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

Showing posts with label Christophe Barratier. Show all posts

8/11/2022

Le Temps des Secrets (2022) - Barratier misses with period drama with an acute case of the cutes

♥♥

Three happy children roam the wild hills of Provence on this pleasant poster for Christophe Barratier's Le Temps des Secrets

Marcel goes away with his family for Summer vacation in Provence and reaffirms his friendship with the local peasant's son there. But this year, a girl comes between the two.

Le Temps des Secrets is written by Laurent Turner (La Chance de Ma Vie (2010)) and co-writer/director, French master filmmaker Christophe Barratier (The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004)). It is an adaptation of French writer/filmmaker Marcel Pagnol's autobiographical Souvenirs D'Enfance novels (1957-60). The title translates to 'the time of secrets'.

Barratier lavishes expensive camera work and production values but regrettably comes to present a film that feels too much like window dressing and prettying up of its period, France anno 1905, than an authentic travel back in time. The costumes are too neat, the actors too well-groomed, and the kids, though not bad performers, lack blemishes. It strains the naturalism that they look like they were tricked away from a soap commercial in this case anyway. The grand and 'storytelling' score is also too much and often only further alienates.

One comes to look at the story, which is a yarn of various boyhood experiences, including a dangerous grotto and snake capture, the strange and dubious family of the snooty girl that Marcel falls for, his own father's infidelity and mother's women's lib engagement and a few other entanglements. SPOILER The ending gives us a major reveal (the girl is actually a boy), but no more knowledge or insight into the curious fact, nor into the fate of her or her peculiar swindling family.

Despite sweet moments, beautiful landscapes and tolerable craftsmanship, Le Temps des Secrets is an unsatisfying experience, where one wonders what Barratier was aiming for. It is a bit here, a bit there, and generally too sentimental and pat. The Pagnol novel series have been adapted before, in the undoubtedly more worthwhile My Father's Glory (1990) and My Mother's Castle (1990) by Yves Robert, - lauded films that are on my watchlist now.

Christophe Barratier: Top 10: Best French movies

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Top 10: Best family movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004) - The inspiring-teacher masterpiece

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9.27 mil. €, approximately 9.5 mil. $

Box office: 3 mil. $ and counting

= Mega-flop (has returned 0.31 times its cost to date)

[Le Temps des Secrets premiered 21 January (Alpe d'Huez Festival, France) and runs 108 minutes. 12 companies and support bodies collaborated in making the film. It opened #2 in France, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and has grossed 3 mil. $. Other markets are Belgium, Canada, Denmark and Sweden, with grosses from there not reported online yet and likely negligible. Barratier does not have his next movie announced yet. 161 IMDb users have given Le Temps des Secrets a 6.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Le Temps des Secrets?

5/25/2022

Top 10: Best French movies

1. Children of Paradise/Les Enfants du Paradis (1945) - Marcel Carné

2. Mustang (2015) - Deniz Gamze Ergüven

3. The Artist (2011) - Michel Hazanavicius

4. The Butcher/Le Boucher (1970) - Claude Chabrol

5. The Past/Le Passé (2013) - Asghar Farhadi

6. La Grande Illusion (1937) - Jean Renoir

7. Three Colors: Blue/Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993) - Krzysztof Kieslowski

8. Blue Is the Warmest Colour/La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 & 2 (2013) - Abdellatif Kechiche

9. The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004) - Christophe Barratier

10. The Intouchables/Intouchables/Untouchable (2011) - Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano

Selected from 85 titles labeled 'France'

Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best family movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best films about filmmaking

Best first-of-franchise movies

Top 10: Best 'flop' rank movies

Best Twentieth Century Fox titles

What do you think of the list?
Which French films would make your personal Top 10?

12/05/2021

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Top 10 of the Year

1. The Chorus/Les Choristes - Christophe Barratier + Best Family Movie of the Year + Best French Movie of the Year + Best Mega-Hit of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year

2. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - Adam McKay + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best San Diego Movie of the Year

3. With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II/Pusher II - Nicolas Winding Refn + Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Crime Movie of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Sequel of the Year

4. Machuca - Andrés Wood + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Chilean Movie of the Year + Best Coming-of-Age Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year

5. The Notebook - Nick Cassavetes + Best Breakthrough of the Year: Ryan Gosling + Best Melodrama of the Year + Best Romance of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year: Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams + Best South Carolina Movie of the Year

6. Napoleon Dynamite - Jared Hess + Best Dance Movie of the Year + Best Dollar Return of the Year: 115.25 Times the Cost + Best Idahoan Movie of the Year + Best High School Movie of the Year + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year

7. Before the Fall/Napola – Elite für den Führer - Dennis Gansel + Best Boxing Movie of the Year + Best German Movie of the Year + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year

8. Collateral - Michael Mann + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year

9. Beautiful Boxer/บิวตี้ฟูล บ๊อกเซอร์ - Ekachai Uekrongtham + Best Biopic of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Best Sports Movie of the Year + Best Thai Movie of the Year

10. Finding Neverland - Marc Forster + Best London Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Freddie Highmore

Other great 2004 movies (in alphabetical order):

Along Came Polly - John Hamburg + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best Romcom of the Year

The Aviator - Martin Scorsese + Best Epic of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 24.52 mil. $ range

Dawn of the Dead - Zack Snyder + Best Gore Movie of the Year + Best Remake of the Year + Best Zombie Movie of the Year

Head-On/Gegen die Wand/Duvara Karşı - Fatih Akin + Best Drama of the Year

The Libertine - Laurence Dunmore + Best English Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

Saw - James Wan + Best Horror Movie of the Year

Shrek 2 - Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 217.92 mil. $ range

Six Feet Under - season 4 - Alan Ball + Best Continuing TV-series of the Year

What's Wrong with This Picture?/Tid til Forandring - Lotte Svendsen

Good, recommendable 2004 movies (in alphabetical order):

Brothers/Brødre - Susanne Bier + Worst Poster of the Year

Closer - Mike Nichols

Deadwood, season 1 - David Milch, creator + Best New TV-series of the Year + Best Western Title of the Year

The Edukators/Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei - Hans Weingartner

Howl's Moving Castle/ハウルの動く城 (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) - Hayao Miyazaki

Mean Girls - Mark Waters

She Hate Me - Spike Lee + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.18 Times the Cost

The Bottom 10 of the Year

1. A Hole in My Heart/Ett Hål i Mitt Hjärta - Lukas Moodysson

2. The Eye 2/見鬼2/Gin3 Gwai2 2 - The Pang Brothers

3. New Police Story/新警察故事 - Benny Chan

4. Alien vs. Predator/AVP - Paul W.S. Anderson + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

5. Garden State - Zach Braff + Most Overrated Movie of the Year

6. 2046 - Wong Kar-Wai

7. National Treasure - Jon Turteltaub

8. The Sea Inside/Mar Adentro - Alejandro Amenábar

9. Palindromes - Todd Solondz + Best Poster of the Year

10. A Home at the End of the World - Michael Mayer

Other failed, mediocre and/or poor 2004 movies (in alphabetical order):

Blade: Trinity - David S. Goyer

District 13/Banlieue 13/B13 - Pierre Morel
Exorcist: The Beginning - Renny Harlin + Most Deserved Flop of the Year
The Final Cut - Omar Naim

Garfield - Peter Hewitt

The Grudge - Takashi Shimizu

House of Flying Daggers/十面埋伏/Shí Miàn Mái Fú/Sap6 Min6 Maai4 Fuk6 - Yimou Zhang
The Incredibles - Brad Bird
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, video - Peggy Holmes, Theresa Cullen, Carole Holliday + Best Christmas Movie of the Year

Ocean's Twelve - Steven Soderbergh
Oh Happy Day - Hella Joof

Seed of Chucky - Don Mancini

[48 titles in total]

Notes:

The first update of the 2004 lists adds 12 titles to the mix; none breach the top 10, while 1 new title gets into the bottom 10. Still only two 2004 films have perfect 6/6 'masterpiece' rating and two with the lowest 0/6 rating. From the top:

Christophe Barratier's amazingly well-made and beautiful, family-friendly, school-set period drama The Chorus is the year's best, followed by the other masterpiece, Adam McKay's ludicrous, hilarious San Diego-set news anchor satire Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
The Top 10 goes on with Nicolas Winding Refn's best film yet, the hard-boiled Copenhagen crime thriller With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II; Andrés Wood's outstanding coming-of-age drama set during Chile's Salazar regime, Machuca; Nick Cassavetes' soaring romance melodrama adaptation The Notebook; Jared Hess' fabulously quirky low-budget comedy debut Napoleon Dynamite; Dennis Gansel's sensitive Nazi schooling drama Before the Fall; Michael Mann's lean, cool Los Angeles-set hitman thriller Collateral; Ekachai Uekrongtham's outstanding gender-fluidity boxing biopic Beautiful Boxer, and finally Marc Forster's moving fantasy drama Finding Neverland.
The year also saw the release of Laurence Dunmore's great costume drama The Libertine, Martin Scorsese's Leonardo DiCaprio-starring Hollywood grand-scale biopic The Aviator, Fatih Akin's heady proforma marriage drama Head-On, James Wan's innovative horror classic Saw and Zack Snyder's effective zombie remake Dawn of the Dead.
Among the just good offerings are found the first season of David Milch's western series Deadwood, the insistent German political drama The Edukators and Mark Waters' popular high school comedy Mean Girls.
At the bottom of the barrel, Swedish master filmmaker Lukas Moodysson's complete dud, the pornography-hating, apartment-set feel-bad flick A Hole in My Heart takes the prize as the year's worst. The Pang Brothers' truly remarkably incompetent The Eye 2 follows sharply behind as the second grade zero title of the year.
The remaining films at the bottom are: Benny Chan's condescending action franchise reviver New Police Story; Paul W.S. Anderson's preposterous sci-fi franchise mash Alien vs. Predator; Zach Braff's aggravating 'young-man' drama/romance indie Garden State (new entry), Wong Kar-Wai's pretentious, overrated art movie vacuum 2046; Jon Turteltaub's mumbo-jumbo adventure hike National Treasure; Alejandro Amenábar's euthanasia-embracing drama The Sea Inside; Todd Solondz's uncomfortable, strange Palindromes; and finally Michael Mayer's jumbled alternative-family drama adaptation A Home at the End of the World. David S. Goyer's ridiculous vampire action franchise-killer Blade: Trinity leaves the bottom list in this update.
Among the list of other 2004 titles that led expectations hanging we find outputs from master filmmakers Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Twelve), - however both were financially highly successful.
While some major stars cemented their power in 2004 movies, - among others Julia Roberts (Closer and Ocean's Twelve), Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland and The Libertine, a flop but a great film and performance), Ben Stiller & Jennifer Anniston (Along Came Polly) and Tom Cruise (Collateral), - the year also saw breakthroughs for the likes of Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) and Rachel McAdams (The Notebook and Mean Girls), and one former major star reached a new low for his career; Robin Williams in The Final Cut.

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. The Aviator - 24.52 mil. $ range
2. Exorcist: The Beginning - 18.8 mil. $ range
3. The Libertine - 15.68 mil. $ range
4. Blade: Trinity - 13.44 mil. $ range

5. She Hate Me - 7.4 mil. $ range
6. A Home at the End of the World - 5.9 mil. $ range
7. 2046 - 4.24 mil. $ range
8. New Police Story - 3.98 mil. $ range
9. Before the Fall - 3.02 mil. $ range

10. Seed of Chucky - 2.08 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 99.06 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Shrek 2 - 217.92 mil. $ range
2. The Incredibles - 160.56 mil. $ range
3. Howl's Moving Castle - 70 mil. $ range

4. The Grudge - 64.88 mil. $ range

5. Saw - 40.36 mil. $ range
6. National Treasure - 39 mil. $ range
7. Ocean's Twelve - 35.08 mil. $ range
8. Mean Girls - 34.6 mil. $ range

9. Garfield - 31.24 mil. $ range

10. Along Came Polly - 29.32 mil. $ range

= Combined profits: 722.96 mil. $

On the 2005 Oscars:

Hosted by Chris Rock for the first time, Scorsese's The Aviator led nominations with 11, followed by Finding Neverland and Million Dollar Baby with 7 each. The night's biggest winners became The Aviator with 5 statuettes, Million Dollar Baby with 4 and The Incredibles and Ray with 2 each.
So fell the Oscars:
Million Dollar Baby won Best Picture, Director (Clint Eastwood), Actress (Hilary Swank) and Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). The other Best Picture nominees were The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray and Sideways.

Jamie Foxx won Best Actor for Ray, which also won for Sound Mixing. Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, which also won for Art Direction, Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Costume Design (Sandy Powell) and Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker). Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth won Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor Best Adapted Screenplay for Sideways. The Incredibles won Best Animated Feature; The Sea Inside Best Foreign Language Film; and Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids Best Documentary. The short Oscars went to Mighty Times: The Children's March (doc.), Wasp (live action), and Ryan (animated). Jan A.P. Kaczmarek won Best Score for Finding Neverland; Jorge Drexler Best Song for Al Otro Lado del Río from The Motorcycle Diaries. Incredibles also took Best Sound Editing. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events won Best Makeup, Spider-Man 2 Visual Effects. Honorary Oscars went to Sidney Lumet and Roger Mayer. 42.14 mil. viewers clocked in in North America, a 3 % decrease from the previous year's show.

2004 titles still on the watch-list:

The Card Player, Lightning in a Bottle, Kinsey, The Raspberry Reich, Innocence, Nobody Knows, Binta and the Great Idea, Wandering Shadows, The Ninth Day, Dead Man's Shoes, Being Julia, Vera Drake, A Very Long Engagement, The Phantom of the Opera, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Ryan, Birthday Boy, Gopher Broke, Guard Dog, Lorenzo, Everything in This Country Must, Little Terrorist, Mighty Times: The Children's March, Autusm Is a World, Sister Rose's Passion, Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, Super Size Me, Twist of Fate, Downfall, Yesterday, Shark Tale

Previous annual lists:

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

2019 in films - according to Film Excess
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

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

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the 2004 list?
Which 2004 titles would make to your top and bottom lists?
Which worthwhile 2004 titles are missing on the watch-list?

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

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)

8/11/2022

Le Temps des Secrets (2022) - Barratier misses with period drama with an acute case of the cutes

5/25/2022

Top 10: Best French movies

12/05/2021

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (5-25)

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