La mer est froide! Oui, bien sûr. Especially at this time of year. Tonight I've just been to see Crustacés et Coquillages (Cockles and Mussels) (IMDB) which, I can quite confidently say, has been the best and silliest film I have seen in a long while. Being a French film and a bit on the 'arty' side, it might be hard to track down at a cinema near you, but do GO AND SEE IT. Everyone got a bit "ooh" with Brokeback Mountain about how it was revelationary or somesuch, but with Cockles... it brings it all back down to earth.

The combination of slightly dysfunctional relationships against a stunning backdrop of the Provence coast and the air of holiday cabin-fever setting in gives us a tale cavorting and (literally) playing with itself. I've not laughed so much in a while, and this laughter comes from a fine blend of the more uptfront with the slightly darker, cleverer humour. The film is beautiful in all respects of the word.

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In other film news, I went a little pretentious and went along to an early screening of a film adaptation of one of Haruki Murakami's short stories, Tony Takitani (IMDB). As a fan of Murakami, I was intrigued to see how one of his works could be translated into film (albeit one I had not read), and also knowing that Murakami refuses any of his novels to be adapted, my interest was further heightened. Excitingly, it also had a Q&A with the director (which came to be quite an artificial and tense affair).

What I witnessed both fantastic and pretty goddamn awful at the same time. The camera work and photography was masterful; the telling of the story tedious. One could argue that the sense of loneliness and self (or 'individuality') was created by empty shots and a pace that could match that of a poorly, if not dead, snail; but I feel that it oversteps the mark to become empty and distracting from the meaning. If I wanted to be lonely, I'd sit in a room on my own. If I wanted to look at beautiful scenes of Japan, I'd look in a photo album. This film was too much the director's own pretention to achieve its aim.

Talking of pretention, only in a film screening like this could you hear words such as "Does the fact that the father died of a natural illness show that the he is outside of the universality of death?" You what? I had to stifle a snort of derisive laughter. The director simply didn't (to his credit) see the point of the question, answering with "No, he died" and that was that.

Anyway, go and see the wonderfully French Cockles and Mussels. C'est super. Posted: 30-04-06 00:46 :: Permalink: http://ben.corale.co.uk/archive/v1/225.html

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