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Moulin Rouge - (1952)
This film focuses on the life of famed artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (played by José Ferrer - who also plays his father in flashbacks) and is really worth a look. His aristocratic family were inbred to the point of afflicting the poor guy with legs that broke, wouldn't heal, and wouldn't grow - which didn't affect his painting, but sadly tormented him in every other way. He'd drink himself to an early grave, dying at the age of 36. (He's played by John Leguizamo in Baz Luhrmann's
Moulin Rouge!) I was really impressed by this, with it's narrowing down on the man's art itself and primarily on the two lost opportunities he had for love. Toulouse-Lautrec learns early that some ladies find his malformation too ugly to overlook - and this hardens his soul and makes it impossible for those who do grow fond of him to get through that their feelings are genuine. Despite such prominent billing, Zsa Zsa Gabor doesn't play one of these two women (the actresses that do are Colette Marchand and Suzanne Flon) - instead only appearing briefly for a few song and dance numbers. Toulouse-Lautrec's pain concerning lost chances at love, amid the wonderous world of 1890 to 1900s Paris, makes it feel like he's living through the canvas he paints on. A young Peter Cushing turns up late as a suitor for one of Toulouse-Lautrec's love interests. Ferrer's performance is curt, and taciturn, and modelled I think on the way aristocrats with generations of breeding might talk once they've descended into the hoi polloi. A really moving, interesting, colourful and enjoyably musical movie. It could have done with more Moulin Rouge - considering the fact that it's called
Moulin Rouge.
7.5/10
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Driving Madeleine - (2022)
Just like a real taxi-ride through Paris,
Driving Madeleine races through everything so abruptly, without much feeling, that all of the payoff and drama at the end feels completely undeserved. Charles (Dany Boon) is a struggling French taxi driver who one day picks up Madeleine (Line Renaud) who is 92, and about to unburden herself of her entire life story as he takes her to a nursing home - but not before visiting various places important to her life (which have usually been demolished and built over.) We start with her at age 16, in 1944 her first kiss with an American G.I. develops into something more - namely a son without a father. When Madeleine does marry, she ends up with an abusive violent rapist monster for a husband, so she sends him to sleep via drugs in his whisky and takes to his privates with a blowtorch. She's charged with attempted murder, ends up in prison, and when she gets out her adult son (now a photographer) is off to Vietnam. There's interest in there - but a scant 90-minute runtime means there's so little time to expand and really feel her struggles and grief. Even the relationship she develops with her driver doesn't feel it should be at the place it ends up at - helping him avoid a ticket and sharing dinner and suddenly Charles deserves her undying gratitude and love, and he's shoving his family through doors so they can meet her. Of course, he needs to shove because he's racing the clock. Everything needed more time to develop - this feels like a big story stuffed into a very small movie.
5/10
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American Dreamz - (2006)
This comedy suffers from a dearth of really funny moments, and is instantly dated by it's George W. Bush-era satire. It lacks elements such as being clever, and meanders through it's predictable story in a flat kind of way. I really didn't like
American Dreamz, and I only give it the score I do because of Hugh Grant's performance, deigning to use Willem Dafoe as an evil, bald American Chief of Staff and it's technical competence.
4/10