Post-company picnic French double feature
Le Fils de l'épicier (The grocer's son)
Mad
We see where this is going from the first frame--redemption via mostly unrequited love lost--but hey, it's set in the south of France, and the people are French, and they speak French, and one of them is the irresistible Clotilde Hesme (I can't resist her, anyway; if you can resist her, you might want to get that looked into), so I have pas des plaintes.
Une vieille maîtresse (The last mistress)
Mad
Well, you know from the start that things aren't going to turn out happily here, but the exact character of the disaster is a mystery, and a surprise when it is finally revealed. I always talk about how Alexander Payne really doesn't much like people, but Catherine Breillat really really doesn't much like people. Still, I guess because it's set safely in history, and maybe in part because the Devil is played by the irresistible-in-a-very-different-way-from-Clotilde Hesme Asia Argento, I liked this one a lot more than Romance. Well, let me put that another way: I liked this one; I loathed Romance. Though I guess the main subject--the genital imperative--is not altogether different.
Would be interesting to see a transcript of the meeting where it was decided how to title the film in America. Presumably someone said "No American moviegoer will see a film about "an old mistress"--ugh!
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