Film n. 16: Take this waltz

Manchester by the sea

I spent just a couple of days at the Rome Film Fest, but I’ve been lucky enough to see one of the most beautiful movies of 2016. A gem called Manchester by the Sea, written and directed by American film-maker Kenneth Lonergan.
This NY born director is better known for his work as screen player (he co-wrote Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese, to name just one thing) but he already directed three movies. I was a huge fan of his first feature, You can count on me (2000), which revealed the talent of two actors who had incredible careers afterwards: Mark Ruffalo and Laure Linney, and I followed the troubled story of his second movie, Margaret: originally scheduled for release in 2007, it was repeatedly delayed while Lonergan struggled to create a final cut he was satisfied with, resulting in multiple lawsuits against the studio that produced it! In the end, the movie was released in a 150-minute version in 2011 and Lonergan eventually completed a three-hour extended version which was ready on DVD in 2012! What a story… 

But let’s go back to Manchester by the Sea: Lee Chandler lives in Boston, alone, working as a handyman in different buildings. One day, he received a phone call: his older brother Joe, who suffered from a heart disease, died while on his fishing boat. Lee is obliged to go back to his home town, Manchester by the Sea. He is not happy about it, because something awful happened there years ago. Something Lee can’t forget, something he’s trying to escape from, but his brother’s death and the fact that he has been nominated tutor of Joe’s only son, Patrick (17 years old), don’t leave him any choice. 
He has to go back to Manchester and face his past.

 

One of the most difficult things to express in movies are emotions. 
I mean, in a credible, non-cheesy way. The moment you deal with families, death and sorrow, the risk of ending up doing something tearful and pathetic is really high. But miracles are possible, and this movie proves it.
Thanks to a magnificent structure, a beautifully crafted screenplay and a stunning performance by the actors, Manchester by the Sea reaches a level of complexity, deepness and empathy rarely seen on screens this year.
The first great idea of the movie is the structure, as I just said, and the way the director has used the insertion of flash-backs. In fact, he didn’t even insert them. They are what the movie is made of, with an intense fluidity between the past and the present. It is a different and more sophisticated way to get to know the characters. It is surprisingly emotional and particularly convincing. 

But here, by far, the most convincing thing of all is the actors’ performances, and especially the one of Casey Affleck.
He is so permeated with despair that every unnecessary gesture or word looks like a burden to him. He is transpiring sadness, and there are a couple of scenes where this is so strong that it is almost unbearable. Frankly speaking, I think we are in front of this year’s most amazing male performance.
I have been haunted since the day I saw the movie by this incredible, magnificent scene played by him and Michelle Williams. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I have to prevent you, this is the most devastating scene I've seen at the movies in a very long time:

I don't know when Manchester by the Sea is going to be out neither in France nor in Italy, but - of course - my strong suggestion is to run to see it.
Be ready: Zazie d'Or will be raining on this movie like the frogs in Magnolia.


MANCHESTER BY THE SEA - Trailer from Mill Valley Film Festival on Vimeo.

Pin your world

I know, I know, I have always written that my blog is just about cinema.
And I try my best to stick to this rule, but bloggers have secret passions, you know, and it is hard not to share them.
Mine, in these last few years, has been this site:

I am absolutely crazy about it and every time I have a free minute, I run to my page to add a new pin to my boards. If you don't know it, Pinterest is a giant collection of boards full of images. Sometimes images of written words but in any case nothing but images. And you can basically find anything you're interested in.
In my Pinterest page, the one of Zazie from Paris, I have personally decided to create a parallel world. And the Narnia one can go to hide itself, compared to mine.
It is well known that my biggest passion, together with cinema, is Vintage from the '50s and '60s. And this is what you can find in Zazie's page.
Carefully divided into sections, the boards named VINTAGE STYLE are the King (or, better, the Queen) of my Pinterest Page. You can find, among others:
Actresses (cinema can't be too far away as you can easily imagine)

Jane Fonda

Advertisements and Magazines 

Bathing Suits

Coats

Evening Gowns

Summer Dresses

Travels

And so many more...  but, hey, cinema is always around the corner for Zazie, so you can find a board entirely dedicated to "The Most Adorable One", meaning... Audrey Hepburn (who else??!):

Or one consecrated to the TV series Mad Men, A Mad Men World:

Or to the cult movie In The Mood for Love:

Or one board dedicated just to Cinema in all its splendour, All About Movies:

Not to mention a couple of boards that, even if not properly related to cinema, are basically made by actresses and actors. The one named "Coolest Girls have Short Air" (my readers know this is another favourite theme of mine):

Michelle Williams

And the one named "Men I can easily die for" (who can blame me??!):

Jake Gyllenhaal

I am so proud of all my boards that I can't resist not to talk to you about them. 
So, if during these Xmas Holidays you have a bit of time to check them out, I would be more than happy. Just click the magic button and enter into Zazie's parallel world:

I know, I'm completely crazy, but hey... it's not like you didn't see that coming!

The New York Trilogy - Blue Valentine

A simple advice: please don’t go to see this movie on a first date or if your couple is going through a crisis (it’s a question of survival), but in all other cases, I strongly recommend you the vision of this picture, one of the best I have recently seen.

Blue Valentine is the pitiless dissection of a couple’s history, the one formed by Dean and Cindy. Young, married and having a lovely child called Frankie, they live in a small and ordinary American town. They’re both working class people, but Cindy studied to become a nurse and has a decent job, while Dean left high school and always had temporary jobs, and now survives painting houses. The movie doesn’t follow the events chronologically, so we see them in their present life and then, piece by piece, we get to know how they met, how they fell in love and how they fell out of love (François Ozon made a similar thing in his movie 5x2, but in that case he followed the love affair from the end to the beginning, while here the present and the past are mixing in an emotional roller coaster). Things inside the couple are not getting well, and this is pretty clear. Cindy looks fed up with Dean’s attitude towards life: he is drinking a lot and he doesn’t have any ambition in his professional life. Their attempts to revive their connection, both physical and spiritual, are failing miserably and the end of the affair is just around the corner.

Blue Valentine is a great and pitiless movie: it really kills you. You are torn apart by watching this couple slowly dying, especially when you witness the way they felt at the beginning. Their love looked grandiose and strong, and let you believe for a moment that they can both leave behind bleak families and bleak events and have a new, fresh start. Unfortunately, this movie looks pretty much like real life, and so the happy ending is quite difficult.

Derek Cianfrance, the filmmaker, has done a magnificent job: the description of the love affair is romantic without being cheesy, while the end of it is filmed in an extremely real but compassionate way.

This picture is so powerful, though, especially because of the unbelievably good performance of the two actors: Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. These two actors have a similar story: they both started to work for children and teenagers TV programs (Gosling for Disney Channel together with Britney Spears!, Williams for the series Dawson's Creek), then they switch to mainstream movies and now they are becoming icons of independent cinema (Williams notably for her role in Wendy and Lucie, Gosling for the one of a drug addict professor in Half Nelson). In this movie, they prove to be splendid actors. They look so natural, true, passionate, distraught, human: the audience is obliged to feel what they feel, to empathize with them. It is a painful but worth it process (I read  that the two actors spent a month living together before the shooting to really get into the characters).

Blue Valentine is a movie that gets under the skin and leaves you with an unsettling feeling about the hopelessness of human soul. 
Welcome to the club!