Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

A Summer's Tale (1996)

Gaspard: Since no one loves me, I don't love anyone.

Joining their previously released cycle of Eric Rohmer films titled Six Moral Tales, today Criterion has released a boxed-set of his Tales of the Seasons quadrilogy, which began with A Tale of Springtime in 1990 and ran through A Tale of Autumn in 1998. And sandwiched in between is the one above, which stars one of my many many French boyfriends, Melvil Poupaud. Buy the set right here if you're so inclined, by which I mean "like good movies." Be that person. And if you are already that person tell me in the comments what your favorite Rohmer movie is!

Good Morning, World

French actor Pierre Niney was generous enough to share with us some photos from a recent vacation on his Instagram and natch I snatched up the ones that matter to post here, and you'll see them below. But first! While I was at Sundance news of one of my favorite mini-fests of every year broke -- the schedule and line-up for the Film at Lincoln Center's annual "Rendez-vous with French Cinema" here in New York was announced! To be clear I've been so busy I haven't even had the time to look at the schedule myself but you can check it all right here. All I did notice was what I usually first notice -- the list of hot French actors whose films are included, and Pierre here was among them (and in Michel Gondry's new movie no less!). Other lovelies include Melvil Poupaud, Anders Danielson Lee (not French but whatever), Romain Duris, Vincent Lacoste, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart of BPM fame, and Félix Lefebvre from Summer of 85. Anyway I've finally got some substantial time this morning so I'm going to go through and see what grabs my attention -- stay tuned, I'll try to post about that later. But first let us hit the jump for a little more happy go lucky Pierre... 

I Cannes See You

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When I posted the trailer for the Rainer Wener Fassbinder biopic Enfant Terrible yesterday I did so not immediately realizing that the reason we were getting a trailer with English subtitles for a movie that's only scheduled as of now for a release in Germany this fall was that the film was one of the titles that Cannes had been planning on screening -- yesterday they released a list of all the films they had planned on showing before the fest got canned due to COVID; you can see the entire list over here. It's Cannes so of course there's plenty o' awesome stuff, including Francis Lee's Ammonite (his follow-up to God's Own Country, a lesbian romance starring Kate Winslet and Saorsie Ronan -- see our previous posts here) as well as two films from Steve McQueen, among many many others. But there are two I specifically want to laser in on!

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The first is François Ozon's latest called Summer of 85, and which also got a teaser trailer this week to ride the Cannes announcement wave; watch that above and I triple Timmy dare you to not think he was inspired by Call Me By Your Name. An 80s-set coming-of-age gay-boy romance with New Wave music and headphones and pretty twinks aplenty? Indeed. We don't have a release date yet but oh we will be watching for one.
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The second movie is the latest from Far From the Madding Crowd director Thomas Vinterberg and it's called Another Round -- it stars Vinterberg regular Mads Mikkelsen as one of a group of middle-aged man-friends who make a "scientific" pact to be a certain amount of drunk every single day, under the impression that the human body and brain operates better with a higher alcohol content than it's naturally given.And naturally, shit gets out of hand. Again no word on a release date but I'd add this one to the To Watch heap if I was you since Vinterberg + Mikkelsen is always a keeper.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Time To Leave (2005)

Le père: How are things with Sasha?
Romain: Not bad, not great.
We'll probably break up soon.
Le père: Shit. Why?
Romain: Like in all couples,
routine kills desire.

A happy 52 to the director François Ozon today! You know I talk about Ozon a lot here on MNPP but there are a ton of his films, like the one mentioned above, that I haven't actually ever seen, and I only seem to remember this whenever I scan through his IMDb page on occasions like today. I couldn't really stand to gift myself a little film fest of his work, go back and catch things like Potiche and Under the Sand and his first film See the Sea, which a film-maker at a recent dinner I attended was telling me to definitely seek out. Anybody seen it?

I never got around to reviewing Ozon's latest, By the Grace of God, about the Catholic Church abuse scandals as they played out in France -- I was too sidelined with the New York Film Fest when it dropped, but it's very much worth seeking out if and when you get the opportunity. He made a film unlike anything of his that I've seen before, a baton-passing procedural that gains its accumulative power by the sheer breadth of experiences, of lives, affected by those horrors. We see so many people from so many backgrounds mangled by a system's corruption... even though it's about one specific thing (sexual abuse and the church) it's not hard to relate it to the way our world feels in so many ways these days -- faceless bureaucracies with no time for genuine concern. Melvil Poupaud again does great work for Ozon, but it's Denis Ménochet (oh how I love Denis Ménochet) as the angriest and Swann Arlaud as the most fragile and damaged of the men who I found most special.

Eat the Young

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On Friday I told you about a Melvil Poupaud film that was screening over the weekend as part of FSLC's "Rendez-vous with French Cinema" series here in NYC -- well reader Roger was kind enough to alert me to Melvil's next vehicle of note, and believe you me, it's some note!

The film is called Golden Youth and it stars a mustachioed Melvil 

and oh right did I mention...

... Isabelle fucking Huppert!
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Yes, that Isabelle Huppert! Judging by the trailer they're some sort of sexy swingers sucking the youth slash something-or-other from a group of hip young folks, although it's hard not to argue that these kids are the ones getting the good deal outta this sitch...
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Anyway yes, there's a trailer, watch:

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The movie came out in France in January so if any of you have seen it please, do tell. The rest of us will have to wait until who knows when. Such torment! Such exquisite...

... torment. Until then we'll make do with some gifs I made from the

 trailer of Melvil and his handsome co-stars, hit the jump for it...

Melvil Poupaud Ten Times

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After a terribly slow start to the year movie-wise this weekend it's like wham bam blessings left and right -- it's all of a sudden impossible to keep up! For one FSLC's "Rendez-vous with French Cinema" as I have mentioned a couple of times this week is off and running now, through next Sunday -- I'll have some more coverage of it next week but this weekend is no slouch; check out the whole schedule here. Mr. Poupaud seen here has a movie showing tonight called When Margaux Meets Margaux that sounds fun.

Besides that there's also the series of Charles Farrell heavy Fox Restorations at MoMA that I told you about this afternoon, and The Quad has just opened the 1991 film The Hours and Times about the possibly queer relationship between John Lennon and Brian Epstein, which I've always meant to see. (Plus they're still showing Sorry Angel, my beloved Sorry Angel.) And that's all before you even get to what's showing in theaters!!

I reviewed Greta, Neil Jordan's delightful Isabelle Huppert stalker movie, right here, and I reviewed the Icelandic eco-drama Woman at War yesterday, read that here --both of those movies are totally one of a kind and very much recommended. Then there's Transit, Christian Petzold's Karfka-esque oddity starring the Kafka-esque sex oddity Franz Rogowski, also very much recommended. And then then there's Gaspar Noe's dance film Climax, which I haven't gotten a chance to see yet but thanks to its killer trailer very very very much would like to.  Phew! That's a hella lotta movies! 

And as if all this wasn't enough besides all these films I'm also seeing Sea Life / A Wall at The Public this weekend, better known as the play starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge, and by all accounts Jake has been meeting and greeting fans after the show which, well, I already feel a little queasy with nerves about steeling myself for that particular Mount Olympus. Wish me luck! Who knows, maybe next week I'll have a selfie to share! (And I probably just jinxed myself.) Anyway you should tell us if you see anything good this weekend in the comments, and now you may hit the jump for the rest of this Melvil Poupaud photo-shoot...

Good Morning, World

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Today let us wish our beloved French director François Ozon a happy 51st birthday with this scene of his forever muse Jérémie Renier showering in Double Lover, Ozon's fabulous film that was released here in the US back in February -- here's my review if you missed it. The movie is out on blu-ray and on streaming now so you've no excuse not to watch it - it's sexy and ridiculous, queered up modern day Brian De Palma, and I adore it. Don't be surprised to see it show up on my "Best of 2018" lists.

Anyway Ozon is currently at work on his next inevitable wonderment, called By the Grace of God it's about three adult men deciding whether they will confront the priest who molested them as children, and stars the beautiful Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet (who gave one of my favorite performances this year in Xavier Legrand's film Custody) and Swann Arlaud. Looking forward to that! Now let's hit the jump for more naked Jérémie Renier, in the good right and true spirit of celebrating Ozon and all...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Time to Leave (2005)

Romain: In my dreams I sleep with anybody. My father, 

my mother... even with myself when I was a kid. 

I think I'm trying to feel good before dying. 

Happy 43 to Melvil Poupaud today!

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Little Fish Brad Fish Swimmin In The Water

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I got to watch the trailer for Angelina's newest joint By the Sea projected on an IMAX screen this past weekend (before Crimson Peak) and it felt even more "Boom! by way of a signature fragrance commercial" that large -- I reeeeeeally want this thing to be camp but I worry, judging by Jolie's previous directorial snoozers, it'll simply sit there pretty and blank like the rest. Still that's a really nice poster for the film, via The Playlist where they also share some new images, including some surprise Melvil Poupaud skin...

... and Brad being Typically Sexy Brad. Hey maybe the film will feature a surprise romance between these two! I'll keep on wishing that one right on down the drain. Anyway there's also a new featurette on the film and it shares some images of pretty people being pretty, which I capped, hit the jump for them + the video...

Anyways Which Way But Loose

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I had Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret on my brain anyway because I caught some of it again over the weekend, but I think it might have come to mind watching Xavier Dolan's new film Laurence Anyways even if I hadn't because they're both very long very messy films which are ultimately just small-focused character studies... writ epic. Margaret is a better film - its sloppiness eventually benefits and rounds it out it in ways that Laurence more often just feels redundant or aimless. But Laurence aims high, and as with Dolan's other films it more than once smacks the face of greatness, too.

Best thing he's got here are a whole bunch of very good performances - Melvil Poupaud and especially Suzanne Clement do very good work charting the ups and downs and ups and downs and ups and downs and ups and downs of Laurence and Fred's relationship as the former transitions himself to a herself. Clement especially - there's a stand up and cheer scene in a diner where she loses it on a bewigged waitress who finds herself a mite too clever. I also loved Nathalie Baye's performance as Laurence's monstrously complicated mother - the times when Dolan's camera just rested on her face as all of the emotions there have ever been ran across it were entrancing.

But it's too much of too many things, the movie - although they added a hefty dosage of Almodovarian humor you could have eighty-sixed the whole octogenarian transsexual sideshow and not missed them a bit (although then I wouldn't have gotten to write "octogenarian transsexual sideshow" and I would have missed that). Dolan often gives in to his more excessive flourishes and sometimes they stick, but just as often they just stick out.
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Laurence Killed My Heartbeats

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MoMA just announced their annual Canadian Front series - where they take a look at movies coming down from our esteemed neighbors northward - and they're doing a Xavier Dolan retrospective (as much of a "retrospective" as you can call it, since he's only made three movies), including a chat with the hipster savant himself and a screening of his newest flick Laurence Anyways, which I have heard very fine things about (it stars the very handsome Melvil Poupaud as a man becoming a woman). It's in mid-March - of course it is, that's when everything is happening! That's when the Pam Grier retrospective is happening too! And now I want to see a Xavier Dolan movie starring Pam Grier.
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I Am Link

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--- Anyways Awesome - I am very much looking forward to seeing French Canadian hipster-savant Xavier Dolan's next movie Laurence Anyways (about pretty boy Melvil Poupaud turning himself into a pretty girl) since I have really liked his two other movies (I Killed My Mother and Heartbeats), and so Glenn's raving about it over at Stale Popcorn is only fueling my fire.

--- Double Gale - Also over there Glenn took on one of the best scenes in any of the Scream movies - the Nancy Drew antics of Gale Weathers and her Parker Posey tag-along in Scream 3.

--- Good Timing - There's a nice little recap of some date announcements in this post at DH - both Danny Boyle's Trance and The Evil Dead remake have been scheduled for April 5th. That will be a busy weekend for me then! Secondly, Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice is going to shoot this Spring. And lastly, the second Amazing Spider-Man movie will be shooting here in NYC from February 12th to the 26th; I've just got to get on where it's shooting because I'll be damned if I'm gonna miss seeing The Spider-Bum with mine own two eyes.

--- Demons Rise - Speaking of The Evil Dead, I forgot to mention - didja hear about it getting an NC-17 in its first cut? Apparently the violence was ridiculous, which... well yes please, it is an Evil Dead movie. If I don't want to barf, it isn't doing its job. Although they've already re-cut it for an R so I can't help but feel this might've been for hype. 

--- Damned Producer - Harvey Weinstein admits he effed up the awards chances for The Master and Django Unchained. Brother, you're just getting started.
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--- Pretty Ladies - Nat and Kurt are talking the SAG dresses over at The Film Experience - I really can't put into words how much I loved Marion Cotillard's look for the night (although that didn't stop me from rambling about it in the comments). Seriously though - that is just epic loveliness.

--- Cookin' With Cooper - Bradley Cooper is going to make another movie with Derek Cianfrance, the Blue Valentine director whose Cooper-Gosling flick The Place Behind the Pines is out soon. It's a comedy about a chef called Chef. It'll co-star that guy everybody liked in The Intouchables. (I have not seen The Intouchables.) Oh and Cooper's also making a movie called The Man From Primrose Lane, about a true-crime write who gets in over his head looking into a murder. We've never seen that before.

--- The Felt Ones - There is now a title for the next Muppets movie (it stinks, change it); there's also some new pictures of the felt ones romping around with Ricky Gervais at that link as well. I just wanna see Tina Fey as the Russian prison-guard already.

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--- Argo Frame Yourself - BAFTA has released art-work from artist Jonathan Burton for each of their Best Picture nominees; The Argo and the Zero Dark Thirty ones are my favorites. You can buy them, too. The Argo one's my favorite by far but I didn't like Argo enough to pay for art-work about it, especially at those prices.

--- Space Vixen - So apparently that Barbarella TV series from Nicolas Winding Refn is still a thing, and they have hired writers to fashion it. The writers of the past several Bond movies, actually.Now we must figure out who to cast!

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I Am Link

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--- Jake Out - No, not out out, but out of Motor City, that movie he was just supposedly in as of yesterday, replacing Dominic Cooper. He is not doing the film now - story goes he wanted to push back the start date but the studio wasn't having none of it. Why would he need to push back the start date? What the hell is he doing instead? He has zero point zero zero projects lined up. WTF, Jake?

--- Cool Rider - Tom Hardy's going to play a tough ass ex-Vietnam vet biker dude in a new movie. And now we should all take a moment inside of our minds to imagine Tom Hardy in military fatigues and then in biker leather. Yes, this movie needed to be made.

--- Team Up - Hey here's Joss Whedon talking about The Avengers, and then talking about The Avengers 2.

--- Once Loved - Apparently the Aussie horror flick The Loved Ones - which was my favorite horror movie of last year - is getting an actual release here in the US this year? That's what BD says, and they have a new poster. It's a glorious movie, so effing good, so if you get the chance to see it for real do it!

--- Rush Rush - Since it's a Ron Howard movie it will inevitably suck, but DH has a couple shots of Chris Hemsworth on the set of Rush, which is about a race car driver, and that one of him there to the ? is too good to pass up. Even with that strange (albeit period appropriate) shag.

--- Melvil Anyways - There's a gallery of photographs of the lovely Melvil Poupaud in Xavier Dolan's next movie Laurence Anyways over here (thanks to Nat for the heads-up).

--- Fassy Supporters - Casting is moving along with Ridley Scott's next movie The Counselor - that's the one that will star Michael Fassbender as a lawyer who gets over his head dealing drugs on the side. Natalie Portman is up for the lead lady role, while the villain role, which was being circled by Javier Bardem, Jeremy Renner and Brad Pitt, is now between Bardem and Renner. I was hoping for Pitt. Bardem is apparently who Scott wants.
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Dierdre Chambers Melvil Poupaud, What A Coincidence!

I did that small post of pictures of the actor Melvil Poupaud yesterday because I found him terrifically attractive in the very good French flick A Christmas Tale the night before last.

But imagine my surprise when he showed up randomly in the horror movie I went to see last night! I had no idea. Shock and awe I am telling you. Melvil Poupaud is following me.

Melvil, you don't have to be so coy, you know. Just tap me on my... shoulder. Right... shoulder. That's as good a place to start as any!

Anyway, the horror film was The Broken, which is one of the films now showing around the country as part of the After Dark Horror Fest. And before you immediately judge that to mean it's crap since most of what I've seen at least of the ADHF has been crap, let me tell you, The Broken ain't crap. It was a solidly unsettling flick and you could do much (much) worse. It steals pretty liberally from horror-past, most obviously Invasion of the Body Snatchers (and I loved the Halloween homage), but somehow it all still works. I found moments in the film deeply unsettling, and it's not the type of flick (except a couple annoying moments) that feels the need to smack you upside the head with annoying quick cuts and big booming sound effects in place of actual scares. Instead it just allows this weirdness to settle over everything that becomes somewhat transfixing. I mean, I figured out what was going on even before the halfway point, but I still enjoyed it, and found myself caught up in it, and that's rare, so bravo, writer/director Sean Ellis.

Besides Poupaud - who was tre sexy here as the boyfriend - the film stars Lena Headey and Richard Jenkins' perma-sad-sack face, which I enjoyed.
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Melvil Poupaud Six Five Times

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