All articles by Benny Crick
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Reviews
Lady Chatterley
Dir: Pascale Ferran.Fr-Bel. 2006. 168mins. Lady Chatterley sees Pascale Ferran deliver a coolly elegant new screen take on DH Lawrence's once notorious novel about a high-born woman's adulterous affair with a commoner. It forgoes the book's obscene language and graphic sexual realism for a more contemplative drama of sex, love, ...
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Reviews
La Vie En Rose (La Mome)
Dir: Olivier Dahan. Fr-UK-Czech Rep. 2006. 140mins.The biopic is a genre that the French film-makers have rarely shown much aptitude for, being the kind of (usually costly) project the British and Americans do better. But producer Alain Goldman and writer-director Olivier Dahan largely succeed with La Vie En Rose, a ...
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Reviews
The Serpent (Le Serpent)
Dir: Eric Barbier. Fr. 2007. 119minsArriving a few months after Tell No One, Guillaume Canet's hit transposition of a Harlan Coben suspense bestseller, Eric Barbier's The Serpent performs an equally adept geographic makeover of a novel by late British suspense writer Ted (Get Carter) Lewis, Plender. The story is genre-familiar ...
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Reviews
Arthur And The Invisibles (Arthur Et Les Minimoys)
Dir: Luc Besson, Pierre Buffin. Fr. 2006. 102mins.French producer-director Luc Bessonhits most of the right buttons with ArthurAnd The Invisibles (Arthur Et Les Minimoys as it is known inFrance), an engagingly imaginative computer animation and live-actionchildren's saga about a young boy's search for treasure in a kingdom ofLilliputian creatures.Five years ...
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Reviews
Tell No One (Ne Le Dis A Personne)
Dir: Guillaume Canet. Fr. 2006. 125mins.Actor Guillaume Canettackles his second film as director with TellNo One, a slickly confected adaptation of Harlan Coben'ssuspense bestseller about a widower who opens a Pandora's Box of family secretsand violent death. Credibly transposed to France, it has the dynamic rhythm ofa good chase thriller ...
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Reviews
The Legacy (L'Heritage)
Dirs: Gela Babluani, Temur Babluani. Fr-Geor.2006. 80mins.Hotly tipped since his sensational debut feature, 13 (Tzameti), won prizes at Veniceand Sundance and excited remake interest in the US, 28-year-old Paris-based Gela Babluani returns to hisnative Georgia for The Legacy. Butthe result is a poorly acted and only spottily effective drama, as ...
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Reviews
Gardens In Autumn (Jardins En Automne)
Dir/scr: Otar Iosseliani. Fr-It-Russ. 2006. 117mins.The then-Soviet republic of Georgia lost one of itsmajor cultural assets when it allowed non-conformist film-maker Otar Iosseliani to 'emigrate' professionally to France in 1984. Since then,he has regularly regaled audiences with his wry, deadpan, post-modern comedies(though arguably none has equalled the poetic films he ...
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Reviews
The Valet (La Doublure)
Dir/scr: Francis Veber. Fr. 2006. 83mins.Francis Veberlacks a funny bone in The Valet,misjudging both his script and his cast in a romantic comedy about a lucklessyoung man obliged to feign cohabitation with a gorgeous top model.A curiously lifeless affairthat seems vaguely inspired by PrettyWoman, it raises some smiles but few ...
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Reviews
Orchestra Seats (Fauteuils D'Orchestre)
Dir: Daniele Thompson. Fr. 2006. 106mins.A sparkling champagne-light ensemble piece of a moviewhich showcases one of Paris's most deluxe thoroughfares, Orchestra Seats is the third successful solo outing from writer-directorDaniele Thompson.The daughter oflate comedy director Gerard Oury, with who she wroteseveral of French cinema's biggest box-office smashes back in the ...
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Reviews
You And Me (Toi Et Moi)
Dir: Julie Lopes Curval.Fr. 2006. 94mins.Writer-director Julie Lopes Curvalleapt into the front rank of promising Gallic auteur talent with her debutfeature, Seaside (Bord De Mer), a dramatic ensemble piece setin a once-fashionable seaside resort town, which won the prestigious Camera d'Or at Cannes in 2002. Three years on, she now ...
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Reviews
Angel-A
Dir/scr: Luc Besson. Fr. 2005. 90mins.Absent from behind the camera since his 1999 medievalepic, The Messenger: The Story of Joan ofArc, Luc Besson makes a modest directorialcomeback with Angel-A.The French film industry'sbest-kept secret of 2005, the offbeat romance was shot on the sly in Paris last summer(while media attention was ...
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Reviews
Sky Fighters (Les Chevaliers Du Ciel)
Dir: Gerard Pires. Fr. 2005. 102mins.In Sky Fighters,two gung-ho French airforce pilots battle withterrorists out to commandeer a Mirage 2000 jet for a post-9/11 apocalypse overParis. But as with too many aviation pictures, Gerard Pires'$22m feature soars when it is airborne but is hobbled on the ground by stockmelodramatics and ...
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Reviews
St Jacques' La Mecque
Dir/scr: Coline Serreau. Fr. 2005. 112mins.Comedy writer-director ColineSerreau came a cropper two years ago with 18 Years After, a pointless anduninspired sequel to Three Men And A Baby, her 1985 sleeper smash that definitivelyturned the tide for Hollywood's remake industry. Now Serreauattempts to return to the social comedy that is ...
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Reviews
Transporter 2
Dir: Louis Leterrier. France.2005. 87 min.After the ill-judged mixtureof mawkish sentimental drama and martial arts mayhem of Glasgow-based Dannythe Dog/Unleashed, writer-producer Luc Besson returns to the pure actionvein with this sequel to his 2002 hit, The Transporter. With hissurrogate Louis Leterrier again handling directing chores, Transporter 2is a wholly derivative ...
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Reviews
Boudu
Dir. Gerard Jugnot. Fr.2005. 104mins.Ridinghigh on a personal popularity consecrated by the runaway success of TheChorus, Gerard Jugnot now delivers his ninth feature film aswriter-director-actor. But his remake of the 1932 classic Boudu Saved FromDrowning is as ill advised as Down And Out In Beverly Hills, PaulMazursky's 1986 Hollywood makeover.Jugnot's ...
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Reviews
Unleashed (Danny The Dog)
Dir: Louis LeterrierFr-UK. 2005. 103mins.The latest action vehicleto roar off the assembly line at Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, Unleashed -known in France as Danny The Dog - is a wonky mixture of bone-crunchingviolence and mawkish sentiment. It casts martial arts star Jet Li as asub-human fighting machine who finds that music ...
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Reviews
The Emperor's Journey (La Marche De L'Empereur)
Dir: Luc Jacquet. Fr.2004. 84mins.Although Cole Porterdidn't specifically mention them by name, penguins do it too, and Luc Jacquet'slyrical documentary continues the successful trend of wildlife and nature filmsthat have revitalised a genre long relegated to unimaginative, formatted TVfare.Though less wondrous andexhilaratingly spectacular than previous French productions such as Microcosmosor ...
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Reviews
Changing Times (Les Temps Qui Changent)
Dir: Andre Techine. Fr.2004. 98mins.The title of Andre Techine's new film has an ironicmeaning its makers certainly never intended: times indeed have changed when theFrench star system, as epitomised by the screen reunion of two of France'sbiggest motion picture icons - Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu - havelittle impact on ...
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Reviews
Saraband
Dir/scr: Ingmar Bergman.Swe. 2003. 107mins.The valedictory work of one of the titans of the 20th century art is aminor, unsteady film that will disappoint those who expect a blazing testamentto an awe-inspiring career. But when your name is Ingmar Bergman, no matter. Saraband,upon which the Swedish filmmaker says he's bowing ...
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Reviews
La Confiance Regne
Dir: Etienne Chatiliez.Fr. 2004. 98mins.Perhaps because his featurecomedies are few and far between, French film-maker Etienne Chatiliez has notreally developed anything resembling a coherent film style.Sadly it shows with LaConfiance Regne, a weak, one-joke comedy farce about a pair of larcenoushouse servants on the make in provincial northern France.The disappointment ...