Artivels Undescribable Perfection

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

John McElwain The film is based on Élisabeth Fanger's autobiographical story, J'Avais Dix Huit Ans of (translated as either "I was 18" or possibly "When I was 18"). She was 18 and in her last year of high school when she fell in love with Sid Mohamed Badaoui, a bank robber. She was still 18 a few months later when she fled with her lover and started her 2 years as a fugitive in Spain, Morocco and Greece.Along with Garrel's more notable effort, Les Amants Réguliers, these two French filmmakers (both over 60 years old) might be trying to re-live their youth and make a film they could have made 30 or 40 years before. They aspire to create cinema like the best of the French filmmakers a few years their senior, but fail to note that these successful French film makers from the 60's and 70's made deeply personal films. It's not the pacing of the efforts that is at fault, but a lack of anything concrete to say. Just a long dose of ennui with a little existential nausea thrown in for good measure.

MisterWhiplash A Tout de Suite is one of those little-seen and little-known French films that play for a couple of weeks at the Angelika theater in New York City- and subsequently get a playing once or twice on the Sundance channel- and it stays fairly in obscurity for the rest of cinema's days. I saw it first in the theater on a whim, and I was pleasantly (if that's the word to use) surprised on how effective the minimalistic style used by Benoît Jacquot helped suppress the probable insufferable melodrama. It tells the story of Lili (Le Besco), who is 19 and is surrounded by a kind of teenage wasteland, though mostly through her relationship with a man who is a thief. He gets in a botched bank robbery and has to hide away, and she does so with him...all the way out of France and into a Muslim country (or what seems like it, maybe it was Morocco). It's not anything that leads to any big point about adolescent angst or disillusionment or even about bourgeois discontent, but it's a fascinating film for what Jacquot decides to show with small scenes, of moments so contemplative just based around how he and his DP shoot the actors (mostly in close-ups), and how time feels not totally joined together in a weird way. And while IMDb says different, as I remembered seeing it the Pink Floyd song Shine on You Crazy Diamond was used to fantastic effect, in a similarly subdued manner. Nothing is very highly charged with emotions, and if they are it's only in small, sudden bursts; everything is so under the surface it's as if everything will come out at the seams as Lili wanders in a daze around a foreign country- a true Lost in Translation scenario, all based on a faux- love situation.Bottom line, if you want to watch some good- and yes, pretentious- film-making, this is one to keep an eye on for a real late-night screening on IFC or Sundance or whatever, and see if it's worth the couple of hours. I was very glad I took a chance back in 2005 in that near empty theater, even if I haven't seen the film since, as it has that authentic, independent feeling that leaves one oddly satisfied.

shirleyhodge Enjoyed this movie. As one reviewer said: it shows what it was like to be 19 again. I liked the way the story was developed but wish there was a sequel. It somehow touched me deeply, especially the way it dealt with sexuality. The way the story ended was interesting - but frustrating. I would like to see more movies by this director. The scenery shots were nice. I wish the movie could have been a little longer, so as to develop more of the story. I saw the movie several times, just in case I would never be able to see it again ever. The fact that it is based on a book, a memoir makes it all the more fascinating. I was interested in hearing that the female star was of mixed heritage. I would like to read the book from which this story was taken but it does not seem to be available in the US - translated or not.

John Koenig This film was so terribly BORING. The 'lovers' are boring, insipid losers. Ratso Rizzo was an engaging unforgettable interesting loser. These characters are just flat, cardboard idiots with no reason to be filmed. They deliver almost all of their lines in flat whispers and monotones. The wannabe suspenseful scenes have no suspense... in fact I didn't realize certain scenes were supposed to be suspenseful until I looked back wondering what this movie was even trying to say or do. ALL of the would-be exciting action takes place off-screen. Characters come and go with little explanation. 'Location' scenes in foreign countries have no character or appeal. Really, NOTHING about this film has appeal, except for the obligatory nudity of the lead actress and the wasted looks and acting of the female co-star. The cinematography is grimy, poorly lit black and white. I warn everyone, save your time and your money. This film is UN CHIEN! The audience I saw it with groaned when it ended.