Betty Blue Film Diary

The last French film I watched was Jean-Jaqcues Beineix's Betty Blue. This romantic drama is based on the novel by Philippe Djian and was nominated for an oscar in 1987 for Best Foreign Language Film. Zorg lives by the shore in France. He is very handy and maintains bungalows that are part of a small resort. He writes in his spare time but has failed at becoming a novelist. His life by the shore is quiet and peaceful, until Betty walks into his life. Betty has lost her job as a waitress and Zorg feels bad for her. He falls for her beauty and she moves in with him in a house provided by his employer. It is here that Zorg begins seeing Betty's unpredictable behavior. She even has violent mood swings at times and never seems to be content with the present events in her life. She encourages Zorg to get his novel published and becomes obsessed with the idea to the point where Zorg begins to see the unstability of her sanity. Zorg loses his job after a feud with his boss, causing the couple to to move in with Betty's friend Lisa, who owns a hotel. Betty begins losing her mind after seeing all the rejection slips for the possible publication of Zorg's novel. The letters are harsh, calling the novel a "nauseating flower". Betty's history of psychological problems shines through as she steadily declines and goes on a rampage. Zorg is watching the woman he has fallen so deeply in love with, go completely insane. Despite thier passionate and erotic love for one another, Zorg is unable to save her from her borderline psychological disorder.

This film is about love and responsibility. Zorg's relationship with Betty becomes a great challenge for him. He doesn't give up on their love because she is the best thing that has ever happened to him. He commits himself to protect her.

Betty Blue is a long film. There is a good mix of drama, with some comic relief, and strong eroticism. Jean-Jaqcues Beineix put a lot of nudity in the movie which seems unecessary at times because of it's possibilty to divert the viewers attention and outlook on the film. The story is much more serious and depressing for any thought-provoking interuptions. There is a sense of hope in this movie, that will never come.

The Big Blue Film Diary

My fourth choice of French film was The Big Blue, another Luc Besson film that was released in 1988. This movie had both a sweeping story and beautiful cinematography. Enzo and Jacques are childhood friends that enjoy free diving (diving with no oxygen tank). Jacques's father is also a diver and after his tragic death in the Mediterranean Sea, the two boys grow older and lose contact. Enzo ends up living in Sicily, where he gains the title of the uncontested free diving champion for six straight years. Jacques is living in the Peruvian Andes and works for a group of scientists. There he meets Johanna, a young security office clerk that witnesses his dive into cold water that leads to monitoring results from the scientists that Jacques's physical condition is more like a dolphin than a human. Johanna becomes fascinated with Jacques but for a while, she is not successful at developing a true relationship with him. Enzo calls for Jacques to compete for the title in a championship in Taormina, Italy. Johanna becomes aware of the competition and knows Jacques will compete. She convinces her firm to send her to Italy on "business purposes", after making up a story. Jacques easily defeats Enzo, fueling their intense rivalry that seems tragic because of the lost childhood friendship that the two once shared. Jacques and Johanna develop their feelings for each other even though it appears that he is unable to commit himself. The heavy competition causes the men to dive down to dangerous depths. Johanna attemps to stop the life-threatening dives but nothing can stop them. Both Enzo and Jaqcues die and their souls are at rest in the sea. Johanna however, is heartbroken and her plans of having a future with Jaqcues are ruined.

Enzo and Jacques both have a strong passion for the sea. Enzo uses his diving talents to achieve high personal status and glory. To Jacques, the ocean is so much more. It is home to his dolphin friends and represents an infinite freedom. Their different views and passions make their rivalry stronger to escalate the inevitability of their demise. Because of his beliefs, abilities, and strong connection to the sea, Jacques is not able to respond to Johanna's love for him. The story represents a message about man's fascination with the sea and it's limitless depths and beauty. The ocean is also a vast, dangerous part of nature that can never be underestimated.

The cinematography stands out in this film. There are amazing underwater sequences that look as if they belong on an IMAX screen. The camera moves along the silver surface of the water and then plunges into the deep blue sea where dolphins roam. The movie tends to drag at times and some events seem overdramatized. The Big Blue tells an interesting story but in the end, still comes across as mainly "eye candy".

Le Femme Nikita Film Diary

For my third plunge into French cinema I selected Luc Besson's 1991 spy thriller, Le Femme Nikita. This film exemplifies strong action and suspense complete with style and imagination. Nikita and her fellow junkie gang membors Zap, Rico, and Coyotte break into a store, that happens to be Coyotte's old home. His father comes downstairs after calling the cops and when they arrive a gun battle is engaged. Everyone in the shop dies but Nikita, who says "No more?", to an approaching cop before shooting him in the head. From the community of St. Denis, she is sentenced to life in prison, with no question of review for parole for 30 years. After being tranquilized, Nikita wakes up in a government agency and is told by a mysterious man named Bob that offially she is dead. He tells her that the prison doctor confirmed that she committed suicide by taking a massive dose of tranquilizers and that she was buried at Maisons-Alfort, aisle seven, number 30. Bob tells her he works for government and that she has been a second chance, and could work for the state. If she chooses not to, she will go directly back to prison. Nikita tries to escape, and even attempts to end her life before she finally agrees to be taught and trained by the agency. Nikita is taught computers, martial arts, and firearms training, amongst other things. Bob has strong faith in her, despite receiving disapproval his superiors. Nikita develops a bond with a woman named Amande who helps her explore the power of her femininity. Years pass and Bob takes Nikita out to a fancy restuarant for her 23rd birthday and gives her a gun at the table. He tells to shoot a VIP sitting behind her and then escape through the bathroom window downstairs. When Bob leaves Nikita brutally murders the VIP and can't escape through the window becuase it is bricked off. She escapes after engaging in a gun battle with guards. Bob later tells her that this was all part of an excercise before the agency released her from their facility. Bob and Nikita share a kiss and he tells her that he has a mission in mind for her that requires a six month setup time. Nikita's identity for the mission is Josephine. During these six months she falls madly in love with a grocery store clerk named Marco. Nikita begins jobs related to her mission and talks to Bob telling him she is engaged. Bob comes to meet Marco as "Uncle Bob" and gives the them two plane tickets to Venice as an engagement present. But it is hardly a vacation. Nikita must gun a woman down using a rifle, while Mraco is in the other room, oblivious. Nikita becomes angry at Bob and tells him she is aware of his cruel little games. It is time for Nikita's final mission said to be a "finesse job, not a tour de force". When the mission is cruising towards failure, the agency sends in Victor the Cleaner to help Nikita finish the mission. The two escape outside only to be greeted by heavily armed gaurds. Victor gets shot, and dies later in the getaway car. Marco is aware of Nikita's spying now. She leaves Marco, who gives the recovered documents from the last mission to Bob. Bob says, ''We'll miss her". The power of femininity is a main issue portrayed in this film. Nikita is given all this power as a governemnt-trained assassin and can use her woman attributes to her own advantage. Amande tells Nikita while giving her a make-up lesson that "There are two things without limit. Femininity and the means to exploit it". Nikita develops a conscience after falling in love and staying out of trouble due to her new duty for law and the state. This conscience causes her to further endanger her missions due to apprehension. Nikita has a hard time sniping a woman target while in Venice, mainly because her beloved Marco is outside the bathroom door spilling his feelings and concerns for the relationship. Le Femme Nikita was extremely well shot and doesn't fit in with other action movies. It doesn't rely on special effects and explosions. There is a strong presence of drama and complex characters riddled with tough circumstances. The brilliant acting is key for the film's mysterious characters. Anne Parillaud gives a chilling performance as the always transforming, and unstable lead role of Nikita. It is truely a unique spy film and a shining piece of French cinema.

The Piano Teacher Film Diary

Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher takes a wild dive into the world of sexual desire with frustrating passions and disturbing events. Erika is a cruel and obsessive piano teacher at a Vienna conservatory. She lives with her mother who is very hard on her and appears to have sheltered her away all her life. She says, “no one must surpass you” and things of that nature. A young piano-playing engineering student is drawn to her at a recital when he hears her play a piece from Bach. He even rudely interrupts one of her classes to tell her of his wish to apply for her master class. Walter rejects his engineering studies and devoted himself to piano, placing him in Erika’s master class, despite her vote against him in a school council. Erika watches and listens to a couple having intercourse at a drive-in movie for her own pleasure and gets caught, causing her to run away. After walking out of a piano rehearsal, frustrated and displeased with a student named Anna’s playing, she crushes up glass with her shoes and secretly puts the pieces into Anna’s coat, cutting up her hand. Walter follows Erika to the bathroom where they begin to kiss, but before things go further, she rudely interrupts the eroticism, torturing Walter. Erika soon writes a letter to Walter, explaining to him all of her sexual desires and her wishes to be tied up and beaten during sex. Walter is disgusted and the two have another failed attempt when Erika goes to see Walter at hockey practice, and vomits on the floor when the two are about to make love on the locker room floor. She tells him he must be patient. Walter follows her desires from the letter and comes to her apartment, locks the mother in a closet, hits and kicks Erika and proceeds to have sex with her on the floor. She remains lifeless and emotionless. Erika sees Walter at a recital days later and he acts like nothing happened and treats her like a teacher. She stabs herself in the chest with a knife and leaves the recital, before she is supposed to play.
The film shows the results of a woman that has been sheltered her whole life. She has devoted her entire life to piano and teaching. She does not know how to love someone. The only person she loves is her mother, who is actually heavily responsible for making Erika the way she is. She is cold and unable to show any real affection or sentimentality. All those years of love a sexual deprivation, on top of an overbearing mother, have resulted in Erika slowly loosing her sanity and chances to feel like a normal person. She is frustrated and now that a young man who claims he is love as found her, she doesn’t know how to react or feel.
This film is also about desire and passion. Erika has a passion for piano playing almost to an insane level, but she is unable to successfully exhibit her passions for the love of others, especially Walter. Before she puts the broken shards of glass in Anna’s coat pocket, Erika is disturbed by the words being sung by one of her students during rehearsal. The lyrics speak of desire being similar to wondering aimlessly through the wilderness. Erika relates to the song deeply and has a slight emotional breakdown causing her temper to rise and her irrational behavior to become dangerous.
The Piano Teacher appears to be poorly shot. The quality of the film is low, making the action on the screen look like it should be a soap opera or documentary, rather than a serious drama. The shot composition and style of filming and editing is nothing that hasn’t been done for. The actors give great performances however, and make it obvious that the audience’s attention should be on them, rather than the soundtrack or cinematography. The storyline is wild, shocking, and disturbing at times. It leaves the viewer in a state of depression thinking, “are there really people out there like that?”(Erika). This movie alone proves that French Cinema can be dark and extremely experimental.

Amelie film diary

With five Academy Award nominations under its belt, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie stands as a worthy choice for a first look at the interesting styles of French cinema. Amelie is a shy little girl with no real friends, except for her wild imagination. Her father is an ex-army doctor and thinks she has a heart defect at age six while listening to her fast beating heart with a stethoscope. Her heart was only beating fast because of her excitement from the rare close interaction with her father. She is home-schooled by her mother. Tragedy strikes her at a young age when her only friend, her goldfish named Blubber has to be released into a stream because of its frequent attempt at suicide, or in other words, jumping out of its bowl onto the floor. Shortly after, her mother is killed instantly by a falling suicide jumper outside of the Notre Dame cathedral while they are visiting to prey for a baby boy. Amelie lives with father until she is old enough to move out and she becomes a waitress at a small café called the Two Windmills. She lives in her own flat and enjoys doing random things that make her happy, like skipping stones across St. Martin’s Canal. She frequently visits her father and has no boyfriend, due to a couple failed attempts. On the night of Princess Diana’s death, Amelie finds a small box within the walls of her flat after noticing a loose bathroom tile. Inside the box are toys, pictures and other memories of a child’s life. That night, Amelie becomes determined to return the box to its former owner. With the help of a mysterious, fragile old man known as the Glass Man that likes to paint, from the flats across the alley, she finds the man that once lived in her flat years ago and returns the box to him by leaving it in a phone booth and calling the booth as the man, named Dominique, walks by. He is touched and decides to look up his daughter, whom he hasn’t spoken to in years. From this moment on, Amelie decides to be a regular "do-gooder". She helps lead around a blind man and helps one of her co-workers find new love. Amelie is almost too busy to help herself and barely succeeds at getting the attention of the man she is meant to be with. He is a man named Nino. He likes collecting discarded photo booth pictures and putting them in a scrapbook. Amelie plays hide and seek games with Nino for a while. She leaves notes and clues about herself everywhere, leading the curious Nino around by the nose. Eventually the two get together and Amelie can be happy and share life with someone else.
This film is about individuality. Amelie is her own person and has her own, random guilty pleasures. Her imagination has brought her through life with simple satisfaction. There is always something that makes someone different from everyone else. The story is also about not letting good things slip through your fingers in life. If you see something you really want, you can’t procrastinate or be afraid. You have to go ahead and work at achieving your prize. Amelie has finally found somebody that she wants to love and at first she is shy and plays cat-and-mouse games in order to get him. With the help of the Glass Man she realizes that she can’t continue to act cowardly even though she may be "fond of strategies". There is symbolism within the movie as well. The Glass Man is trying to recreate a Renoir painting and can’t seem to capture a young girl holding a glass within the painting. Amelie and the man say that the girl is different and absent. The Glass man suggests that maybe she tries hard to fix other people’s messy lives, instead of her own. He is throwing advisement at Amelie through witty symbolism.
Amelie was beautifully written. It is no surprise that it was nominated for best original screenplay at the Academy Awards. The strategically placed narration was effective and necessary to the flow of the script. The film was visually stunning, with an unforgettable opening of fast-paced storytelling and main character introductions. The color tone of the movie seemed to glow with shades of greens and blues, and occasional loud colors here and there to accent the scenery. Amelie poses as a comedy, but seems to have a dark side underneath, riddled with tragedies and strange, but unforgettable characters. There is no question in my mind as to why this movie was a success with both the French and American cinema.

Pre-Trip Assignment

When I heard about the media and film department of Kean University’s trip to Paris, France, I immediately became determined to go. I logged on to KeanWISE and registered for the Travel Learn: French Cinema class. I experienced some trouble at first paying for the trip online which got my nerves in a knot, but I called up EF Tours and they helped me make sure my payments were received and taken care of. Now we are a little less than two weeks away from our flight out of JFK International Airport to France. This will be the second time I’ve ever been on a plane and the first time I’ve ever traveled to another country so the whole trip is a very big deal for me.
I do not know a whole lot about French Cinema although I have heard of the French New Wave, and that it was a revolution of new editing styles and visuals. I have also grown to admire a few French actors here in the United States such as Jean Reno, Gerard Depardieu, and Sophie Marceau. My father has been to Paris on business and has shared some stories and information with me about his experiences. He said that the metro system is very easy to use and understand, which can only benefit my trip. He also said that the Notre Dame Cathedral is breathtaking and absolutely cannot be missed.
I am extremely excited to visit Versailles, the palace of Louis XIV. I have read about its riches and elaborate design. The Hall of Mirrors and the gardens will probably be incredible. I plan on taking plenty of pictures and possibly getting some footage with a 8MM camcorder. Art means a lot to me just like music and film so visiting the Louvre is another essential event in my travels. I plan on visiting a few very nice restaurants and cafes to experience some real French dining and styles of cooking. Seeing what the French nightlife is like should also be interesting so I am going to try and go to a few clubs during my free time. I am going on this trip with an open mind. I want to remember this week for the rest of my life. You never know when an opportunity will come up in your life like this again, which is why I want to make this the best experience possible.