TIFF 2014: Day Five
Sep. 13th, 2014 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedSkipping back to day five, and another film that might be relevant to some people on my flist: The Great Man (Le Grand Homme).
The film start out with a boy's voice narrating the story of Markov and Hamilton, two soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. Markov and Hamilton are the best scouts in their unit.
They're devoted to each, and work together in perfect harmony.
But then Hamilton is caught in an ambush when they're on an unauthorized attempt to hunt a leopard they'd seen, and Markov abandons their weapons to save his friend, breaking the rules of the Legion.
And that's where the story really starts. Markov and Hamilton turn out to be Mourad Massaev, a Chechnyan, and Michaël Hernandez, and they both end up leaving the Legion. Because he broke the rules, Massaev is not given the French citizenship he'd been counting on and chooses to stay in France as an illegal. And because he's been wounded, Hernandez is not allowed to re-enlist as he wants to do. Adding to the complications, Massaev has a young son in Paris he now must look after.
The film follows these two supremely competent soldiers as they struggle to deal with the ordinary details of civilian life, and while that doesn't sound too exciting, it's a really exquisite film. Massaev is very matter-of-fact with his son, grilling him on the protocols of what to do when his father leaves him alone to work a night job. Hernandez is committed to working hard at his recovery. And both men maintain their connection with each other, in spite of the difficulties they're having.
I won't say any more, because there's a second half revelation that's gutting and takes the film into new territory and makes me love it even more. If you have a chance to see the film, definitely grab it.
The second film I saw this day was The Face of an Angel, Michael Winterbottom's take on the Amanda Knox murder case. The Knox case is the sort of sordid tabloid drama I generally avoid reading about, but I thought Winterbottom might be able to make something interesting out of it. The film stars Daniel Brühl, who I'm fond of, as a filmmaker trying to create some sort of story out of the case. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a bit of a mess, and it all gets rather silly as Brühl's character goes out of control on cocaine as he's trying to find an angle that will allow him to film the story. I'd definitely recommend giving this one a miss.
The film start out with a boy's voice narrating the story of Markov and Hamilton, two soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. Markov and Hamilton are the best scouts in their unit.
They're devoted to each, and work together in perfect harmony.
But then Hamilton is caught in an ambush when they're on an unauthorized attempt to hunt a leopard they'd seen, and Markov abandons their weapons to save his friend, breaking the rules of the Legion.
And that's where the story really starts. Markov and Hamilton turn out to be Mourad Massaev, a Chechnyan, and Michaël Hernandez, and they both end up leaving the Legion. Because he broke the rules, Massaev is not given the French citizenship he'd been counting on and chooses to stay in France as an illegal. And because he's been wounded, Hernandez is not allowed to re-enlist as he wants to do. Adding to the complications, Massaev has a young son in Paris he now must look after.
The film follows these two supremely competent soldiers as they struggle to deal with the ordinary details of civilian life, and while that doesn't sound too exciting, it's a really exquisite film. Massaev is very matter-of-fact with his son, grilling him on the protocols of what to do when his father leaves him alone to work a night job. Hernandez is committed to working hard at his recovery. And both men maintain their connection with each other, in spite of the difficulties they're having.
I won't say any more, because there's a second half revelation that's gutting and takes the film into new territory and makes me love it even more. If you have a chance to see the film, definitely grab it.
The second film I saw this day was The Face of an Angel, Michael Winterbottom's take on the Amanda Knox murder case. The Knox case is the sort of sordid tabloid drama I generally avoid reading about, but I thought Winterbottom might be able to make something interesting out of it. The film stars Daniel Brühl, who I'm fond of, as a filmmaker trying to create some sort of story out of the case. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a bit of a mess, and it all gets rather silly as Brühl's character goes out of control on cocaine as he's trying to find an angle that will allow him to film the story. I'd definitely recommend giving this one a miss.
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Date: 2014-09-15 11:31 am (UTC)