February 24, 2009

LE TEMPS QUI RESTE & CASSANDRA'S DREAM

LE TEMPS QUI RESTE – Time To Leave – 2005
Directed by Francois Ozon
Starring Melvil Poupaud, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi & Jeanne Moreau

Francois Ozon has always had a flair for the intriguing whether organizing a seductive all-star cast of France’s best actresses to sing vintage songs throughout a murder mystery [EIGHT WOMEN], or capturing our imagination with SWIMMING POOL and even causing us to smirk with his mean-spirited and fun-as-hell TATIE DANIELLE.

Surprisingly in LE TEMPS QUI RESTE – directly translated to mean THE TIME THAT’S LEFT – Ozon dreams up a very unhappy character in Romain, a fashion photographer diagnosed with a brain tumour, preparing to die. Alienated from those close to him, outwardly insensitive but torn deep inside, Romain’s all self-absorption, cruel out of contention, yet surprisingly treated with sensitivity by director Ozon.


CASSANDRA’S DREAM – 2007
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Ewan McGregor & Colin Farrell

Woody sets sail in this punchy crime story that has the staccato dialogue of David Mamet and the suspense formula of Hitchcock. Using a striking original soundtrack by Philip Glass – a first time for an Allen film . The theme of premeditated murder has been tried before in his earlier fares, especially good in comical context in MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY and even a deeper subplot in CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS. Lately Allen even made it an entire subject out of it in MATCH POINT but here he combines it with a Bergmanesque interest as a guide to conscientiousness.

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