besides the well-being of her son, is that no one else has a more fulfilling life than hers. While notable for its distinct and atmospheric milieu depictions, reverent and crucial cinematography by cinematographer Agnès Godard, production design by production designer Michel Barthélémy and use of sound, colors and light, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about atrocious and dehumanizing crimes against youths and children which illustrates how positively audacious cinema can be when executed by a filmmaker with an immaculate cinematic language and where a middle-aged man initiates an unscrupulous romance with a stranger whilst a daughter is dancing with death, depicts several dense and mysterious studies of character and contains a great and timely score by English composer Stuart A. Staples.This increasingly dramatic, perspicacious and romantic master-act in audio-visual proficiency which is set in the capital city of France in the 21st century and where a man's hazardous search for a disappeared close relative leads him on an unrighteous path where barbarianism governs, is impelled and reinforced by its densely fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development, rhythmic continuity, efficient film editing, distinct humane undertones and style of filmmaking, eloquent use of music, appropriate title which is a social comment in itself, breath-taking last scene, telling comment by Raphäelle : "What's so great about your life?", the poignant acting performances by French actor Vincent Lindon and French-Italian actress and singer Chiara Mastroianni and the good acting performances by French actress Julie Bataille and French actor Michel Subor. An austerely emphatic, astonishingly envisaged and obscurely atmospheric narrative feature.