BELOVED (2011)

Told over the course of 30+ years BELOVED starts in 1960's Paris where we met a young woman (the beautiful Ludivine Sagnier) who works at a women's shoe store and makes money on the side by sleeping with guys for cash.  She ends up falling in love with a young doctor and they have a daughter.  Life happens and the two separate, she takes the daughter.  Years later we met the daughter as an adult and she's pretty messed up.  Partying hard and in and out of troubled relationships.  The mother is now played by Catherine Deneuve and the father by Milos Forman, who continue there on-again-off-again sexual relationship despite the fact she's now married to some other dude.

One thing that struck me off guard, but I ended up enjoying, was the characters occasionally start singing.  Not full length musical numbers, but brief musical moments of dialogue or sometimes just, I guess you would call it narration.  The first time it happened, I was like "What the fuck is going on?", but then I came to expect and enjoyed it.  I don't know if the singing was done by the actual actors or not, but it seemed pretty believable to me.  It brought to mind the singing from THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG.

I liked BELOVED, but at 139 minutes it overstayed it's welcome by like 20 minutes.  Also I never really cared for any of the characters.  Yeah, they've got problems, but it seemed to me that most of their problems were self-made.  They all had nice clothes and places to live, but yet they filled their time by getting shitfaced and feeling sorry for themselves.  So I guess in that sense it's pretty realistic!

Okay story that's never compelling, interesting little musical moments, Catherine Deneuve looking old but still beautiful, self-pity, good acting by Radivoje Bukvic and Paul Schneider.  Worth a watch, but nothing to go out of your way for.

HOTEL AMERICA (1981)

After she nearly runs him over with her car, Helene (Catherine Deneuve) hooks up with total loser Gilles (Patrick Dewaere).  Right from the start this relationship is doomed, but yet for whatever reason they keep plugging away at it even though Gilles has the maturity level of an infant.  He's constantly pouting and throwing temper tantrums.  And when he's not doing that he's either storming off or getting drunk.  This dude is a total mess!  At one point he's shit faced and she's driving him home so he throws their house keys out the car window then tries to wreck the car while saying "We should get married."  What the fuck is wrong with this guy?!  Oh, yeah he's also extremely jealous of her last boyfriend...who died in a swimming accident!  Also, his best friend is an unemployed musician who goes around stealing calculators, begging for money and acting like a total creep to everybody including Gilles' younger sister.

Deneuve is beautiful as always, but I just couldn't get over what an asshole Gilles was.  I guess that's the point of the film, but it's too frustrating to be enjoyable.  Here this guy hooks up with a beautiful woman and he gets so butthurt over the fact that she still has a place in her heart for her dead ex that he sticks out his bottom lip and lays in bed for days(!!!) not eating and when she tries to be nice to him he jumps up and starts slapping her around!  What the fuck?

Technically, HOTEL AMERICA looks fine and the acting is good, but it's just not my cup of tea.  Maybe you'll enjoy watching these two cold, disconnected lovers more than I did.

LE CHOC (1982)

I don't know what it is about hit men, but it seems that all of them want to quit their job.  Usually after one last one big score. 

Professional assassin Alain Delon does his one last job, but when he tells this criminal bosses that he's through they tell him no, he knows too much.  He kills the assassin sent to kill him then escapes out to the countryside where he meets the beautiful Catherine Deneuve on a turkey farm.  (I'm gonna go start hanging out at turkey farms!)  Naturally, even though she's married she falls for the studly Delon.  More people show up to kill him and now he goes on the run with Deneuve.

With any other actress I probably wouldn't have even given this film a chance, but I'm a sucker for Deneuve and because of her alone I liked this movie.  The story is highly unbelievable, but with two great leads it's still a fun ride with a nice romantic twist on the old retiring assassin story.  Recommended although it could have definitely been spiced up with some bigger action scenes.

 The condition of these horses piss me off.