The Immigrant (2013) - Cotillard scintillates in Gray's classical New-York storytelling

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Three mysteriously looking stars veiled in seriousness adorn this poster for James Gray's The Immigrant

Ewa and her sister arrive to the US from Poland in 1921 but are split up on Ellis Island, and Ewa winds up with a dubious man, hidden from the watchful eye of the law.

 

The Immigrant is written by Ric Menello (Tougher Than Leather (1988)) and co-writer/co-producer/director James Gray (Little Odessa (1994)).

Gray again here shows his gift as a sublime storyteller with a classical film and a story that could have been told 80 years ago as well. The Immigrant has beautiful cinematography (by Darius Khondji (Okja (2017))), production design and costumes. Fine performances from Joaquin Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker (2008)), - but it is Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight Rises (2012)) who once again astounds the viewer with a fully authentic turn as the Polish Ewa, a cowed but not beaten woman, who fights for her sister and her own life.

The Immigrant may seem only distantly relevant to some. For me it was a pure pleasure.

 

Related posts:

 

James Gray: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Lost City of Z (2016) - Gray's grand, adventurous Amazonia epic 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 16 mil. $

Box office: 5.9 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.36 times its cost)

[The Immigrant premiered 24 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 117 minutes. Gray based the story mainly on recollections from his own grandparents. Shooting took place from January - March 2012 in New York. When the film's investors sold the distribution rights to The Weinstein Company, against Gray's wishes, and when Harvey Weinstein demanded a different ending, which Gray refused to give him, the distribution was left in shambles, with the film only getting a very small and unsupported release in North America. The film opened #47 to a 44k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 150 theaters, grossing 2 mil. $ (33.9 % of the total gross). The biggest market for the film was France with 2.2 mil. $ (37.3 %), with North America 2nd biggest and Spain 3rd with 464k $ (7.9 %). The film lost the Palme d'Or to Blue Is the Warmest Color. It was also nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, among other honors. Gray returned with The Red Road (2014, TV-series) and a Chanel commercial prior to his theatrical return with The Lost City of Z (2016). Cotillard returned in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013); Renner in American Hustle (2013); and Phoenix in Her (2013). The Immigrant is certified fresh at 86 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Immigrant?

Nine (2009) - Stars and robes save Marshall's Italian fantasy

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'Be Italian' lures a swanky cast of five non-Italian stars from this glamorous poster for Rob Marshall's Nine

Guido Contino, the leading Italian filmmaker and artiste, is poised to start production on another film, his ninth. But he is blocked from writing its screenplay, and his wife is leaving him. SPOILER Only when he rediscovers the boy within himself can he return to the work.

 

Nine is written by Anthony Minghella (Women (1983, TV-series)) and Michael Tolkin (Deep Cover (1992)), adapting the same-titled 1982 Broadway musical by Maury Yeston (Grand Hotel (1989)) and Arthur Kopit (Phantom (1992)), and directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago (2002)).

It is naturally regrettable to any admirer of Italian cinema that the country's artists don't conquer the world themselves with this musical based on cinema icon Federico Fellini's situation following his 8½ (1963). Yet Marshall has mixed a fiery cocktail with a delectable cast of Daniel Day-Lewis (The Age of Innocence (1993)), Penélope Cruz (All the Pretty Horses (2000)), Sophia Lorén (Angela (1977)), Judi Dench (Quantum of Solace (2008)), Marion Cotillard (The Immigrant (2013)), Nicole Kidman (The Railway Man (2013)) and others and marvelous costumes, so that Nine transports us to an Italian wonderland in its best sequences nonetheless. Fergie's (Marmaduke (2010)) number as Saraghina is very good.

 

 

Marshall talks about the movie in this 4-minute clip

 

Cost: 80 mil. $

Box office: 54 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.67 times its cost)

[Nine premiered 3 December (London) and runs 118 minutes. Cotillard was paid 1 mil. $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from October 2008 - January 2009 in Italy, including in Rome, and in England, including in London. The film opened #21 to a 257k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #8 the following weekend in 1,412 theaters, grossing 19.6 mil. $ (36.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 7.5 mil. $ (13.9 %) and the UK with 4.5 mil. $ (8.3 %). The film was nominated for 4 Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Cruz), lost to Mo'Nique in Precious, Art Direction, lost to Avatar, Costume Design, lost to The Young Victoria, and Song (Take It All by Yeston), lost to The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart. It was also nominated for an Oscar, 5 Golden Globes and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Marshall returned with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). Day-Lewis returned in Lincoln (2012); Cotillard in 3 shorts prior to her theatrical return in Inception (2010); and Cruz in Sex and the City 2 (2010). Nine is rotten at 39 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Nine?

Rust and Bone/De Rouille et d'Os (2012) - Cotillard gives another awe-inspiring performance

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A sensual, strong poster for Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone

 

A crude single father arrives to a coastal city in France with his son and gets a job as a bouncer in a nightclub, where he meets a beautiful woman in distress, who later loses both of her legs in an Orca accident.

Co-writer-director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet/Un Prophète (2009)) continues his style of telling different stories about underclass people we otherwise rarely meet on the big screen, and he once again strikes with a very corporeal tale with a couple of scenes of ugly violence. SPOILER - One of them involves the father and his son, and I found it very hard not to lose all sympathy for the gorilla-like man (played intensely by Matthias Schoenaerts (The Danish Girl (2015))) here. Moreover, Schoenaerts yells the little, crying boy in the head, and I couldn't help but wonder how (or if) they shot that in an ethically defensible way. (I have since read that Audiard deemed this the film's hardest scene to shoot and that the boy knew he would be yelled at but still started crying for real, which is what is now in the film.)

Schoenaerts has a primitive intensity, but it is Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose/La Môme (2007)) who is the center of the film, and she is absolutely stunning, completely melted together with her character and deeply moving in certain scenes, SPOILER especially those in which she overcomes her handicap.

Audiard co-wrote Rust and Bone with Thomas Bidegain (Dheepan (2015)), based on a same-titled 2005 short story by Craig Davidson (The Fighter (2008)). It is a raw film presented without much sugar; it goes for the jugular and should especially be seen for Cotillard's hypnotizing performance.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 15.4 €, equal to approximately 20 mil. $

Box office: 25.7 mil. $

= Big flop

[Rust and Bone premiered May 17 (Cannes) and runs 123 minutes. Cotillard is an animal activist and fiercely against marine parks. Still she spend a week preparing for her role in a marine park, whereas Schoenaerts practised MMA and gained weight. The film came together as a co-production of no less than 17 companies and institutions. Filming took place in 8 weeks in France and Belgium from October - November 2011. The film opened #56 in 2 theaters to a 27k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 168 theaters and grossed 2 mil. $ (7.8 % of the total gross), the film's second biggest market. Its biggest market by far was its native France with 14.5 mil. $ (56.4 %). The 3rd biggest was Germany with 1.5 mil. $ (5.8 %). The film lost the Palm d'Or to Michael Haneke's Amour. It was nominated for 2 Golden Globes, 9 Césars (France's Oscar, winning 4) and numerous other awards. Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Films list. Rust and Bone is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Rust and Bone?

Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowdpleaser

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+ Best Paris Movie of the Year

Owen Wilson walks around in Vincent Van Gogh's classic Paris painting Starry Night on the poster for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

An American couple are in Paris, where the woman's father is finishing a business deal. Her husband is working on his first novel, although she wants him back at Hollywood screenwriting. But every night by midnight, he gets transported back to the bohemian Paris of the 1920s!

Owen Wilson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)) is surprisingly reliable and efficient here, leading a strong ensemble cast with Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose (2007)) and Adrian Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) as Salvador Dalí as other luminous stars here in master writer-director Woody Allen's (Anything Else (2003)) beloved fantasy romcom.
The philosophical point of the film; that life is fundamentally unsatisfying, and that other places in time and other physical locations than the ones that we inhabit are always idealized,-  is classic Allen.
Midnight in Paris is an enthusiastic and beautiful Paris-set movie, (cinematography by Darius Khondji (Irrational Man (2015)).) It's a sweet, charming story, reminiscent of Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), although that's less sweet, and I prefer that film slightly.
One reservation: Why does the present have to be so intensely awful and depressing?

Related posts:

Woody Allen: 2014 in films - according to Film Excess 

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy    
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York 
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review) 
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work 
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor) 

Woody Allen with Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson during shooting of Midnight in Paris

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 151.1
= Huge hit
[Allen scored one of his career's biggest commercial hits with Midnight in Paris, which critics and audiences alike welcomed eagerly: Allen won his 4th Oscar yet for his original screenplay, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Director and Art Direction. It made 56.8 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in the US, and was a particularly huge hit abroad in Italy (8.9 mil. €) and France (8.4 mil. €).]

What do you think of Midnight in Paris?

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression

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Christian Bale in his impressive suit on the poster for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises should undoubtedly attract people with leather and/or domination kinks

Batman has been a depressed hermit for 7 years, having retired Batman, in which time his business has gone to hell. Now a young woman steals a pearl necklace from his safe, and a lunatic by the name of Bain threatens Gotham City ...

Rises is impressive, partially shot in IMAX, and it has scenes, - especially action scenes and those featuring its futuristic vehicles, - which pack a wallop. The production values are top notch, and the huge budget involved here wasn't lost on CGI excesses.
The ensemble cast is huge and also overly so; the film suffers from too many characters and a running time that is way too permissive; the film should have lost about 40 minutes.

Hans Zimmer (Inferno (2016)) has created another rumbling, excitement-awakening score full of chanting and war drums, and Rises also has first-rate sound work. English master co-writer/director Christopher Nolan (Inception) wrote the movie with his brother Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer, trying to tie a highly mythical ending to the Nolan Batman trilogy, while introducing several new but familiar characters (namely Catwoman and Robin), and it becomes too much.
Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)) is menacing as the kind of super-terrorist madman Bain, but the Nolans have kept way too much of his gloom and doom speeches in their final movie. This also makes the film too dark and heavy for a superhero movie. (The film's overly dark mode was made an even more pregnant fact around the time of its summer release, when a young, deranged man shot 12 people and wounded 58, wearing a Bain-like gas mask at a midnight showing of the film in Aurora, Colorado. He later called himself the Joker. The tragedy pulled a heavy, dark shadow over a movie that already had too much darkness in itself.)
Despite its many good elements, Dark Knight Rises is a disappointing end of this Batman, and it also has a nonsense ending, SPOILER in which Batman's death is mourned, after he has sacrificed himself for Gotham in a nuclear explosion; only to mysteriously survive this impossible ordeal and pop up in Florence.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Tom Hardy is fairly unrecognizable as the angry, strong, merciless Bain, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises

Most of the principal characters of The Dark Knight Rises on display in this appropriately dark as !#?¤ artwork

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 230 mil. $ (after tax reductions)
Box office: 1 bl. $
= Mega-hit, 10th highest grossing film of all time

What do you think of The Dark Knight Rises?

A Good Year (2006) - Ridley Scott likes Provence

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+ Worst Poster of the Year + Most Deserved Flop of the Year

Russell Crowe looking humored in a bright shirt in a sunny place is all that this poster for Ridley Scott's A Good Year features

A successful, London-based banker as unendurable as nails on a blackboard inherits a chateau in Provence, France. Over there, he meets a beautiful woman (Marion Cotillard (From the Land of the Moon/Mal de Pierres (2016))) and turns into a bon vivant within a week or so.

As is obvious from the above, the story is as sappily predictable as it is utterly ridiculous. Russell Crowe (War Machine (2017)) feels like a big lion squeezed into a ballerina's outfit in this hideous cliché picture, the only comedy attempted ever by English master filmmaker Ridley Scott (Hannibal (2001)), whose 16th feature it is. The story has come to be this film, because Scott owns a house in Provence and likes it there. - No kidding! It is written by Marc Klein (Serendipity (2001)), based on the same-titled 2004 novel by Peter Mayle (A Year in Provence (1989)), one of Scott's neighbors in the area.
We expect more than this from Scott, and rightly we should. He fares better in films with some darkness and conflict, (which is almost completely lacking in A Good Year), but he has stated in explanation: "I'm very attracted to comedy. At the end of the day, because you've been having a good old laugh, you go home laughing — as opposed to dealing with blood all day and you go home and want to cut your wrists." This is a troubling statement in light of his brother, also master filmmaker Tony Scott's tragic suicide in 2012 and also considering the string of usually bloody, dark films that Ridley Scott is engaged in either as director and/or as producer.
You will likely smile a few times while watching A Good Year, and probably enjoy the acting by young, cute Brit Freddie Highmore (Arthur and the Invisibles/Arthur et les Minimoys (2006)). But that will be about it. A Good Year is a trifle that is almost an insult; a film made for women's magazines, a filmmaker's lazy stroll in the yard - and little else.

Ridley Scott:  Prometheus (2012) or, Even Then, Space Eggs Were Bad News
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

Robin Hood (2010) - R. Scott's grand film of the English legend 

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2008 in films - according to Film Excess 

Body of Lies (2008) - R. Scott's terror actioner is a fatiguing turkey 

2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2007 in films - according to Film Excess 

American Gangster (2007) - Great American - now black - gangster picture

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

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

Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Blade Runner (1982) director's cut - Visual extravaganza, great SF 
Alien (1979) or, Space Eggs Are Bad News

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 42 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.2 times its cost)
[A Good Year premiered 9 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario, Canada) and runs 118 minutes. Shooting took place in 9 weeks in 2005 in London, England, and in France. The film opened #10 to a 3.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it only declined from there, grossing 7.4 mil. $ (17.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 7.2 mil. $ (17.1 %) and Spain with 4.2 mil. $ (10 %). It made in excess of 7 mil. $ on home video sales domestically, which would not change the film's 'big flop' status if figured into the equation. Scott returned with American Gangster (2007). Crowe returned in 3:10 to Yuma (2007). A Good Year is rotten at 25 % with a 4.79/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Good Year?