More on French Films Festival

I have access to internet and Blogger again! Hurray!  This means that I have been able to correct and update my previous post. Still not perfect, of course, but better.

I saw three more films in the French Films festival. Sex, Love and Therapy, The Easy Way Out and Diplomacy. Why did I buy tickets to the first film with such a provoking title? It was for Sophie Marceau. I saw a film with her last year in Poland. It was Chance Encounter, the film, described as “Irresistible charm played to perfection, was also shown in the Sydney festival. So was the Sex, Love and Therapy. Irresistible fluff about nothing played to perfection. If it was not so charming and not so French, I would be perhaps more critical. I had fun watching this irresistibly charming film about nothing. Don’t be deceived about the title. There was really no sex. It was done in a French way, with finesse, about sex, without sex scenes and very sexy. Sophie Marceau has a special talent to play sexy roles. When I asked for a male opinion about her I got an answer: She has a sultry look.  Yes, I agree, and she also has je ne sais quoi that makes her so attractive. I would like to see her one day in a serious role though. Can she do it? I wonder.

Isn't she lovely?

The second film has strong Belgian influence and now that I write about the film few days later after I saw it, I have difficulties to remember what it was all about. On reflection it was about three brothers and their love problems. A drama with an unhappy end. It is about relationships, that they are difficult and that “love and pity are not compatible”. Not very revealing.

The third film was the film that closed the festival - Diplomacy.  Very different to all the others I saw in the festival. This is a serious film about history of the II World War. The action takes place almost exclusively in one room with two major characters deciding future of Paris. It’s to be or not to be of Paris. While we all know the positive outcome of the negotiation, the film is gripping. Paris has survived in spite great sense of duty of its German governor  who was given orders to dynamite the town in August 1944. After disillusion with the Fuhrer, duty towards his family was stronger than to the army orders. The film starts with the pictures of destroyed Warsaw. It is shown it looked after the systematic demolition of the city after the August 1944 uprising. Paris could have looked the same if the diplomatic art of the Swedish consul did not convince the German governor.

 Horrific pictures of ruined Warsaw reminded me of my home country tragedy that influenced many generations. It is amazing how Warsaw managed to restore itself to the current look of a lively town with so many faithfully restored historical buildings. One would no think that the current Royal Castle was only a fragment of a jagged wall in 1976 when I left my town for Paris. When I came back to visit I found the Royal Castle instead of the wall.

Start of the castle demolishon

The job is done

               

Back to its glory

                         

I am so happy that Paris is still all original and that it did not suffer as it was planned.