Revue De Presse
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Service de Presse Revue de presse Les productions et coproductions françaises présentées à la36 ème édition du Festival International du Film deToronto. (Cette liste n’est pas exhaustive) L’Appollonide (House of Tolerance) – Bertrand Bonello “House of Tolerance ” – The Grid TO – September 1 st , 2011 Dir. Bertrand Bonello. Starring Noemie Lvovsky, Hafsia Herzi. 125 min. Visions. Sept 13, 2 p.m., AGO; Sept 17, 6:45 p.m., AMC 3. BY: Adam Nayman GRID RATING: 8/10 An impressively woozy evocation of a 19th Parisian brothel, and one of the most beautifully photographed features in recent memory. Bertrand Bonello’s film is luxurious and, yes, at times leering as the camera roves through the titular “house of tolerance” and its many perennially occupied boudoirs. But this is not a dirty young man’s film; rather, this very talented French director and his brilliant cinematographer Josee Deshales quietly normalize the supple, superb and distaff cast’s constant nudity about five minutes in. From there, the film examines this group’s interpersonal dynamics while also burrowing into the Belle Epoque period with a combination of documentary authenticity and wild poetic fancy. « 61 TIFF films reviewed » - Toronto Star – September 6, 2011 Wondering what to see at this month’s Toronto International Film Festival ? Here is a selection of capsule reviews by Star movie critics and entertainment writers. Titles of recommended movies are preceded by a . Find screening times and other festival information at tiff.net/thefestival. (…) L’Apollonide (House of Tolerance): In the room the whores come and go, talking of Johns they know (sorry, J. Alfred Prufrock!). Set in a Parisian brothel at the dawn of the 20th century, it’s the story of a facially disfigured prostitute (Alice Barnole) with more than the usual reasons to hate men. She has plenty of like-minded company. There’s some powerful sexual imagery, which we’ve come to expect from French director Bertrand Bonello, and the production design impeccably evokes both the era and the world’s oldest profession. But the overall effect is soporific, like staring at a series of paintings. P.H. (…) “House of Tolerance” – Now Magazine – September 10, 2011 France 125 minutes Directed by Bertrand Bonello Program: Visions Starring Noémie Lvovsky, Hafsia Herzi NOW Review Bonnello's languid backstage pass into a high-class Parisian brothel at the turn of the 20th century does for la belle époque what Woody Allen did for Paris in the 1920s in Midnight In Paris. It feels authentic, like a painting come to life. And despite casual nudity that's as omnipresent as the young women's lack of freedom, it's no erotic picnic. What we glimpse is the last vestige of a social grand salon, where artists, writers, politicians and men of power and wealth immerse themselves in an alternate world of manufactured pleasure. Uncanny in its unblinking vision, the dreamlike and sumptuous result rises above cliché. (Paul Ennis) Elles – Malgoska Szumowska “Our critics' picks: 10 films at TIFF you should see” – The Globe and Mail – September 7, 2011 LIAM LACEY’S PICKS (…) Elles Prostitution, the world’s oldest profession and one of its most popular dramatic subJects, is at the centre of this film by Polish director Malgoska Szumowska. Juliette Binoche is a Paris Journalist writing for France’s Elle magazine whose investigation into student prostitutes upsets her own core values. TIFF directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey tipped this film as among their favourites at this year’s festival. When we get a Polish director working in French with Binoche, well, you can’t help think of Krzysztof Kieslowski. (…) How Juliette Binoche faked her orgasm” – MacLean’s – September 14, 2011 by Brian D. Johnson Juliette Binoche as a Journalist interviewing a young prostitute in 'Elles' There has been a full-frontal assault of sex and nudity onscreen at this year’s TIFF. It ranges from Last Tango in Toronto scenarios in Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz to Michael Fassbender flashing some serious endowment in Shame . The festival is also thick with prostitutes. (I’m referring to the movies, not the parties—but who knows?) Fassbender’s character in Shame is hooked on hookers. In Fernando Mereilles ‘ 360 , Jude Law is a travelling businessman who risks his marriage to Rachel Weisz by arranging a call girl. The House of Tolerance luxuriates in a fin-de-siècle Parisian brothel. And Whores’ Glory goes behind the scenes of the global sex trade. But the most astonishing portrayal of sex and prostitution is to be found in a superb French movie called Elles , directed by Polish filmmaker Malgoska Szumowska. Juliette Binoche stars as a Paris Journalist researching a magazine piece about student prostitutes. As two of her subJects talk about their tricks—shown in graphic interludes—her maternal concern for the young women gives way to a disturbing envy. Based on a documentary, Elles doesn’t glamorize prostitution, but it ditches the usual clichés to portray a generation of empowered, self-employed hookers who claim to enJoy their work. They cast their tricks, choosing men they find at least minimally attractive. Their problems are with their social invisibility and hiding their profession from their family. By a fluke, I watched Elles at its TIFF premiere seated directly behind the star and her director. In my long years as a film critic, this has never happened before, and it was downright weird, seeing every nervous twitch and laugh from these two women in the foreground of their film. Like a scene from an Atom Egoyan movie. It was especially strange during Juliette Binoche’s masturbation scene: watching her watching herself struggle to attain orgasm. The following day, in a rooftop lounge of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, I interviewed Binoche, and our conversation inevitably turned to that scene. (She was the one to bring it up.) “I felt a little uncomfortable last night,” she admitted, laughing. “It is acting, of course.” For inspiration, she said her director provided her with some 60 online videos of women masturbating. Not porn actresses, but civilians. “What’s striking is that they almost look like babies sometimes, and other times it’s like giving birth, or death. Some are faking it, and some are in the moment and not faking anything.” For her own prolonged scene, Binoche assured me that her orgasm was simulated. “I’m an artist,” she said. “I Just used my skills and body to recreate something. It’s like a Goya painting. Or sculpting.” It helped to include the crew in the process, she added. “I remember laughing because Malgoska would really get into it. She was as frightened as I was.” Actors, she added “have to have the courage to show intimacy. That’s what we do. In crying there’s a lot of intimacy.” The first time Binoche saw the film, she thought her pale complexion was simply not credible for a woman reaching orgasm. So at her urging, the filmmaker had her face digitally reddened in post- production. When Binoche saw herself in the completed film at the TIFF premiere, she was satisfied. « Elles » - Now Magazine – September 8, 2011 France/Poland/Germany 96 minutes Directed by Malgoska Szumowska Program: Special Presentations Starring Juliette Binoche, Joanna Kulig NOW Rating: NNNN NOW Review This story of Anne (Binoche), a Journalist writing an article about two young prostitutes, could easily have pursued the tired tropes - all sex workers are messed up, housewives are really Just middle class whores - but avoids them. AlicJa (Kulig) and Charlotte (Anäis Demoutier) are fresh-faced college girls unable to resist the easy cash that comes with sex work. As they describe their experience with clients, Anne starts developing her own set of fantasies. This is Binoche's movie. She does wonders without dialogue - showing distress, fear, pleasure - in a performance that is entirely without vanity. But credit director and co-writer Szumowska for giving the film nuance. Rather than depict marital fireworks, she lets Anne's alienated son suggest that the marriage has problems. She also doesn't make prostitution look simple and gives us a final scene to die for. (Susan G. Cole ) Poulet aux prunes (Chickens with Plums) – MarJane Satrapi et Vincent Paronnaud “Partners, in time ” – National Post – September 15, 2011 Mark Medley, National Post While visiting an uncle in Germany, many years ago, MarJane Satrapi came across a photo album filled with pictures of relatives back in Iran. One photograph, in particular, held her attention: that of her mother's uncle, Nasser Ali Khan, whom she was told was "a great musician [who] died out of sadness." "[There] was something so elegant, so romantic, so desperate in his eyes," Satrapi says of her great uncle, who died in 1958. Years later, she resurrected him in the graphic novel Chicken with Plums, "a story about love and about death," which was published in 2006. The film adaptation, which Satrapi co-directed, screens at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Sitting down for an interview at the TIFF Bell Lightbox's sixth-floor patio, it's as if Satrapi has emerged from a black-and-white panel from her critically acclaimed graphic memoir, Persepolis - black shoes, grey leggings, white skirt, grey sweater over a white collared shirt, black sunglasses and tousled black hair flecked with grey. She is Joined at the table by codirector Vincent Paronnaud, who wears dark Jeans, a Tshirt and sunglasses. (Paronnaud does not speak English, so I introduce myself and make small talk in rusty French; I'm proficient enough that he answers all my questions in French, though I will not even attempt to translate his responses.) Chicken with Plums is more like a fairy tale than Satrapi's previous books: 2003's Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and the 2004 sequel Persepolis: The Story of a Return dealt with her childhood and adolescence in Tehran during the Iranian Revolution and subsequent life in Europe.