12 November 2021.
By Neptune
ALINE ***1/2 (vo French)
Whether you are a Celine Dion fan or not, this biopic on Dion’s life by and with Valerie Lemercier is a brilliant, moving homage to a fine singer. Lemercier takes us on a beautiful journey about an incredibly close-knit French Canadian family with 14 children. The mother ruled the roost with much love and common sense. And the smallest of them all was to be their greatest gift, a little girl with a golden voice who became the world-famous Celine Dion.
This film feels like the old, sensational movies that used to come out of Hollywood in the golden years of refreshing, clean-cut entertainment. It’s the magical story of a 12-year-old who is taken under the wing of a smart, decent impresario who polishes this rough diamond to perfection and brings the world to her. It’s a bit like “A Star is Born” but without the pain of one partner losing to the other. In fact, it’s their love story with a happy ending, for despite his being 24 years older, and her mother incensed at the thought of such a lopsided marriage, Dion marries her dashing and protective Prince Charming when she turns twenty.
It’s all here – their slow-burning, gentle romance, her incredible rise to world stardom, their patient wait for children, the continued family closeness with her parents and siblings, the stress of a five-year contract in Las Vegas and the marvelous nightly shows that she put on.
This is the life of the super-talented, the super-rich and the super-stressed, but told with heart and great humor. Go and see how well Lemercier incarnates this spectacular singer and gives her a heartfelt tribute. It’s quite a show and it may even move you to tears.
COPILOT (Die Frau des Piloten) *** (vo German, Turkish, Arabic, English)
This film will divide many viewers on its content and intent. It starts off as a sweet romance in the mid-1990s in Germany between two university students – a Turkish girl and a charismatic Lebanese. There are hurdles in their love, for the Turkish mother doesn’t approve of Arabs and the daughter is hesitant to tell her about the seriousness of their relationship. Then there is the fact that he is slowly becoming radicalized. But her love for him is strong and they marry.
His dream has always been to fly and he tells her that she will always be his copilot, that she must always keep his secrets and that she must tell no one when he goes to Yemen for months on end. He sends her off to his affluent parents in Beirut, but they are worried sick as to where he could be. The couple then moves to Hamburg and eventually Florida, where he is taking flying lessons…
Are you beginning to see a wider picture? This is the intimate backstory of an event that shook the world in the beginning of this century. And it takes its time to come to the final act. This intriguing film by German/Algerian Anne Zohra Berrached takes no sides, makes no judgement, but shows the life of a doomed couple before their world and ours is shattered.
TRE PIANI (THREE FLOORS) ** (vo Italian)
Nanni Moretti, one of Italy’s most esteemed directors, often present at Cannes, Venice or Berlin, presents here a melodrama (based on an Israeli novel by Eshkol Nevo and transplanted from Tel Aviv to Rome) about several families in a comfortable building in the capital.
It starts off in the night with a lone woman running for a taxi in order to get to the hospital to give birth. At the same moment she sees a speeding, weaving car hit another woman before it crashes into her building. That’s the convoluted introduction to three of the families in that building. The story unfolds from there, intermingling neighbors, family problems, suspicions – all too detailed and going back and forth in space and time.
Despite some of Italy’s finest actors, including Margherita Buy, Ricardo Scamarcio, Alba Rohrwacher and Adriano Giannini, after a while the idea of “le cose della vita” becomes tiresome and pedantically preachy as is Moretti himself, who plays a judge and a severe father and husband in one of the families. With a too-pat sentimental ending, it’s only somewhat interesting and certainly not memorable.
CRY MACHO *1/2
Sorry Clint, it’s time to stop. You’ve given us so many sorts of films – from violent Westerns such as “Unforgiven” to ruthless detectives like “Dirty Harry”, a female boxer in “Million Dollar Baby”, and the unforgettably romantic “Bridges of Madison County”, to name a few. You’ve picked up tons of awards, written, acted and directed your films, dabbled in music and politics, and had countless women and children. It’s been an incredibly full life.
Unfortunately, this latest about a down-and-out cowboy who might be doing his last heroic battle down in Mexico comes off as a wheezing, too-obvious yarn. It’s actually embarrassingly amateur. This old-man-saving-young-boy tale is badly written, stiffly acted and adds a dubious romance that though sweet at times is hard to swallow.
In a way the film is Clint going off to pasture in the setting sun. He should take that example to heart and save his well-earned pride. Time to hang up that saddle.
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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