any reviews from france?
or do we have to wait till tiff reviews come in?
"they should give nicole kidman an oscar for being able to show any emotion after THAT much botox".
It's just bad.
Here's my review on a Dylan site:
http://expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?p=769606#p769606
The director desperately tries to create a magical mood with eccentric touches but his writing is everything but original and imaginative. Zellwegger is like Nicole Kidman in your quote except she can't express any emotion. Whitaker gets irritating due to overacting (he also won an Oscar but he can choose parts such as "Battlefield Earth", so...).
The musical side of the movie makes little sense. It doesn't really evoke Dylan's imagery, you just get some Robert Johnson name-dropping and Nick Nolte as Neil Young substitute. I felt the interest for music completely superficial.
The reviews from France are in but nobody can read them.
It's quite obvious, even if you don't read French:
http://www.allocine.fr/film/revuedepresse_gen_cfilm=134458.html
There's definitely a backlash in the French press against the director. People might be jealous of the commercial success of the Piaf biopic but he isn't helping by making an ass of himself promoting the movie. The audience reception is definitely mixed. It was released last Wednesday in France, but it was only the 6th new release in term of box office.
The trailer didn't help, as it's impossible not to think of the fake "Simple Jack" movie from "Tropic Thunder" when you watch it.
The reviews might be in but are hard to understand. All I can gather is that they are mixed.
I don't know why you are saying that the director is making an arse of himself. Care to elaborate?
And what has the trailer got to do with anything? You've seen the whole movie, I presume?
Mostly, a few websites and TV programs have given the movie 3 out of 4 stars. Almost every serious review just gives it one star or nothing at all. The word "indigeste" (heavy-going) is shared by a few critics.
The director did interviews where he was basically the second coming of Kubrick, Truffaut, Cassavettes and Coppola, all rolled in one. When "La Vie en rose" became a worldwide hit, he may have become convinced it was all because of him and he became much bolder. On the positive side, he had the guts to ask Bob Dylan for a complete soundtrack, which sparkled last year's "Together Through Life" album. On the negative side, he seems now to think that he's big enough to have Dylan obey any of his requests.
I have seen the entire movie, as I mentioned in my first post, and it's quite ridiculous. The trailer puts Forest Whittaker in "Simple Jack" mode (if you've seen "Tropic Thunder", you'll know what I mean) and the movie is actually worse in that regard, as Forest also does the "Magical Negro" part. It's supposed to be a journey into the real America but it unfortunately piles up clichés under a naïve imagery.
There have been lots of European directors who have done their own personal American movie, such as Wim Wenders or Emir Kusturica, so it was sad to get such a shallow result with this one.
Thanks for linking that site. I wasn't able to find a review of the film there but I did find an interview with the director:
http://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-20836/interviews/?cmedia=18952388
If you can find a link to an actual French review (en Français) I'd be interested in reading it.
http://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-20836/interviews/?cmedia =18952388
there you go.
Use Things, Not people.