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philippebresson · 1 year

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Mini-buzz & Mini-bus !

Avant l'ère des réseaux sociaux, je n'avais pas la possibilité de lire entre les lignes de ceux ou celles qui me faisaient vibrer rêver rire ou pleurer à travers leurs films, leurs livres, leurs chansons, et c'était très bien comme ça. Je les imaginais beaux et belles à l'infini, spirituels, fins, drôles, fantasques, fous juste ce qu'il faut, classes forcément, singuliers, audacieux, fantasques, brillants, percutants... À présent que je peux lire leurs déclarations, leurs réactions parfois à l'emporte-pièce sur ce réseau ou un autre, je tombe (souvent) de ma chaise haute et... plus dur sera le chut !

Pas plus tard qu'aujourd'hui, parcourant la polémique #cinemadauteur engendrée par une célèbre actrice sur son compte officiel* (ça me fait rire ce mot, "officiel", apposé à côté du nom d'une "personnalité"), laquelle semble ne pas se rendre compte qu'elle saute à pieds joints dans un contresens évident, encouragée par des milliers de fans aveugles ou sourds ou, probablement, qui ne savent pas très bien de quoi elle nous parle, je me demandais, naïf comme aux premiers temps de ma vie pourtant déjà bien entamée : est-elle "officiellement" idiote, stupide, elle qui m'a encore ému, bouleversé au cinéma cette année dans un film fait "Avec amour et acharnement", tant son jeu était juste, complexe, riche, ambivalent, subtil, dérangeant, ou fait-elle en sorte de créer un mini-buzz à l'attention de ceux (et celles bien-sûr !) dont elle imagine que la pensée voyage en mini-bus ?

Rien n'est plus déprimant que la bêtise (feinte ou certifiée) et particulièrement celle que l'on croise inopinément à l'angle de deux rues qui ne mènent nulle part.

* Officiel : 1 - Qui émane d'une autorité constituée. 2 - Certifié par l'autorité.

#juliette binoche #jamel debbouze #avec amour et acharnement

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adarkrainbow · 3 months

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I have been sharing things about French fairytale movies. We have been talking about Cinderella. As such I want to speak about a movie I actually can't really speak about because I have not seen it... But I need to just talk about it because... Well, you'll get it. It is the 2017's Les Nouvelles Aventures de Cendrillon (The New Adventures of Cinderella).

Now to understand WHERE this movie comes from, we need to return to 2015 and the release of another movie "The New Adventures of Aladin".

This movie is a comedy, an humoristic retelling/parody of the Aladin tale - France has quite a history of One Thousand and One Nights-cinema, and already humoristic takes on similar stories had been done (Gérard Jugnot had notably played in an humoristic Ali Baba movie I saw when I was young, for example). Here the main star and the actor playing Aladin is Kev Addams, which was then a young humorist that had been on the rise for quite a few years and was an "idol of the youngs", so to speak. The gist of the movie is: two thieves are disguising themselves as Santa Clauses in modern-day Paris to steal at the Galeries Lafayette. But they are stuck with a group of children who asks them for a story - and so to get rid of them, they decide to tell them an improvised version of the story of Aladdin, which in turn parallels the real-life events surrounding the thieves.

[Note the writing of "Aladin" with one "d", to carefully avoid any Disney lawsuit.]

This movie was very, very popular in theaters. It was popular enough to actually get a sequel called "Alad'2" (a pun on how "in" sounds like "un", "one"), which also was one of the leads of the box-office in France, and brought in another French humorist, this time of the "previous generation" before Adams - Jamel Debbouze:

But there was one problem... Both movies were absolutely torn to shreds by the critics. In newspapers, on websites, everybody agreed that these movies were actually bad, and not at all good movies nor great comedies. In fact, the reviews of the movies and the sales corresponding to it clashed so much it caused an online scandal when it came to the website AlloCiné (one of the French websites of reference when it comes to cinema), who was openly accused of faking reviews and inventing profiles to boost this movie's note - because it seemed impossible, with all the negative critics and the backlash, that the movie could obtain a mid-rating (3/5).

All of that to say, these movies were very polarizing - seen as embodying the typical bad comedies and a certain "downfall" of French cinema everybody has been talking about in the 2010s, and yet being massively mediatized and very popular among young audiences especially, and bringing in a lot of cash...

Now we reach our movie. Welcome "The New Adventures of Cinderella"! Which technically seems like a spin-off of the Aladin movies, and yet by its chronological placement seems to be a sequel "by the principle", not directly following it while still reusing its principle and referencing the previous movie (this movie was released BEFORE Alad'2)

This movie basically does what "Les Nouvelles Aventures d'Aladin" did - it is an humoristic retelling/open parody of Cinderella, framed as an adult being forced to tell a story to children. In this case it is Julie, a young girl who finds herself alone on the day of her birthday, without anybody remembering it... Until Marco, the man she secretely loves (and the son of her boss) calls to tell her he is coming over. Filled with hope she awaits... only to discover Marco brings her his son because he needed a last-minute babysitter. Stuck with this particularly bratty child, Julie is forced to tell him a story, and fed up with everybody treating her like a servant, she decides to tell a version of Cinderella where she plays the main role - and Marco is the prince she tries to win. Other characters from her life are recast: her boss is the king, her bitchy colleagues are the wicked stepsisters, her annoying neighbor if the evil stepmother... And Snow-White with her seven dwarves pop up at some point - because just like with the "Aladin", Disney references are quite present...

The main actress (Cinderella/Julie) s Marilou Berry, who truly was noticed and became quite famous thanks to playing in "Vilaine", and after passing by a series of movies (including "Les reines du ring"), she had another focus thanks to the success of the "Joséphine" movie. The cast also gathers other actors quite used to the world of comedy, ranging from older generations of the "classics" (Josiane Balasko as the wicked stepmother, Didier Bourdon as the king) to more recent ones (Arnaud Ducret as the prince Marco, Vincent Desagnat as the prince's older brother).

Now, I have not seen the movie, so I can't confirm or infirm this... But when it was released, this piece got bashed. Really, really hard. Harder than the Aladin movie, from people simply calling it "unfunny" and "cringe" to other actively pointing it out as being offensive and sexist, if not misogynistic. Aladin's note online roughly went around a 3/5. This one hesitated between 2/5 and 1,5/5. Now, again, I can't say I agree or disagree with these reviews because I have not seen the movie - and we all know a mass-opinion can be wrong. It seems more recently kinder reviews have been opping around the Internet - pointing out that all the backlash ths movie received was exaggerated and the piece was better than what everybody descibed.

Now, if you want my two pences of thought, I do believe that maybe this has to do with the audience that went to see these movies. As I said, Kev Adams was quite the "idol of the youth" when he did the Aladin movie (I don't know if he still is), but he had a BIG fanbase among teenage girls for example, as well as a certain scope to a young audience. And precisely who kept talking about these Aladin movies and who was more interested in those Aladin movies? Children. Meanwhile this Cinderella movie lacks any star or face that a young audience could recognize - no real Kev Adams. Yes, Marilou Berry is here, but her audience is not known to be young children - and as such, I do believe that the Aladin movies were favored by having a natural "fanbase" and already formed young audience ready to dig in. Meanwhile here two of the prominent stars are actors who symbolize the humor of the 20th century and are now quite aged - Balasko and Bourdon - who will speak to adults, but probably not to children... Anyway I am really speaking out of anything here, especially since I haven't seen the movie, but I do believe that this played a part in how this movie was received in a lesser way than the Aladin ones. (Plus the Aladin movies were clearly aimed at a male audience, which coupled with Kev Adams' natural teenage girl fanbase and the big success of Disney's Aladdin among girls, made sure both genders could go see it without shame - meanwhile this movie is clearly a "girl movie" meaning the audience is already restricted a bit more... And as such much more offended - as I said the movie was accused of being a piece of misogynistic jokes (doesn't help that there are only men who wrote and directed this movie).

But again, it might also have to do with the movie just being bad, you know. After all the man behind this movie (Lionel Steketee) is not the one that made the first Aladin movie (Arthur Benzaquen) but rather the one that did its lesser-appreciated sequel... Though the same script-writer was used for both (Daive Cohen).

Now, my only question, from what I have seen (extracts and trailers and previews) is actually... What is the target audience? Maybe it will clear up when I get to see the movie but this is all framed and sold as a kid-friendly entertainment, it even being an "all-public" movie to which families are supposed to be able to bring their kids but... a lot of the jokes I have seen are typical of adult things. I mean there's a lot of sex jokes for example, which made me think originally this was an adult movie, but then it also kind of is framed and written as a kid-level comedy and... Yeah this leaves me a bit confused. Just take the movie's poster, at the top of the post... You can't tell me there isn't a big sexual innuendo in the way the prince "rides" Cinderella! And yet it is sold as a movie kids can go watch and that isn't for a more mature audience? Anyway, I do not have a lot to say, since I haven't seen the movie, but I wanted to make a "preparation" post for when I will get to see it.

(I will just add that while some of the jokes I have seen do seem really bad - like a certain joke about a character's throat which was used already in Les Visiteurs 3 and seems really out of place in a kid movie, clearly taken from the Men in Black - some actually made me laugh. Most notably there is a great slapstick moment you can glimpse in the trailer where the Lady Tremaine-like stepmother just... headbutts Cinderella for speaking to her. I did quite like this joke as it subverts the pose and subtle threat of the Disney-wickedstepmother, while also clearly dedramatizing the violence into a goofy, cartoonish way. But that's just me.)

#i am fascinated by this movie because i do not understand it #and i have this sort of bile fascination where you clearly had efforts put in there in the making and yet everybody is absolutely hating it #french movies #fairytale movies #i don't want to even tag this cinderella in case when I watch it i realize it is just as bad as people said

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