Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Monsieur Ibrahim/Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran (2003) - Actors shine in Dupeyron's sincere coming-of-age drama

8/29/2020

Monsieur Ibrahim/Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran (2003) - Actors shine in Dupeyron's sincere coming-of-age drama

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Coming-of-age Movie of the Year + Best Paris Movie of the Year

A teenage boy and veteran star Omar Sharif walk in a street on this poster for François Dupeyron's Monsieur Ibrahim

Momo is a Jewish teenage boy in 1960s Paris, where he lives with his depression-plagued father in a prostitution street, as he develops a strong bond to the local shopkeeper, the Muslim monsieur Ibrahim.

Monsieur Ibrahim is written and directed by great French filmmaker François Dupeyron (Drôle d'Endroit pour une Rencontre (1988)), based on the same-titled novel by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt (The Sect of the Egoists/La Secte des Égoïstes (1994)) and his screenplay based on it, entitled Coran.
It is an erotic coming-of-age drama with distinguished acting from Pierre Boulanger (Road Games (2015)) portraying the lovely boy Momo and from Omar Sharif (Mother/588 rue Paradi (1991)), who gives life to the wise, vivacious title character, which would have served as an exceptional end, had Sharif chosen to retire after it. (He instead had another 17 acting credits left in him.) Gilbert Melki (Mr. Average/Comme Tout le Monde (2006)) is also good as the reserved father.
There's much more to the film here than one thinks upon first sight. It has handsome, sensual photography (by Rémy Chevrin (Delicacy/La Délicatesse (2011))) and lots of wonderful music.
Monsieur Ibrahim is truly touching, a film with (almost) everything, and surely among the year's best.

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here - regrettably without subtitles

Cost: 5.3 mil. €, approximately 6.31 mil. $
Box office: 12.3 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.94 times its cost)
[Monsieur Ibrahim premiered 29 August (Venice Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in Turkey. The film opened #50 to a 53k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 92 theaters (different weeks), grossing 2.8 mil. $ (22.8 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was Germany with 3.5 mil. $ (28.5 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and Italy was 3rd biggest with 2.2 mil. $ (17.9 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, won a César award, was nominated for a Goya, won a National Board of Review award and a prize in Venice, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Dupeyron returned with Inguélézi (2004). Sharif returned in Hidalgo (2004). Monsieur Ibrahim is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.02/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

8/29/2020

Monsieur Ibrahim/Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran (2003) - Actors shine in Dupeyron's sincere coming-of-age drama

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

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