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conannz's rating
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conannz's rating
The Humanist Vampire movie is French* and very droll, dark humour. Absolutely delightful. An obvious reference point is A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night but even though this is the same territory it is pitch perfect and funny as.
*Canadian but shot in French with English subtitles. Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize who is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Quebec.
I have a collection of Michel Tournier short stories which all get told on one night. You think you know what is going to happen but the telling of the stories changes the light and space imperceptibly at first. The same thing happens in this film. Most of it takes pace on a single night and as each miniature story is told the tone shifts.
Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant is the French title. I think having suicide in the title is tricky because the suicide is complex and not funny but here it works.
A family of vampires is concerned for their daughter. Kind of Soprano's family drama meets Hal Hartley with comic cameos by the whole family.
The lead actor gives a Elina Löwensohn vibe. Intense but droll and understated. As a non French speaker it may read differently in French but even without sub titles it is still enjoyable and a delight.
At one point two leads are just adorable dorks dancing in the dark to the song Emotions by Brenda Lee That song dates from 1960 and Brenda is still alive. The song is just fabulous. Look it up on YouTube.
*Canadian but shot in French with English subtitles. Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize who is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Quebec.
I have a collection of Michel Tournier short stories which all get told on one night. You think you know what is going to happen but the telling of the stories changes the light and space imperceptibly at first. The same thing happens in this film. Most of it takes pace on a single night and as each miniature story is told the tone shifts.
Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant is the French title. I think having suicide in the title is tricky because the suicide is complex and not funny but here it works.
A family of vampires is concerned for their daughter. Kind of Soprano's family drama meets Hal Hartley with comic cameos by the whole family.
The lead actor gives a Elina Löwensohn vibe. Intense but droll and understated. As a non French speaker it may read differently in French but even without sub titles it is still enjoyable and a delight.
At one point two leads are just adorable dorks dancing in the dark to the song Emotions by Brenda Lee That song dates from 1960 and Brenda is still alive. The song is just fabulous. Look it up on YouTube.
Many of us know about the recent protests in Iran and the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. The hijab is mandatory in Iran and is enforced by over zealous religious police. Outside of Iran it is hard to understand that something that seems trivial to us is such a big issue.
This film works because it takes us inside a family unit that is impacted by these very issues. It appears to use actual protest footage ( suitably obscured) mixed in along with the fictional actors. This gives it a more urgent edge.
The husband works as an investigator for the regime. One step away from being a judge. He is under severe pressure at work to process huge numbers of religious "crimes" without any due process. He is finding out that the price of his promotion is blind obedience.
He has two daughters. One at high school and the other at university (college.) One of the daughters has a friend who is shot after being in a crowd near a protest. We are told she was an innocent bystander.
The mum of the family is very concerned to protect the family status and reputation which will see them get a bigger apartment to live in. However this won't happen unless all aspects of life are squeaky clean. They can't even tell the daughters what the Dad does because it is a security risk.
In one of the first shots of the movie we see bullets being handed over to the Dad along with a pistol. He is being promoted but needs to be able to protect himself.
What we are seeing is an actual literal Chekhov's Gun in the story. A concept you can look up :)
The pistol disappears from the apartment and the dad must find it or face a possible jail sentence for its loss. This ramps up the tension a few levels and the film then somewhat devolves from then on.
The main impact from the film is to personalise the various political pressures on each member of the family. The best art takes us beyond the headlines to show us what is happening and how that looks and feels in real life.
The story is a fiction but feels like a documentary in many respects. As a film it is a success in helping us to empathise with real people caught up in this kind of terror.
I saw this film at a festival. There were some scenes that were unwatchable and quite emotional.
It is now coming up to the 2 year anniversary of that wave of protests. It wasn't just one person who has died in the protests. Records indicate the number is approaching 500 and the ripple waves of anxiety and stress in families can only be approximated but this film goes a fair way to doing just that.
This film works because it takes us inside a family unit that is impacted by these very issues. It appears to use actual protest footage ( suitably obscured) mixed in along with the fictional actors. This gives it a more urgent edge.
The husband works as an investigator for the regime. One step away from being a judge. He is under severe pressure at work to process huge numbers of religious "crimes" without any due process. He is finding out that the price of his promotion is blind obedience.
He has two daughters. One at high school and the other at university (college.) One of the daughters has a friend who is shot after being in a crowd near a protest. We are told she was an innocent bystander.
The mum of the family is very concerned to protect the family status and reputation which will see them get a bigger apartment to live in. However this won't happen unless all aspects of life are squeaky clean. They can't even tell the daughters what the Dad does because it is a security risk.
In one of the first shots of the movie we see bullets being handed over to the Dad along with a pistol. He is being promoted but needs to be able to protect himself.
What we are seeing is an actual literal Chekhov's Gun in the story. A concept you can look up :)
The pistol disappears from the apartment and the dad must find it or face a possible jail sentence for its loss. This ramps up the tension a few levels and the film then somewhat devolves from then on.
The main impact from the film is to personalise the various political pressures on each member of the family. The best art takes us beyond the headlines to show us what is happening and how that looks and feels in real life.
The story is a fiction but feels like a documentary in many respects. As a film it is a success in helping us to empathise with real people caught up in this kind of terror.
I saw this film at a festival. There were some scenes that were unwatchable and quite emotional.
It is now coming up to the 2 year anniversary of that wave of protests. It wasn't just one person who has died in the protests. Records indicate the number is approaching 500 and the ripple waves of anxiety and stress in families can only be approximated but this film goes a fair way to doing just that.
'Days of Heaven' sounded and looked great. But all seemingly shot in wide angle so hard to feel in the same frame as the characters. Beautiful looking and a soundtrack by Morricone that is hard to beat.
The actors though were filmed like insects under a microscope. The story was a soap opera with no closeups. The net effect was loss of emotional impact. It was 1978 but still a few more zoom ins would have helped make it all less abstracted.
A young Richard Gere wasn't that convincing as character. However in 1916 when the film was set we do have multiple reminders that for most of the population life was nasty, brutish and short. The film is narrated by the younger sister of Bill (Gere.) This also distances us a bit from the action as she is observing with limited insight due to her age and education.
Note: I saw this in 2024 on a big screen (94 minutes) 4K DCP / Colour version.
The actors though were filmed like insects under a microscope. The story was a soap opera with no closeups. The net effect was loss of emotional impact. It was 1978 but still a few more zoom ins would have helped make it all less abstracted.
A young Richard Gere wasn't that convincing as character. However in 1916 when the film was set we do have multiple reminders that for most of the population life was nasty, brutish and short. The film is narrated by the younger sister of Bill (Gere.) This also distances us a bit from the action as she is observing with limited insight due to her age and education.
Note: I saw this in 2024 on a big screen (94 minutes) 4K DCP / Colour version.