Saturday, May 9, 2009

A Christmas Tale

France  Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Almaric

This film has been praised by reviewers worldwide and I could sort of see why...it was slick, modern-looking (lots of smooth camera movement, tiny little cuts) and about a "disfunctional" family but I had a hard time getting through it.

These characters were so irritating and there were so many of them that I never got to the point of caring whether or not they reconciled, walked off-screen or exploded in a spectacular act of self immolation. In fact that would have been interesting at least. MA's behavior was so incredible that he seemed to come from some parallel universe. Has anyone outside the confines of a psychiatric ward ever behaved like that?

It ended with close-ups of surgical procedures. Perfect. A film that was psychically and emotionally repulsive closed the circle with physical repulsion.

3

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