And here I go with the second part of my favorite FFF movies of this year's 38th edition.
While writing these I realized that I watched and really enjoyed a lot of French and French language movies this past week. Having studied and spoken French for my whole life, but not being able to connect with the country per se, I actually miss French, just not the French, lol. I also enjoyed watching light-hearted movies and laughed a lot during this festival. Here are some more reviews, some funny, some serious.
Things Will Be Different (2024)
Sidney and Joseph committ a robbery, mainly to pay off Sidney's massive debts and allow her to lead a comfortable life with her daughter. The siblings have fallen out because of some situation in their past for which Joseph still feels guilty, and he intends to make up for it. Through a work connection he gains access to a house that functions as a passage for time travel, and the two of them want to lay low for a couple of weeks after the heist, hide as well as reconnect as sister and brother.
On their last day in which I guess is the early 90s they encounter a problem and are unable to return to their time, but find a note which leads them to a safe which permits them to communicate with a group of people from different times and dimensions who seemingly know more and can help them get out of there. They expect something in return.
As much as I like this indie speculative fictional style, I'm not a great fan of time travel as a trope, and honestly, I have too many questions and see too many holes in the story to thoroughly enjoy this. BUT - this is a Moorhead&Benson production, and as was the case with other works from that line, I tend to enjoy their movies the more I watch them, it is never a "love at the first sight" kind of feeling, but a rather slowly acquired appreciation. To be fair, the director warned the audience in his initial greeting that we would be left with unanswered questions, so I'm hoping for a theatrical release and for a chance to watch it a second or even third time.
Before taking a closer look at this chaotic bundle of joy, it is probably useful to mention that the plot is based on a true event, the Dupont de Ligonnès murders, in which a father killed his whole family of wife, four kids and pets and then disappeared into thin air. To this day, there are many theories as to his whereabouts. Once an innocent guy who was mistaken for him was arrested in Scotland and because of misunderstandings as to the two countries legalities he has been announced the murderer by the media, which later had to be corrected, but the damage done.
The plot of Les Pistolets en Plastique is almost a carbon copy of what transpired back in 2019, with minor changes like Denmark instead of Scotland, and added speculative elements like the murderer, here called Paul Bernardin, escaping to Argentina, and two hobby investigators snooping around the country, ultimately making everything worse.
The French humor has a slight tendency to silliness at times and I was worrying about that going into this movie. And it indeed was silly but in the best sense possible, it was smart and funny. As the director said before the movie, it is a movie which is unfortunately funny because it is based on a true story.
What I really appreciate most though is when a movie is chaotic and has man strings, but they come together nicely in the end, all the pieces finding their place. Les Pistolets succeeds in that, and additionally even gives the case a little ultimate justice.
Else is basically the dream love of an introvert and an extrovert turning into a nightmare after a strange epidemic in which the infected merge into their surroundings.
Such an interesting film and I loved it!!! Not only is the blatant contrast (in color, shape, character, and plot) between the beginning of the movie and and its end one of the most uniques, the way it handles texture, color, sound, material too is one of the most original approaches I have ever seen in a film.
A trippy journey, this film starts as one film, takes a strange path, and turns into another. I think I like the second part better, though I have nothing against the beginning either, it was a good introduction.
A must-watch for every movie lover, especially if you're into more experimental stuff.
I will review Saýara in a separate post, so these are my take-aways from this year's FFF. Movies that I didn't watch or missed during the festival but still hope to catch up when they're released regularly are; A Different Man, Blood Star, Dark Match, Scared Shitless, She Loved Blossoms More, Sleep, Strange Darling, The Substance and The Well (which, I heard, was a catastrophe).
The reason I have so many films left is that it is much more financially beneficial for me to watch them in a regular theater than at a festival, as, and this isn't meant to be a promotion or anything, but I have a Yorck Unlimited Card for which I pay 20 euros a month and watch as many movies as I want. If you watch as much as I do, it definitely pays off. I mean, alone going to the Creepy Crypt twice a month is enough for the pay off and I watch considerably more movies than that. The flip side is that the movies really need to have a theatrical release in Germany, and when they're indie, they usually don't. So, it is a guessing game which one will be later shown and which won't.
Plus, I had some eye problems again and couldn't watch the movies I had scheduled for the night showings, but I'm hoping that that will settle in time.
One more review left, stay tuned for Saýara.
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