Eva Green

  • Euphoria (2017)

    Euphoria (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2021) I hate when a promising concept is extinguished by the weight of pedestrian execution, and the latest example of that is found in Euphoria, a low-budget drama that delights in being as dull as it can be after a promising beginning. Although, let’s not overpraise those opening moments: As two estranged sisters reunite, the mystery that accumulates through their interactions and strange behaviour is already overshadowed by a heavy ponderousness. This is going to be an overwrought drama, quickly says the film through its execution. Before long, we have both the explanation to the mystery and nearly the last interesting thing about Euphoria: One of the women is mortally sick and has chosen to go, accompanied by her sister, to a secluded euthanasia clinic when she’ll be able to live her last days in peace before undergoing a fatal injection. It’s a sign of the script’s overwrought melodramatic tendencies that this (including the terminal cancer) is all explained to the protagonist once they’re already at the clinic rather than at any reasonable moment before then… you know, like normal people would do. But no — Euphoria is about creating a pressure cooker of an environment in which the sisters can hash out their recriminations, childhood traumas and repressed feelings in time for a conclusion that isn’t nearly as climactic as the filmmakers hoped for. Despite the acting talent of Alicia Vikander and Eva Green, the film struggles to make it past the finish line, weighed down by a graceless exploration of familiar themes that completely forgets the spark of mystery that led its first few minutes. Director Lisa Langseth is clearly trying for artistic drama here and succeeds too well: the film feels interminable even at less than two hours, and not even Charlotte Rampling as a therapist nor Charles Dance as another terminally-ill patient can quite manage to save the film even if they manage to make us temporarily interested again. It’s a bad, bad sign for a film when you start wishing for the lead character to die so that it can finally end. I still think that there was potential here for something much better — and a purely theatrical take on the same elements may be far more effective than a film that seems to exhaust itself in aimless meanderings. But as it is, Euphoria is anything but exhilarating.

  • The Dreamers (2003)

    The Dreamers (2003)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, May 2019) No matter which culture you’re from, Paris exerts this irresistible pull as a travel destination, or better yet as the place to go for a coming-of-age experience. I’ve now seen movies from countries as far away as America and China purring over French culture, and Anglo/French/Italian co-production The Dreamers certainly plays into that trend. Our initial anchor is a young American man travelling to Paris to study French in the late 1960s, during which he gets involved with very close twins that invite him to stay at their apartment, the arrangement eventually becoming a form of romantic triangle. They don’t do a whole of formal classroom study during the course of the film, going instead for lengthy discussions about life, love, cinema, politics and runs through Le Louvre. Right at the moment when it seems it won’t end well, the 1968 Paris protests begin and the film ends on a thoroughly romantic note. This heavily romanticized vision of studying in Paris has attracted a lot of attention for its copious nudity (much, but not all of it from Eva Green, who has since made it one of her trademarks) but is most interesting for its portrayal of three young cinephiles exchanging classic cinema references (many of them illustrated by clips) and living life in 1960s Paris. Writer-director Bernardo Bertolucci clearly wanted to create a belated French Nouvelle Vague movie, so specifically does it associate with this movement and quote its inspirations. The result does seem in the same vein, although (cinema having changed since the 1960s), some elements of The Dreamers would appear closer to titillation than homage. But that’s Bertolucci for you…

  • Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

    Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, June 2017) Much as I’d like Tim Burton to develop his own stories than to further contribute to the YA adaptation craze, I’ll have to admit that he’s squarely in his wheelhouse with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: blending Gothic sensibilities with a special-effects-heavy fantasy story, it’s a good excuse for Burton to deploy his visual inventiveness and deliver a story fit for misfit teenagers (and teenagers-at-heart). The grotesque imagery is often successful (although not entirely so, as a disappointing ending shows), and there is real sympathy for the outcast. Considering Eva Green’s screen persona, there is something satisfyingly disquieting in seeing her in the lead of a film aimed at teenagers—we’re never too sure that she won’t disrobe, kill someone or otherwise flip the film in her usual R-rating territory. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children does have its share of problems: the overall plot feels familiar as a YA work, it’s not quite as dynamic as it could be and the ending suffers from a few poor design choices. But Burton’s style keeps it afloat, and it remains more engaging than most of its YA equivalents. While the result won’t be lauded as one of Burton’s finest, it’s good enough to keep fans of the director interested until his next effort.

  • Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

    Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, April 2015)  It’s been nine years since the original Sin City, and that’s frankly too long in-between installments.  I’m older, wiser and less likely to tolerate the kind of juvenile attitude in which overdone noir can indulge.  It really doesn’t help that A Dame to Kill For seems delighted in showcasing brutes and corrupting whatever innocence had escaped the first film intact: Despite toned-down violence (well, ignoring the mid-movie thirty-second marathon of decapitations accompanied by grotesque audible sploshes), it feels like an even more pointless film than the original.  It’s not all bad, especially if you can get yourself in a mood receptive to noir style and overdone dialogue: the special effects are well done (albeit inconsistently used), the quasi-parodic script is good for a few laughs and anyone wanting a little bit more of that first film’s style is likely to enjoy it.  Director Robert Rodriguez may be repeating himself (it’s about time he directs a film that’s not part of a series), but he’s doing so stylishly.  Mickey Rourke seems to have fun playing the brute once again, while Joseph Gordon-Lewitt and Eva Green (in a typical performance, as seductive as she seems insane) are welcome addition to the cast.  Plenty of smaller roles are given to big-name actors, leading to a sustained game of spot-the-celebrity.  Still, what curdles A Dame to Kill For is the ugly script, which not only has pacing issues but (unlike the original) forgoes the protection of innocence in favor of revenge, revenge and some more revenge: Jessica Alba’s character is corrupted to the point of destruction, more than one sympathetic characters are killed to set up the never-ending avenging and the effect is far more nihilistic than healthy, even for a noir film. (And that’s not even mentioning the troubling glorification of Rourke’s character as an invulnerable killer.) For all of the polish of the film’s style, it doesn’t work if its ideals and plot points leave a sour taste.  It’s not a good sign that of the film’s interlocked stories, the worst two are the ones especially written for the sequel.  I would still watch A Dame to Kill For again (someday, not any time soon) just to enjoy the visuals and the atmosphere, but I would be wary of recommending it to anyone else, and I sure wish the script had been more upbeat and less self-satisfied by its own pointlessness. 

  • 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

    300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2014)  My strongest reaction to the first 300 back in 2004, once past the first few garish beheadings, was the realization that I had suddenly been kicked out of the “young males, 18 to 34” demographic category: I found the film excessive, manufactured, far too violent and aimed at younger viewers.  So, in saying that the sequel isn’t too bad, I’m just coming to terms with the idea that I’m even older than I was back then.  Striking a balance between more of the same and a little bit of new, 300: Rise of an Empire wraps itself around the original film by explaining the origins of its antagonist, taking place alongside the first movie’s timeline and concluding a little bit later.  Director Noam Murro renews with the heavy (and bloody) post-processing aesthetics of the Zack Snider original, but benefits from a script that takes place largely in a naval environment, allowing for a bit of extra variety to the visuals.  Sullivan Stapleton is no Gerald Butler as the lead, but Eva Green makes a strong impression as the quasi-demented antagonist and almost single-handedly makes the film watching for something other than visual style.  Otherwise, it’s a slick historical action war movie, which is to say that it’ll please a certain viewership and doesn’t cater to others.  Worth a look, but maybe not a thought.  

  • Womb (2010)

    Womb (2010)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on-demand, April 2013) Well, that was uncomfortable.  Some subject matters are almost entirely laugh-free, and a woman raising her dead lover’s clone as her son, with all psycho-sexual complication that entails, ranks way up there on the list of films that are as entertainment-free as possible.  It certainly doesn’t help that the film almost entirely takes place on a cold, windy, damp beach location that practically seeps through the screen to chill audiences.  Eva Green is superb in the role of a woman so consumed by grief that she ends up blurring the lines between mother and lover –the film takes a long time to get to a conclusion, but it’s as uncomfortable as it’s inevitable.  Fortunately, Womb has a bit more than discomfort to offer audiences: as a low-key emotional exploration of science-fictional concepts, it’s not dissimilar to Never Let Me Go (down to the damp beach locations), and the question it raises almost excuse the interminable time it takes to get there.  It’s not as much of a slam to say that I never intend to watch this film again: it fulfills its objectives, and none of those objectives are about repeated viewings or even simple entertainment.  While a better, more accessible film could have been made from the same elements, Womb isn’t without merits, even if it ends up being as uncomfortable to watch as Splice was.