This is disappointing. I'm hoping that the reason for giving it such a low rating is that French people hate Audrey Tautou and that's it. The trailer looks great and Michel Gondry is incredible. Anyone who has actually seen it have any opinions?
shareI've seen it yesterday and loved it, though I felt there were some small issues with editing in the first half, but it later got sorted.
That said, I love the book and have read it several times. I think somebody who doesn't know it will have a bit less enjoyment of the movie. And there's also the matter of taste and what you're looking for in the movie. To me, just the design and architecture would be enough to like this movie, but if those are not your thing, you'll like it a whole lot less.
Some reviews I read said that the visuals detract from the story, but I don't think that is the case. The story is as powerful as ever, maybe even a little bit more than in the book, and it certainly left me very, very depressed in the end.
No idea why. I read the book decades ago and was charmed by it, so I was very apprehensive of the film and afraid it would disappoint, but it didn't in any respect. The only issue with me was that the film was dubbed in Russian rather than subtitled, but it has nothing to do with the movie itself, although my viewing pleasure was somewhat dampened.
shareI saw it today (in french, i'm not from France but from Quebec, Canada) with my sister and we both like previous Michel Gondry films a lot.
Neither of us has read the book it's adapted from.
When we got out of the theatre, we asked each other if we liked it and we both had trouble saying only yes or only no.
It certainly isn't a bad movie but, is it a good movie?
We felt like the "trademark Gondry visual poetry" was a bit too much. It's almost in every frame. So much that it made the story nearly insignifiant.
Having not read the book, it made us wonder what was actually from the book since it's always stuff like dancing food,, giant legs, spinning handshakes, backwards or transparent cars, crane lifted cloud ride... that can't be in the book, is it?
So we got to the conclusion that it was a good movie, but the story could have been ANYTHING else and it would have been the same...
IMHO the movie just didn't feel like the book. Too many distractions. Make yourself a favor and go read that book. And yes, this stuff and much more is in the book.
shareAnd by "distractions" are you referring to the visual effects? And if your answer is "yes", why is it less distracting in the book while there's even more of "this "stuff"?
shareI do refer to visual effects, but also to the ratio visual fx/content/story and visual fx delivery. In the book it all goes well together, in the film IMHO it just doesn't glue with the rest. In the book the fx are primarily in the specific language Vian writes it. For example he could write sentences that were metaphorical or surrealist depending on how you read it. So it was not obfuscating the characters and plot development.
I think you cannot really say that the "stuff" from the book and it's rendition on the screen are the same. So if I didn't like FX in the movie it doesn't really mean that I should not like the way the book is written.
It is more about the artistic choices Gondry made. So it is not the sheer presence of any visual effects in the film that i found bad, it's rather how Gondry has chosen to represent the surreal/metaphoric/play-on-words elements from the book by visual FX. I really love his visual imagery in the videoclips, I just felt this setup didn't work in the case of L'Ecume des jours.
Well, montagproject. You explained perfectly how I felt about the movie. I still enjoyed the movie, but it translate better in the book. Kudos to the visuals and I enjoy the acting too but somehow it felt there was something missing in the movie.
shareBecause it's a weird-ass movie and some people just aren't fans of that. It takes a while to get into it.
Sometimes, the best answer is a more interesting question.share
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Having seen it I realise why so many people didn't like it, it's simply not for everyone. Having said that, if you are one of the ones for whom this film is so clearly intended you're in for a treat. I personally thought it was amazing. My favourite film of the year.
shareJudging from this thread alone it's at least a very interesting movie to go and see.Oh well,I'm a sucker for french films anywho! :)
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