Léa Seydoux

  • No Time to Die (2021)

    No Time to Die (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, December 2021) As a James Bond fan, I’m not entirely satisfied with No Time to Die — but hasn’t that been the case for much of the Daniel Craig era? A strong introduction in Casino Royale led to the lows of Quantum of Solace, then a once-in-a-generation high in Skyfall, immediately followed by a frustrating return to the norm in Spectre. But just as No Time to Die makes it obvious that the Craig era is a self-contained story, it also marks a very definitive end for Craig-as-Bond. Oh yes; this review will contain spoilers because spoilers are where the film is most interesting. Building on the frustrating legacy of the previous film, this follow-up sees the Bond character developed well beyond the norm, all the way to being retired, becoming a father and, eventually, concluding his legacy as a man of action. It’s not what we expected of Bond despite the film’s frequent action sequences, island lair and megalomaniac villain — but then again, the Craig cycle has been an awkward attempt to impose a dramatic arc to a character who, until now, barely had one. The attempt is audacious, but the result in No Time to Die often disappoints: despite the slickness of the execution, the script seems undercooked with a dull villain who does not earn the distinction of what happens to Bond late in the film. The doubling-down on the least satisfying elements of the previous films (including the bland and featureless Léa Seydoux as the Bond Girl who manages what other Bond Girls never did) shows how an episodic structure can sabotage later entries. There are highlights, mind you: a great one-shot staircase fight scene; a forest car chase sequence with a mean finish; a terrific motorcycle jump; Ana de Armas as a not-so-junior “secret” agent; the liquidation of two Craig regulars; and Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Ralph Fiennes all further developing their stock characters. But, perhaps best of all, Lashana Lynch as a new 007 who goes toe-to-toe with Craig’s character and doesn’t blink — now that we’re looking for a new Bond, maybe we don’t have to look all that far. While we’re free to admire all the ways No Time to Die attempts to break the formula and wrap things up, the result falls short of satisfying everyone. Like a few other long-running franchises (Game of Thrones, Star Wars, The Matrix, etc.), the intention to do something new often overpowers the skill in which this change is executed, leaving formula skeptics to hail things that formula fans will find botched. So it is with No Time to Die, which solicits dramatic heft without quite making the case that it’s warranted. Hopefully, the Bond producers, having now completed this experiment, we can look forward to a new Bond and a return to the formula.

  • La vie d’Adèle [Blue is the Warmest Color] (2013)

    La vie d’Adèle [Blue is the Warmest Color] (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, May 2021) I did try to watch La vie d’Adèle a few years ago, lured in by the promise of an award-winning movie that also included significant adult content. Alas, I couldn’t make it to the end — even the lure of plentiful sex and nudity couldn’t compensate for the endless three-hour running time and deathly slow pacing. Writer-director Abdellatif Kechiche’s film, adapted from a French graphic novel, follows a young woman through tumultuous years at the end of her teenage years and the beginning of her twenties. It’s largely a story about her relationship with another woman, but not entirely — as the running time suggests, there’s plenty of room for tangents and details, even if the overall plot complexity of La vie d’Adèle could have comfortably fit in half its running time. Much was made of the film’s incredibly graphic lesbian scenes, but in the context of the film, they play as yet another boring directorial indulgence that keeps the narrative standing still. Considering that this is not the first Kechiche film that I bounced off from (I couldn’t make it very long in Vénus noire, another interminable drama far less interesting than its premise), it’s fair to say that he’s working on a kind of cinema that’s not to my liking in general: a kind of naturalistic, observant, mediative drama that I find trivial in most cases and actively irritating in the worst. I’ll grant that he’s clearly no amateur—he knows what he’s doing, and gets his desired effects—if nothing else, the performances he gets from Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos are exceptional. But goodness gracious is La vie d’Adèle boring. I made it to the end thanks to a liberal use of a second screen, and I’m not eager to come anywhere close to it ever again.

  • Juste la fin du monde [It’s Only the End of the World] (2016)

    Juste la fin du monde [It’s Only the End of the World] (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2020) Families imploding is a traditional topic matter for theatrical pieces, and Xavier Dolan’s Juste la fin du monde follows in the footsteps of such great pieces as Osage County in revealing a progressively dysfunctional group of people. Alas, Dolan puts too much trust in the original theatrical material in his film adaptation because it comes across badly and over-stylized. The syncopated dialogue, the overly aggressive characters and the glum subject matter are from the play and they may have been better left there, because they come across as artificial. Then there are the other things that torpedo the film. The constant close-ups of the characters’ faces approach a near-parodic rhythm during the initial introduction scene, and the universality of French-European accents in a story clearly set in French Canada is weird enough to be disorienting. I do like Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Kassel a lot, but they have unbelievable characters here, with Cassel’s character being a simply unbelievable cauldron of constant fury—even the characters get tired of him. Juste la fin du monde plays in caricatures and, by the end, seems almost entirely meaningless. There are the usual Dolan thematic obsessions—gay protagonist, mother-son relationships, blunt use of pop music and difficult topic matter—but they seem mishandled and ultimately don’t lead anywhere.

  • La belle et la bête [The Beauty and the Beast] (2014)

    La belle et la bête [The Beauty and the Beast] (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, April 2020) Considering the innate French-ness of most interpretations of The Beauty and the Beast story, from Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve to Cocteau’s first film version to both of Disney’s takes, it’s somewhat rightful that it should get another French-produced version. Fortunately, the Christophe Gans version of La belle et la bête is a sumptuous, even lavish adaptation that does offer a very nice counterpoint to other takes on the tale. Propelled by the legacy of Cocteau, it offers an unabashedly romantic take on the tale, boosted by sumptuous set design, great cinematography, magnificent visuals, as well as decent (if sometimes uneven) special effects used in interesting ways. The flip side to such a production is that it can feel insubstantial at times, especially if the romantic aspect doesn’t quite hit like it should. Also troublesome is the 19-year age difference between leads Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel, although considering that he starts as a monstrous man-beast isolated for decades in his castle, that’s not really as irritating as you’d think. By adding a lot of extraneous details, such as flashbacks to family affairs, the film does take a while to gel and, even then, may test the patience of some viewers not entirely taken by the poetic romanticism of the tale. Still, this take on La belle et la bête is a beautiful, remarkable film, well worth seeing even if you overdose on the Disney versions.