Forever Romantic

Jealousy (2013) - Garrel

It starts with a break up. Louis (Louis Garrel) leaves his wife and their young daughter for another woman Claudia (Anna Mouglalis). Louis and Claudia are both struggling actors. He thinks moody Claudia is the one that he truly loves and reject all the other advances that are put on him. He is committed. But she isn't happy and their poverty is crushing her spirit. Holed up in their small attic apartment and without a job, Claudia secretly looks for a better man who can provide for her.

Delicately balanced and beautifully put together, Garrel's slight, 77 minute effort is very much akin to old black and white romance of French New Wave of the 60s. There are hardly any coverages, most scenes are shot on a single take and life-like. Garrel, a forever romantic, has never moved on like his contemporaries but has faithfully stuck in his brand of self reflexive filmmaking with his trusty actors who are all very on point.Louis Garrel reminds you of more handsome Jean-Pierre Leaud, sexy, I-just-smoked-10,000-cigarettes Mouglalis is great as a man-eater (yet not a caricature) and Olga Milshtein as Charlotte, Louis's daughter firmly anchors Jealousy in real-life realm. It's a delicious stuff.

A Nightcap

Merci pour le chocolat (2000) - Chabrol
Delicious. Since it is a Chabrol film, I knew going in that it won't have a satisfying ending. I enjoyed the heck out of it nonetheless. He lays all the traps first, going through characters' histories and slowly building up the tension. A simple intrigue- a remote possibility of 2 babies switched at birth, expands to a full blown murder mystery centered around the chocolate factory heiress Mika (Isabelle Huppert), her pianist husband Andre (Jacques Dutronc) and Jeanne (Anna Mouglalis) who might or might not be Andre's daughter. Mika's motives are not well defined but hinted throughout the film. It's not those puzzle pieces that relishes in their own cleverness that only happens in movies. There is no internal logic in Chabrolian world, just a lot of intrigue and people behaving mysteriously but not in a calculated way. I feel that I can easily get lost into his world. More Chabrol please.

Coco & Igor

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009) - Kounen

Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) debuts The Rites of Spring in Paris, 1913. The production (choreographed by Nijinsky) is very avant-garde. The reception is so terrible, by the end, there is a riot in the theater. Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) is there in awe of its dissonance. For her as a strong, independent, 20th century woman, his music is the way of the future, well fit for her sensibility. 7 years later, she, still in mourning her boyfriend's death, invites Stravinsky and his family (sick wife and 4 kids) to her estate outside Paris. Unbeknownst to him, she is the sole supporter of the entire season of his production.

Kounen paints a very complex picture in two artists whose feeling and respect weren't totally mutual. In the eyes of Stravinsky's wife and many others, Chanel was a collector of people, adulteress and a cold hearted bitch. For the composer, she was an object of desire, a mere 'shop keeper', not an artist of equal status.

The soundtrack is great, so as dark, sumptuous cinematography and production design. Mouglalis's dark, slim elegance is quite magnetic. Mikkelsen's tortured genius has a real weight and depth. Kounen paints the artists as tragic figures, as misunderstood geniuses and lonely souls. It's much better than fluffy fairy tale that was Coco Before Chanel.