Movies playing in English at Chamonix Cinema Vox
After a little spring hiatus, the Chamonix Cinema Vox reopens this coming week on Tuesday 21st June with a full schedule of the latest movies; Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life will be playing in English (V/O) with French subtitles, until 5th July.
Also, be sure to check out La Fete du Cinema, running from Saturday 25th June to Friday 1st July when all tickets will be reduced to 3€ and there will be special matinee screenings of selected films!
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Director Woody Allen's latest film, which premiered in Cannes this year, is a romantic comedy about a family travelling to Paris for business, including a young engaged couple. Our hero, one half of the couple, is unhappy, but not entirely sure how to amend his malcontent. During his rambling evening walks, our hero finds that he is transported to 1920's Paris every night at midnight when he stands at a certain place in the city. In this other age he meets many of his heroes, such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dali, Bunuel, Picasso, Man Ray and Gertrude Stein. During these visits, our hero is forced to confront his illusion that a life different from his own is better, even as he also finds that some elements of his dreams are worth pursuing in his ‘real' life.
This film is not one of Allen's greats – Manhattan or Annie Hall or even The Mighty Aphrodite – but it is the best of recent years and absolutely worth watching. That said, it's not a film for everyone because of its literary and artistic references as well as its subtext of existentialism, but that's not to say that it's ‘high brow' or overly intellectual at all.
Ultimately, Woody Allen's film is homage to creativity and dreams as a reality rather than as an illusion. This reviewer left the cinema after watching this film feeling that “all things are possible.”
THE TREE OF LIFE
This is a film about three boys growing up in the 1950's with their mother, a free spirit, and their father, a ‘hard ass' who is alternately affectionate (played by Brad Pitt). The story considers the origins and meaning of life in general and as it pertains to the boys' lives.
The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won a Palme d'Or, and was met with rave reviews from critics but was actually booed at the screening (a tough reaction particularly as the filmmakers and actors are present). Depending on who you speak to, the sci-fi meets surrealist themes and imagery were seen as either imaginative and independently minded, or pretentious and boring. This reviewer finds that the fragmented and non-linear narrative actually is how memories are remembered, and as it's a story told in the present about the past, this seems appropriate and interesting. In a world of films that appeal to the lowest common denominator and rely on frenetic images and action, this nicely paced, philosophically-light film is refreshing.
Malick has taken his time with his films, working on this one for decades and ‘only' having made seven films in a 35-year career, but his films Badlands and Days of Heaven are two of the most beautifully filmed movies of all time and this one is gorgeous, too. Lightly existential, this is a great film to watch when you're in the mood to consider your life, your family, and the world you live in, without delving too deeply into any of it.
