Bertrand Blier

[domino harvey]

Anyone read Sue Harris’ volume in the French Film Directors Series about Blier? It was released in 2001 so it doesn’t hit a good chunk of his recent work, but I was surprised to learn there was an English language book on Blier

[MichaelB]

I can’t comment on that one, but I enjoyed the Franju and Bresson books in the same series, so I imagine similar editorial standards apply.

[domino harvey]

Yeah, I’ve read and enjoyed the Godard and Chabrol editions. Looks like the series is still going strong too, they just released a volume on Audiard

[MichaelB]

Ooh, thanks for the tip-off - I should pick that up. And indeed catch up on Audiard - I'm pretty much 100% up to and including A Prophet and 0% thereafter.

[domino harvey]

Calmos is a one note idea, but I don't think it's the one that TWBB (and seemingly Letterboxd, if the few reviews I read are any indication) highlights of gender reversal (which I don’t think this is an example of). Rather, I suspect this film is Blier's puckish response to the outcry that met his previous film as being misogynistic. Blier then addresses these critiques by going sooooooooo far in that direction that getting offended seems pointless-- why work yourself up about something intended solely to provoke? And that's really what I think this is, a 100 minute "Oh yeah?" to those who thought the last film was too much. I can sort of admire this idea in principal, but the reality is that the joke gets old fast and even with what I charitably take to be ironic detachment on the part of Blier from the monotonous woman-hating antics that preoccupy this film, I still don't love spending so much time in the presence of this mindset. The film also clearly laughs in my face at thinking Les valseuses was "remarkably vulgar"-- I concede, it's true, I had no idea what true vulgarity looked like until Calmos. I don't know, maybe that makes it a success, whatever.

Also, the last two set pieces of this movie are outré enough to lead to all of cinema being canceled if anyone but the French ever saw this

[domino harvey]

Si j'étais un espion is one of the most boring movies I have ever seen in my life, and I go out of my way to not use that word. Certainly the strongest reinforcement of my off the cuff "There are no good spy movies" comment last week. Good lord, can you imagine if Blier continued in this direction instead of reinventing himself with his next film?

[therewillbeblus]

Agreed, I couldn't tell you anything that happens in the film and I watched it five weeks ago, not because the plot is convoluted (I don't think?) but because I lost all interest in the goingons immediately and just faded in and out til the movie eventually ended. I like le Carré's literature a lot because he gives us a real look at the vulnerable internal psyches of the stone-faced agent, obsessing about a spectrum of fears, doubts, insecurities, and trivialities related to professional and domestic fronts during the unsexy languid lifestyle of the spy. But consequently, his books make for terrible films because they visualize boredom without translating the value of the literary first person perspective. This is a film much like a le Carré adaptation, except that since Blier was not himself a spy, there isn't even a shred of a singular experiential voice to hang a hat on

[kubelkind]

Anyone read Sue Harris’ volume in the French Film Directors Series about Blier? It was released in 2001 so it doesn’t hit a good chunk of his recent work, but I was surprised to learn there was an English language book on Blier

I have this but not read it for a long time. I should dig it out again as it's a great read if I recall. There's a lot of discussion of the allegations of misogyny against Blier (following on from the chapter on his work in Jill Forbes' superb book on post-Nouvelle Vague French cinema) but no easy conclusions drawn, Blier's place in the French film industry, his artistic forebears (cafe theatre, absurdism etc) and analysis of the films, grouped in terms of themes and artistic strategies rather than a film-by-film analysis. It never gets bogged down in arcane theory like some of the books in this series (thinking of the Carax one in particular!).
I've been enjoying all the Blier talk here - he's an exteremely uneven director for me (and by the looks of things, for everyone else here!) but when he "hits", there's nothing like him. I'm intending to rewatch the films at some stage soon and catch up with a few lesser ones that passed me by, and will enjoy going through this thread alongside this.Merci La Vie is the masterpiece for me, which I actually found extremely moving

SpoilerShow

I'm approximately the same age as Charlotte G and suspect this is one for the 90s kids, invoking the fetishes and the nightmares of the era together with a fair few non-era-specific ones. For me, Merci La Vie boils down to a young girl (Gainsbourg) and her dream or fantasy or nightmare or reverie of what her future life has in store. Grinberg is her more confident and experienced imaginary best friend, who she may have based on a character she saw in a film set during the WWII occupation. Or the homework she repeatedly talks about wanting to do is on this subject, who knows. Hopes and fears for a lifetime, anticipations of pleasures (cool boys, a loving family, adrenaline pumping fast cars etc) and pains (disease, abusive men, horrible families, Holocaust-level evil returning to Europe). This for me was the kind of ideal "dream film" others have seen in Lynch "Mulholland Dr", which I thought was OK (OK...very OK) but for me got a bit too bogged down in clichés. "Merci La Vie" consciously revels in clichés, but treats them like costumes to put on and quickly discard as the characters change clothes/personalities/film genre contexts from scene to scene, just as when you wake from a dream for a few seconds, you'll land in a different place when the dream resumes. I appreciate this is a fairly reductive interpretation but it was my way into the a film which determinedly frustrates any linear progression through its narrative and themes (and I wouldn't have it any other way, of course) and which flips comedy/tragedy on a whim in the usual Blier style. The b&w scene where our heroines discover the movie set and the balloon is one of the most gorgeous in all of cinema for me. Damn, I want to see it again now.

[domino harvey]

Just learned Combien tu m'aimes? received an English-friendly Blu-ray release in South Korea (under the english title How Much Do You Love Me?). I couldn't find any reviews online but I ordered a copy and will report back

Also, La Femme de mon pote has an English-friendly Blu-ray in France as well, as part of their Coluche box set (all of which have English subs, including a Jean Yanne-directed Biblical comedy that I'm excited to watch after loving Les Chinois à Paris)

(I've updated the first post with the English-friendly releases I'm aware of, but please let me know if there are any others I missed)

[therewillbeblus]

Just learned Combien tu m'aimes? received an English-friendly Blu-ray release in South Korea (under the english title How Much Do You Love Me?). I couldn't find any reviews online but I ordered a copy and will report back

Do you mind sharing where you ordered it from? It’s only showing up on eBay for me, but hoping there’s a cheaper way to sample

[domino harvey]

I ordered on eBay but there appear to be cheaper options from a variety of Korean retailers in a $27 range, but the transit time was absurd to me (up to three months?!). I bet there are people here who regularly buy from Korea who may have better options