Set in 1981 against the backdrop of the election of François Mitterand to the presidency, J’aime regarder les filles profiles the life Primo, a student trying to achieve his Baccalauréat diploma and become accepted by a group of rich friends. The film proves charming, albeit incomplete. Pierre Niney, who plays Primo, the unfortunate protagonist, engenders the audience’s sympathy despite behaviour which ranges from naïve to deplorable. Primo wishes to fit in but seems unable to take any responsibility for his actions which hurt himself, his friends and his family. Primo lives in Paris, working at a variety of poor jobs …
Mindnight in Paris
It seems odd that the poster of Midnight in Paris, a seemingly postmodernist film which glorifies cubist and surrealist art movements, features a photograph of Owen Wilson walking along the Seine River which dissolves into an impressionist painting. Perhaps it is meant as a nod towards the inner conflict experienced by protagonist Gil Pender, a victim of a contradiction in that he is engaged to a woman that he increasingly cannot tolerate. Initially Pender alleviates his anxiety by falling in love with the City of Lights and allowing his mind to escape to a time period which suits him better …
Masculin, Féminin
Paul is a young man living in Paris who has recently finished his military service and is now looking for places to work, a place to live, and a place to belong. Madeleine is a photo editor with a French fashion magazine looking for a place to belong. When they meet in a café, they fall in love. However, despite their emotional relationship, they never connect intellectually and remain distant. According to one of the flashcards in the film, Jean-Luc Godard could have called his film Masculin, féminin “For the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” Paul struggles to find a …
Pierre de Ronsard’s “The Nightingale”
My Second Essay for FCS369Y: Irony and Pierre de Ronsard’s “Nightingale” All night the nightingale hears Ronsard’s pleas.Singing, sighing, the bird learns of love scorned.It knows life without love is a heart torn,But it may not see the poem’s irony. Pierre de Ronsard constructs the poem by comparing himself to a nightingale, fluttering from tree to tree and warbling its song during the night, hoping to find true love. The foundation of the metaphor is the role the nightingale as a symbol for tragic love in literature. In his cathedral for Marie d’Anjou, Ronsard used some conventional architecture, such as …
La Dolce Vita
I’ve been told that you need to watch the adjacent Fellini films – The Nights of Cabiria and 8½ – to truly appreciate it, but I didn’t have a problem with the loose narrative of La Dolce Vita. In fact, the plot, seemingly unconnected at times, is essential to the themes that Fellini wishes to address. “Rome: a tranquil jungle where you can hide.”– Marcello Rubini Uttered by at the opening of the film by Marcello, a tabloid journalist, these words endeavour to explain the motivation of the protagonist Marcello and the director Frederico Fellini throughout La Dolce Vita. Marcello …