American Splendor (2003) or, Happily Unhappy Together

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Paul Giamatti as protagonist Harvey, struggling to compose his comics on a poster for Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini's American Splendor

Meet Harvey Pekar from Cleveland, Ohio. He's a file clerk, divorced, and more or less permanently unhappy. Then he begins to make up comic book stories based on his own life.

American Splendor is a biopic drama about Harvey Pekar, comic book author of the American Splendor (1976-08) comics. It is also a docu-type adaptation of these comics, and the real life Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner also appear shortly in the film as themselves. - They also act as narrators of their own story in what is a rare, innovative and successful mix of fiction and reality. It is the feature debut by master filmmaker marrieds, writer/directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (The Extra Man (2010)). Pulcini also edited the film, which is also adapts Pekar and Brabner's comic Our Cancer Year (1994).
Other meta-layers of Splendor go off less successfully; e.g. a scene of Paul Giamatti (Private Life (2018)) as Pekar getting lost in digitally created snow in a search of self.
But on the whole, American Splendor is funny and smart, and Judah Friedlander (Beware the Gonzo (2010)) is wonderful as a nerd in it. Watching it can be likened to watching a film and its making of documentary at the same time.

Related posts:

 

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini: Girl Most Likely/Imogene (2012) - Wiig is great as another dysfunctional woman in Berman & Pulcini's unfocused fare
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Extra Man (2010) - One of the year's best films is this overlooked comedy gem 

Watch a 3-minute video of Pekar's appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman here

Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 7.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.95 times its cost)
[American Splendor premiered 20 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. The film was intended as a TV movie for HBO. Shooting took place in Ohio, including Cleveland, in the fall of 2001. HBO put up 0.5 mil. $ more for the post production finalization of the film. The film opened #37 to a 159k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it 16 and in 272 theaters, grossing 6 mil. $ (76 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 701k $ (8.9 %) and Australia with 287k $ (3.6 %). The film was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, lost to Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won an AFI award, a prize in Cannes, was nominated or 5 Independent Spirit awards, won 2 National Board of Review awards, a Sundance award and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Berman/Pulcini returned with Wanderlust (2006, TV documentary) and theatrically with The Nanny Diaries (2007). Giamatti returned in The Pentagon Papers (2003, TV movie) and theatrically in Paycheck (2003); Hope Davis (The Newsroom (2012-13)) in The Matador (2005). American Splendor is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.29/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of American Splendor?

Another Year (2010) or, Life in England

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2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Screenplay: Mike Leigh (lost to Christopher Nolan for Inception) 
Best Lead Actress: Lesley Manville (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia)

+ Best Dramedy of the Year

German poster version featuring a big tree shedding its leaves, evoking the film's melancholic tendency, for Mike Leigh's  Another Year

Another Year centers on the married couple Tom & Gerrie, who have an allotment garden and seem to have cracked how to live a happy life. We observe them with the people around them for a year. They have, - the majority of them, - not broken the same code to life that Tom & Gerrie have.

Great, British writer-director Mike Leigh (Career Girls (1997)) serves an incredibly sober dance with his (often) drunk countrymen here. The writing, presentation and acting is so authentic and talented that the sparks catch fire, and a truly moving film about the fickle, human condition results. Especially Lesley Manville's (Fleming (2014), TV-series) difficult performance as Mary must be singled out; she gives a truly great performance here with a firmly lasting resonance to it.
Another Year is a very fine drama with outstanding performances, - and with welcome streaks of humor laced in it throughout, a film that should not be missed.
Bravo!

Related posts:



Mike Leigh: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
All or Nothing (2002) - Leigh wrangles more working class destinies with great performances 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 19.7 mil. $
= Minor flop (returned 2.46 times its cost)
[Another Year premiered 15 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 129 minutes. The budget was helped by a 1.2 mil. £ grant from the UK Film Council, but Leigh commented it was his lowest "for a long time." Shooting took place following the director's usual extensive rehearsals, running for 12 weeks between May - December 2009 in England, including London. The film opened #30 to a 111k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 236 theaters, grossing 3.2 mil. $ (16.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 2.9 mil. $ (14.7 %) and main production country the UK with 2.7 mil. $ (13.7 %). The film was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, lost to David Seidler for The King's Speech. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, 4 British Independent Film awards, a David di Donatello award, 2 European Film awards and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Leigh returned with A Running Jump (2012, short) and theatrically with Mr. Turner (2014). Jim Broadbent (Vanity Fair (2004)) returned in an voice performance and 2 miniseries prior to his theatrical return in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011); Ruth Sheen (Vital Signs (2006, TV-series) in 2 shorts and a TV-series before her theatrical return in Welcome to the Punch (2013); and Manville in Playhouse: Live (2010, TV-series) and then theatrically in Womb (2010). Another Year is certified fresh at 92 % with an 8.15/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Another Year?

The Last Exorcism Part 2 (2013) or, A Last Chicken Exorcism

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A self-ironic poster for Ed Gass-Donnelly's The Last Exorcism Part 2, which fails because it may make people believe that they are in for a spoof comedy

This is a follow-up to the successful found-footage possession horror movie The Last Exorcism (2010), which also starred Ashley Bell (Novitiate (2017)).
Films are much about the expectations they raise, and how those expectations are met, and my expectations for The Last Exorcism Part 2 were not high, to put it mildly. The title in itself is laughable. Any 'Last' something obviously shouldn't have a Part 2
The corny poster design is in line with this concept, which would make one expect a horror comedy.
With these thoughts I embarked on watching the film, and I was positively surprised to find that it has a (mostly) coherent plot. And is set in New Orleans, with the obligatory parade, and a visit to the zoo, which looks awesome.
And the premise for the plot is even a fresh angle on possession films: 

The formerly possessed cult young woman is moved to a home for troubled girls, whom she connects with, and she tries to come back to normal life and pays attention to the home leader's atheism, and even gets a strange boyfriend, but, lo and behold; the demon is still there.

The troubled girls' home isn't really used for any of the many things that it might have been used for horror-wise, and you never get to know any of the girls, (in fact, they don't seem like troubled girls at all.)
The romance is stale and lacks chemistry and energy. Bell has an interesting look and possessed act that holds our attention for most of the film, even if she's 26 while playing a 17 year-old, and even though many of the scare scenes disappoint. They are not that scary and/or are not staged right. Despite the indication in the poster, the film doesn't have any new sensational effects or particularly grueling scenes. (Besides one scene in which the girl floats to the ceiling while asleep and sexually aroused.)
The beginning of the film was confusing to me; it seems that the girl suddenly appears in the home of a young couple? After which this scene seems to have no relation at all to the rest of the film. Then there are the flashbacks, which are too many, and not the old-fashioned kind of flashbacks that tell us something specific, but mostly the more modern kind with flashing lights and screaming so that audiences that have not seen the first The Last Exorcism (...) will only gather that the girl has already been through something horrible in her past. (And why else would she be at the troubled girls' home in the first place, we might interject with some reason.)
SPOILER Then comes the central exorcism scene that the girl willingly agrees to. This is a kind of black magic-inspired exorcism, in line with the New Orleans setting. It has by this point been established that the demon loves the girl and therefore does not want to leave her. But in the exorcism, the trio of mystics throwing around salt and other things intend to say mystic words and then lure the demon out of its beloved subject to live, instead, in a wild chicken that they have brought with them for the purpose. This questionable plan understandably fails.
The ending is not scary and a major let-down for anyone mildly invested in the film.
But with the proper, incredibly low expectations, you will not be too disappointed by The Last Exorcism part 2, which however definitely lets down the expectations of self-aware humor set by its title and poster.
The film is written by Damien Chazelle (Grand Piano (2013)) and co-writer/director/editor Ed Gass-Donnelly (This Beautiful City (2007))

Related posts:

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a short trailer for the movie here

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 25 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5 times its cost)
[The Last Exorcism Part 2 was released 28 February (Russia) and runs 88 minutes. Shooting took place in New Orleans, Louisiana. The film opened #5, behind fellow new release Jack the Giant Slayer, holdover hit Identity Thief, new release 21 & Over and holdover hit Snitch, to a 7.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its second week and grossed 15.1 mil. $ (60.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Brazil with 1.5 mil. $ (6 %) and France with 1.2 mil. $ (4.8 % ). Though successful commercially, the film's gross is far from the 1.8 mil. $ first film's 67.7 mil. $ gross. Gass-Donnelly returned with The Determinist (2014, short) and theatrically with Lavender (2016). Bell returned in Sparks (2013). The Last Exorcism Part 2 is rotten at 15 % with a 3.58/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Last Exorcism Part 2?

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) or, The Men of Magic

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+ Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

Three big stars, three shades of ridiculous; here on the effervescent poster for Don Scardino's The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is a Las Vegas-set farce comedy that (finally) pulls the finger solidly on the ridiculous world of professional magicians. It is based on Chad Kultgen's script, Burt Dickinson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth, bought by New Line Cinema in 2006, with rewrites by John Francis Daley (Vacation (2015)) and Jonathan Goldstein (Bones (2011, TV-series)) and story contribution by Tyler Mitchell (Kidnapped (2007, TV-series)).

Burt and Anton are magicians who have been doing the same show, more or less, for 10 years, and their 'magical friendship' is has also lost its magic touch. But making solo acts proves harder than they both had thought, and in returning to their game, they have to fight off the young, hot competition; extreme street magician, Steve Gray.

Wonderstone is a wonderful comedy of the type that don't come around very often: Originally plotted, skilfully executed, and with a stellar, game cast: Steve Carell (Melinda and Melinda (2004)) co-produces and shows off his great comedic and dramatic talent as the bloated ego title character, who in the course of the film has to come back to Earth. He is supported by Steve Buscemi (Time Out of Mind (2014)) as his magical partner Anton Marvelton; an amazingly funny Alan Arkin (Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)) as the magician child idol, Rance Holloway; James Gandolfini (The Mexican (2001)) as the aptly named hotel franchise boss, Doug Munny; and Jim Carrey (The Truman Show (1998)) as the awful present day personification in the guise of guerrilla street magician, Steve Gray. Olivia Wilde (In Time (2011)) tries to navigate in this testosterone-heavy, male-dominated world, and she does well, although she doesn't get a single laugh in herself here.
Arkin on the other hand, continues his string of delightful, comedic roles here; a late career comeback of sorts that seems to have gotten fueled out of his work in the beloved and also Carell-starring Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
The film here is a glitzy, pop-music filled, happy time balanced with dark humor and a real reverence and nostalgia about artistic craftsmanship and better, nobler, past days in show-business. The many magic acts are done with care, and it is a joy to see them; the ones that are explained, and the ones that aren't. David Copperfield acted as magical advisor on the film and also cameos in it. Much of the film was shot in Vegas, and it both shows and feels right.
Wonderstone is a treat that holds many laughs and a well-rounded story. It is even suitable and enjoyable as a wacky family watch. It is directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Don Scardino (Me and Veronica (1992)).

Related posts:

Don Scardino:  2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess
30 Rock - season 4 (2009) - Fey, Baldwin & Co. return for long but often hilarious fourth season 
30 Rock - season 3 (2008) - Fey, Baldwin, Krakowski and Co. make comedy gold 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30-34 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 27.4 mil. $
= Huge fop (returned between 0.80-0.91 times its cost)
[The Incredible Burt Wonderstone premiered 8 March (SXSW Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 100 minutes. After several rewrites and years of development, shooting finally took place from January - March 2012 in California, including Los Angeles, and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Oz the Great and Powerful and fellow new release The Call to a 10.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 22.5 mil. $ (82.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 2.6 mil. $ (9.5 %) and the UK with 0.9 mil. $ (3.3 %). Scardino returned with 19 TV credits so far, (TV-series and TV movies), and has left the theatrical feature world alone. Carell returned in The Office (2005-13)) and theatrically in Despicable Me 2 (2013); Buscemi with a voice performance in Monsters University (2013) and physically in Grown Ups 2 (2013); and Wilde in Rush (2013). The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is rotten at 37 % with a 5.16/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone?

Automaton Transfusion (2006) - Awful zombie rubbish debut

[ZERO]

+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year

The caption on the poster for Steven C. Miller's Automaton Transfusion clearly shows how unreliable reviews from a site like bloody-disgusting.com are, (but bear in mind that it says nothing of how reliable the reviews from Film Excess are, which is a wholly different story)

About ten minutes before ending, Automaton Transfusion offers a kind of a story: During the Vietnam War, the government was experimenting with living dead soldiers, and they have now gotten lose, especially among high school students!

This film is even worse than Monstrosity (1963), the preceding reviewed turkey title on Film Excess, as it doesn't have any curious, historic elements or so-bad-it's-good redeeming qualities. Automaton Transfusion is just plain terrible:
Terribly lighted, terribly shot, terribly acted, terribly lighted ... - and did I mention that it is terribly lighted? Well, it is terribly lighted, - really, really terribly lighted. The editing is awful. The effects are simple and bad, (I guess that is to be expected from a zombie movie with a 30k-50k $ budget.)
The premise is actually not that bad, but it is served way, way too late in the bloody, screaming hodgepodge. The writing is so bad, (by the film's debuting writer/director Steven C. Miller (Line of Duty (2019)).
The film suddenly stops with the text caption; 'To be continued ...' I deliberately don't warn of spoilers in this review, because a film this bad can't be spoiled
Automaton Transfusion is an utter waste of time. Do yourself a favor and skip it.

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Estimated 30k-50k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Automaton Transfusion premiered 18 October (Screamfest Film Festival, California) and runs 70 minutes. Shooting took place in Florida, including Orlando, and in Los Angeles, California in July 2005. After playing at 4 North-American horror movie festivals, the film was released on DVD. It also enjoyed some kind of release in the UK and was screened at Sitges International Film Festival of Cataluna, Spain. The gross results are regrettably not disclosed. Miller returned with Chinese Guys (2008, TV-series), Scream of the Banshee (2011, TV movie) and theatrically with The Aggression Scale (2012). 2,227 IMDb users have given Automaton Transfusion a 3.7/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Automaton Transfusion?

Monstrosity/The Atomic Brain (1963) - Crazed doctor schlock

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Alluring girls in chains are promised on this creepy, salacious poster for Joseph V. Mascelli and Jack Pollexfen's Monstrosity

An old rich woman wants to get her doctor Frank to transplant her brain into a younger bimbo, so that she can carry on her bitter existence in a fresher body.

The characters of Monstrosity have all the depth of teaspoons, and the plot is studded with excessive amounts of rambling voice-over and incoherent developments. Here's an example of some of the film's more amusing narration:

Narrator: Three new bodies. Fresh, live, young bodies. No families or friends within thousands of miles, no one to ask embarrassing questions when they disappear. Victor wondered which one Mrs. March would pick. The little Mexican, the girl from Vienna, or the buxom blonde? Victor knew his pick, but he still felt uneasy, making love to an 80 year old woman in the body of a 20 year old girl; it's insanity!

The supposedly 'scientific' element in this sci-fi/horror/monster movie unsurprisingly consists of a crazed doctor, smoking lab equipment and flashing lights. SPOILER A woman has her brain switched with a cat's, which is a mitigating circumstance in Monstrosity, (and one that may hold certain perspectives...)
The film was directed by Joseph V. Mascelli, whose only other credits are as cinematographer on such films as The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies !!? (1964), and Jack Pollexfen (Indestructible Man (1956)), whose movie career apparently ended abruptly with the release of the auspiciously titled Monstrosity. Pollexfen also co-produced it and contributed uncredited work on the script by Vy Russell, Sue Dwiggins (Indestructible Man, both) and Dean Dillman Jr..

Listen to 10 minutes of Gene Kauer's score for the film here

Cost: Estimated 40k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Monstrosity was released in September (USA) and runs 64 minutes. Shooting took place in just 10 days in Los Angeles. Pollexfen fired Mascelli during production and finished directing the film himself. There are regrettably no details concerning its theatrical release. The film is available for free end legal download now right here. Mascelli turned to photographing a few more 1960s movies, before his career in films ended; Pollexfen left movies alone completely after Monstrosity. 2,251 IMDb users have given Monstrosity a 2.9/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Monstrosity?

Confidential Report/Mr. Arkadin (1955) or, The Mysterious Past of the Great Gregory Arkadin

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Sexy women, murder, mystery and massive close-ups of its co-producer/director/star's bearded face are promised on this typical for its time poster for Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin

Mr. Arkadin is a film nour-ish, international spy thriller written and directed by Orson Welles (The Trial (1962)), who also plays the title role as the mysterious tycoon, Mr. Arkadin. It is based on several episodes of the radio series The Adventures of Harry Lime (1951-52), written by Welles and Ernest Borneman (Tremolo (1938)).

The driving character in the film is a small-time smuggler (Michael Redgrave (Assignment K (1968))), who gets hired by Arkadin to dig up information about Arkadin's own past, as he seemingly suffers from a memory loss that has dissolved everything before 1927. 

'Seemingly' is an important word for the mystery that is Mr. Arkadin, (both the character and the film, really), the agent finds out, as he races from country to country on leads, often finding key figures dead on arrival. Besides one stint in Mexico, where he gets to talk to an old, settled ex-girlfriend to the man, who is revealed to have had a different identity before 1927, the investigations take place in several war-weary, cold, poor and disillusion-ridden European countries.
Akim Tamiroff (After the Fox (1966)) plays the disillusioned Jakob Zouk to perfection, a man who just wants a goose liver. In another scene the agent interviews a fascinating flee circus manager, and you get to see actual performing flees. All these curious scenes from a dilapidated, weak Europe are reminiscent of Carol Reed's great movie, The Third Man (1949), in which Welles plays the equally mysterious power figure Harry Lime, and Arkadin was actually inspired by the Lime-character.
Many other scenes take place in Spain, where the production shot in Segovia, Valladolid, Costa Brava, Madrid and possibly more places. Much care and attention went into catching local culture like a procession of penitents and a masque ball.
As to the worth of the film, Mr. Arkadin receives a generously enthused four stars from here.
The problems with it are quite a few, and undoubtedly some of them stem from the fact that it was taken from Welles' creative control and edited into several versions by its co-producer Louis Dovilet. No less than seven versions (at least) thus exist of Mr. Arkadin! In this way, the film itself is also wrapped in an attractive veil of mystery, even if the plot seems frail and at times incomprehensible as a consequence.
Other problems are the very varied performances in photography and acting: Cinematographer Jean Bourgoin (Goha (1958)) sometimes succeeds with sweeping traveling shots and poignant compositions, but at other times, especially in one-on-one conversations, the shots simply do not match together, and the abrupt style and incessant use of Dutch angles is disruptive. No doubt Hal Hartley's awful Fay Grim (2006) draws inspiration from by Mr. Arkadin.
Redgrave is not a very charismatic or interesting in the other lead as Arkadin's agent, and in many instances, acting performances vary, and the dubbing isn't very well achieved.
Still in all, Mr. Arkadin is a fascinating and exciting film, wherein Welles plays with myth and history and stages himself as a kind of grand and mysterious film wizard.
Also, the ending of the film is exciting and does not let down the vivid expectations of tragedy and gloom that the film builds up.

Related posts:

Orson Welles:  F for Fake (1973) - Welles' eccentric fakery meditation is a trip
Catch-22 (1970) - Nichols wages war on war with ensemble cast in absurdist adaptation (supporting actor)
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (co-star)
Citizen Kane (1941) - The cold elephant on the shelf 

Watch Welles as Arkadian tell a story of a scorpion in this 1-minute clip from the film

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Mr. Arkadin premiered 27 June (Barcelona, Spain) and runs 93-106 minutes (according to which of the seven or so versions of it you watch.) Shooting took place in London, England, Switzerland, Spain, Germany and Italy from January - August 1954. The film was taken from Welles during post- production, when he exceeded a deadline, and the debacle of the film's many 'rival' versions were later described by Welles as the "biggest disaster" of his life. The public domain 95 minute version is not worth watching, as it eliminates the film's nonlinear flash-back structure, whereas the 2006 Criterion edit (completed by experts, including Peter Bogdanovich, 21 years after Welles' demise) may be the one closest to Welles' vision. Mr. Arkadin was released in the UK and Spain in 1955 and in several other European markets in 1956. In 1957 followed Portugal and Argentina, and only in 1962 was the film released in North America. Gross numbers are lost, but it reportedly sold 517k tickets in France, - and likely also drew crowds in Spain due to its many locations there. On an expected low budget, the film may have been profitable. Welles returned with 3 TV projects before his theatrical return, Touch of Evil (1958). As an actor he returned in Moby Dick Rehearsed (1955, TV movie), Ford Star Jubilee (1956, TV-series) and theatrically in Moby Dick (1956). Mr. Arkadin is fresh at 80 % with a 7.14/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Mr. Arkadin?

Antoine and Colette/Antoine et Colette (1962, short) - Unrequited love in Truffaut's Paris

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The 1960s-chic stars of François Truffaut's Antoine and Colette look young and intriguing on this poster for the short

Antoine et Colette is a 32 minute short, which was great French writer/director François Truffaut's installment in the anthology Love at Twenty/L'amour à Vingt Ans, which also features shorts from directors Shintarô Ishihara, Marcel Ophüls, Renzo Rossellini and Andrzej Wajda.
The film reconnects us with Antoine and his friend Rene from Truffaut's tender hit debut The 400 Blows/Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959) for the second in what came to be five films about Antoine, following him go from boy to grownup, every time in the shape of Jean-Pierre Léaud (A Matter of Taste/Une Affaire de Goût (2000))
It is wonderful to see that the famously open, beach-set ending of Les Quatre Cents Coups was not a tragic farewell to a lost youngster: 

Antoine has matured three years and is now 17 and lives alone in Paris, where he works for Philips, manufacturing LPs. He falls in love with another music-lover, Colette, who regrettably does not repay his sentiments and actually acts very shabbily towards her young suitor.

With charming music and editing ploys and the story, which in all its delicate simplicity is one of unrequited love, this short plays like a delicious, bittersweet trifle.

Related posts:

François Truffaut: The Bride Wore Black (1968) - Truffaut lets Moreau serve ice-cold revenge
Stolen Kisses/Baisers Volés (1968) - Minor nouvelle vague Antoine Doinel-romcom 

The melancholic song Love at Twenty plays over a poignant still photo montage during the short's ending in this clip

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Antoine and Colette premiered 22 June (France and Germany's Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 32 minutes. Producer Pierre Roustang contacted Truffaut about the anthology or omnibus movie idea, and Truffaut helped pick the other 4 filmmakers for it. The project allowed him to go back to his alter ego Antoine character, whom he would revisit and keep alive in another 3 films. The story here reflects Truffaut's own quitting a welder job to move after a girl he fancied to Paris as a 17 year-old, who would eventually turn him down. Shooting took place in Paris, France. The film was released in 7 more European markets up to 1965, as well as in the US and Japan, but gross information is regrettably lacking. The Antoine Doinel saga continued with Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979). Truffaut returned first with Los 4 Golpes (1962, short) and theatrically with The Soft Skin/La Peau Douce (1964). Léaud returned first in Mata Hari - Agent H.21 (1964); Marie-France Pisier (Parking (1985)) in The Devil and the Ten Commandments/Le Diable et les Dix Commandements (1962). 3,591 IMDb users have given Antoine and Colette a 7.6/10 average rating.]
 

What do you think of Antoine and Colette?