This post is really just about le cinéma and the films that I have seen that I thought were some of the best of the year. What made me think about this was the fact that my host family asked if I went to the movies often in the United States but really, I don't all the often. For whatever reason, maybe the fact that I have more time here and I'm not working, I just tend to go more. Anyhow I was torn between which of the two films I thought were the best I had seen, but my top three goes something like this..
Polisse by Maïwenn
Followed by...
Intouchables by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache
Followed by...
Les Aventures de Tintin : Le Secret de la Licorne by Steven Spielberg
Polisse is movie about a photographer who was embedded in a police unit that deals with children, whether it be abuse/kids who pickpocket/molestation and pedophiles/and anything like that. So same photographer decided to make a movie after what she saw. Obviously, the theme of the movie is very triste [tree-st: sad] but it is so well directed that at one point you are so sad, but in five minutes you feel happy about what happened, and in the another five minutes you are completely angry at the situation. So it really sends you on a roller-coaster of emotions which I think is what a movie like this should do. But it really leaves you the next couple of days thinking a lot about things and of people in your life that maybe you really don't know at all.
Intouchables is a movie about a wealthy paralyzed man who hires a person to take care of him day in and day out. In this case, he hires a man who has grown up poor and in a large family. But this billionaire hired him because he treated him as if he wasn't paralyzed. Obviously, this was an important quality that many others lacked. One of the funnier parts in the movie is when they are shopping for an art piece [that is priced at 30,000 Euro so you will hear trente mille euro], his helper is eating M&M's and so he asks for one "Donnez-moi un chocolate" but his helper replies "No arm. No chocolate" "Pas d'bras. Pas d'chocolate" but then of course just tells him it's a joke! "Bon blague!".
But it also could be that was one of the funnier to me because I didn't really understand all the jokes..! But what makes it a great story is the fact that it is a true story. There is talk of a movie being remade in English to be released in the US, but I truely wished they wouldn't remake it. I think this movie is one of the better movies made and I see no reason why they just can't dub it with English voices or put Sub-titles. Almost of movies that are released here are dubbed in French, so I think that it should work the other way around as well.
Then obviously, Tintin was out in the US, but it's originally from Belgium and it is very popular in France.
Next post will be soon, the town is finally decorated for Christmas! I also have finals this week so wish me luck!
