Arrival

Is there life on Mars?
Apparently there is, or at least there’s life on some planets in this immense universe and, sooner or later, people living there will come to see us.
This has been one of the biggest fears in human history and one of the most exploited subjects in science-fiction movies since the creation of cinema more than 100 years ago.
There is a bunch of titles that obviously come to mind thinking about this, from the (almost) reassuring version of Steven Spielberg in Close encounters of the third kind and ET, to the frightening one of the Alien series, to the irreverent and crazy exploit of Tim Burton in Mars Attacks!.
From now on, we must add a further view, the one signed by Québécois film-maker Denis Villeneuve: his movie Arrival is, by far, one of the powerful and poignant aliens landing of cinema history.

Louise Banks, a linguistic teaching in a college, remembers very well the day aliens arrived on planet earth. Suddenly, overnight, twelve immense spacecrafts almost land (they are not exactly touching ground but remain suspended over it) in twelve different parts of the world. One of them is Kansas, and this is where Colonel Weber of the US Forces asks Louise and mathematician Ian Donnelly to go to, in order to understand the aliens language and to decode their messages, hoping they’re coming “in peace”. Time is an urgent matter, because in other places (China, especially), politicians are about to declare war to the aliens, and panic is spreading everywhere in the world.

Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner)

I seriously start to believe that Québécois do it better. Cinema, of course.
In these last years, some of my favourite movies have been made by film-makers coming from the Montreal area, and I’m talking, ça va sans dire, about Xavier Dolan and Denis Villeneuve.
Even if extremely different, they both have a very personal and passionate approach to what they film, and the wonderful habit of creating movies that can’t possibly leave the audience indifferent.
They’re talented and they want to make movies in their own way. And I like it!
Villeneuve’s breakthrough was the amazing Incendies, back in 2010, followed by Prisoners and Enemy, both made in 2013, both with stunning performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, so-called thrillers but much more than that. Thrillers with a deep soul, if you know what I mean. In 2015, Villeneuve was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival with Sicario, a breath taking movie about the cartel war on the Mexican border, having as main character a strong yet amazingly vulnerable woman, superbly played by Emily Blunt.

Villeneuve, it is clearer at each new movie, has this tendency to embrace a certain cinematographic genre and to change it from the inside, to spread elements of disturb, to widen the borders of it and go deeper down, where anybody has gone yet.
Arrival is certainly this: it is science-fiction, but just on the surface, because what Villeneuve wants to tell us has nothing to do with it. And there is a scene in the movie that summon up his whole career: Louise going nearer the glass that separates her from the two enormous, pretty scary aliens, bringing in her hands a panel where she has simply written: HUMAN.

We are human and this is what the film-maker is interested in: why we do what we do, in the way we are doing it? What is the mystery behind our decisions, behind our feelings? And will a new, possible awareness of our future lives, change the way we act?
Arrival also talks about the world we live in: the fragility of our social systems, of the relationships between countries, and the lack of understanding that could so easily lead to ghastly catastrophes.
We need to better understand each other if we want to avoid the worst, maybe it is as simple as that.
And Villeneuve seems to strongly believe in it: the only element that could save this messy world from his destruction is the humanity in us. 
And it is not by chance that, in another key scene, the scientist confesses to Louise: "The most amazing thing that happened here wasn’t meeting them. Was meeting you."  
Maybe science-fiction will save romance, after all.

Zazie d'Or 2015

Dear Readers,
Yes, I know, this is the moment of the year you are all waiting for.
And I am aware that you don't give a damn about Oscars, Golden Globes, Golden Lions, Golden Palms, Golden Bears, BAFTAs and Césars when you can have the most important and most fabulous award of all: the ZAZIE D’OR! 
And here they are, the lucky ones...

The LITTLE ZAZIE D’OR (Best First Feature Film Prize) goes to 
VINCENT N'A PAS D'ECAILLES by Thomas Salvador (France)
If you think super-heroes are coming just from the US, well, you need to change your mind because France has his super-heroe too, and he is the funniest and the sweetest one you can ever imagine: Vincent. This was the most cheerful film of the whole year. 
Zazie can't wait to see the next adventures in cinema of Monsieur Salvador!

The Zazie d'Or for BEST DOCUMENTARY goes to
AMY by  Asif Kapadia (UK)
One of the greatest voices of music history and one of the saddest human stories ever.
Amy Winehouse tragically died at 27 years old and this intense documentary tries to relate her short but poignant life from the very beginning till the end, passing through all the different phases: young girl from the London outskirts having a great voice and a passion for jazz, the planetary success with Back to Black, the disastrous marriage to a very dangerous (and incredibly stupid) man, the abuse of alcohol and drogues.
It is almost a tour de force but a worthy one. Winehouse’s dad could win awards as Worst Father Ever, while Kapadia confirms himself as one of the most serious and accurate documentarists around.


The Zazie d'Or for BEST COSTUME DESIGN goes to 
JOANNA JOHNSTON for THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. by Guy Ritchie (UK)
This movie is set in Berlin and Rome in the '60's. This is why it was extremely easy for Zazie to go nuts about the dresses Alicia Vikander is wearing all along the movie. The men are dressed very well too. I wish we were living in a world where all this could be real and not just vintage. Joanna Johnston, please save us!

The Zazie d'Or for BEST CHOREOGRAPHY goes to
OSCAR ISAAC for his dancing number in EX MACHINA by Alex Garland (UK)
Not only Oscar Isaac is one of the most interesting and talented actors of these last years, but he's also an amazing dancer. I just can't get enough of this scene (very intriguing movie, by the way...):

The Zazie d'Or for BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY goes to  
ROGER DEAKINS for SICARIO by Denis Villeneuve (US)
Roger Deakins is the historical cinematographer of the Coen Brothers and in these last years he has started a fruitful collaboration with québécois film-maker Denis Villeneuve. Sicario's light is breathtaking and so fitting to the story: it follows the shadows, it enlightens hell on earth. Basically, it's one of the reasons why Sicario is one of the best (and also one of the most underestimated) films of the year.


The Zazie d’Or for BEST ACTRESS(ES) goes to
GÜNES SENSOY, DOGA ZEYNEP DOGUSLU, TUGBA SUNGUROGLU, ELIT ISCAN and ILAYDA AKDOGAN for MUSTANG by Deniz Gamze Erguven (Turkey/France)
I have adored the strength, the irony, the intelligence and the courage of these 5 Turkish sisters against the stupid, narrow minded, macho and oppressive world lead by men. And I think these five young Turkish actresses have been great to embody them. They have given me so much faith and hope in women’s future.
Girls Power!!! (fuck, it’s about time!)


The Zazie d’Or for BEST ACTOR goes to
GEZA RÖHRIG for SAUL FIA by László Nemes (Hungary)
When you appear for the first time on screen in a movie set in a concentration camp, and your face is in front of the camera for two hours, it probably means you’re a very good actor.
In Geza Röhrig’s case, this means actually more than that. It means that you become unforgettable.

 

but Zazie really loved also:

VINCENT LINDON in LA LOI DU MARCHE by Stéphane Brizé (France)

and DANE DEHAAN in LIFE by Anton Corbijn (US)

The ZAZIE COUP DE COEUR & the Zazie D'Or for BEST SCREENPLAY go to 
THE LOBSTER by YORGOS LANTHIMOS (Greece/Ireland)
In a not-so-far away future, singles are not accepted anymore. Men and women who can’t find their soul-mates within 45 days, will be transformed into animals. The genial idea of Greek film-maker Yorgos Lanthimos gives birth to one of the most unsettling, original and brilliant movies of these last years. One of those works that divides audiences in two. 
As the French say: ou ça passe, ou ça casse.
Zazie has adored it.

The Zazie d'Or for BEST DIRECTOR & the SPECIAL ZAZIE D’OR go to   
LASZLO NEMES for SAUL FIA (Hungary)
The best movie about the Holocaust ever made.
You don’t spend two hours at the movies, you spend two hours in Auschwitz.
The experience is far beyond cinema, and it is almost unbearable. If you manage to arrive till the end, you’ll see what a man is capable of. When it’s over, you don’t know if you’re still alive, but you’ll see the world with different eyes.
First feature film of a 38 years old guy, László Nemes, who dared to film the most unfilmable thing of all in the most intelligent and subtle way. Mazel tov!

László Nemes on the set of Saul Fia

The ZAZIE D’OR 2015 goes to    
AS MIL E UMA NOITES - Vol. 1 O Inquieto
AS MIL E UMA NOITES - Vol. 2 O Desolado
AS MIL E UMA NOITES - Vol. 2 O Encantado
by MIGUEL GOMES (Portugal)
This is not a simple movie: this is a monster, a protean creature, a space oddity.
6 hours divided into 3 volumes, As Mil e uma noites is a new form of cinema, the weirdest mix of fiction, documentary, real life, poetic vision and mythological tale.
As you must have guessed, this is also a masterpiece.



And since Mr. Gomes came to Paris last January, Zazie seized the opportunity to advise him about the award (and also about the past awards he has received with his previous movie, the wonderful Tabu). This is the lovely dedication he wrote on the first page of a book dedicated to his cinema:  
To Le Blog de Zazie (that gives me prizes!). Thanks, Miguel Gomes
Isn't that cute???!

The JEREMY IRONS PRIZE (Man of my Life Award) 2015 goes to
JEREMY IRONS HIMSELF!
Because it doesn't happen every year that you actually meet your favourite actor of all time and you can give him the prize in flesh and blood! In 2015, this has happened.
And, hey, I can prove it:

As usual, thanks to Sergio Saccingo Tanara for the design of the Zazie D'Or Award!

TOP 15 of 2015

Yes, it is that time of the year, dear readers, the moment I let you know which are my favourite films of the past 365 days.
In 2015, I beat a personal record: I've been to the movies 92 times, and maybe it is because of that, but a simple TOP 10 wasn't enough... Looking at my list, all I can tell you is that, for me, the most important thing is to get out of the cinema completely shaken. By an idea, a feeling, a mise-en-scène, a laugh, a word, a sound, a gesture. Something special. Otherwise, let's admit it, life is too short for wasting it over bad, lame or useless movies.   
Here's Zazie's list of the movies you shouldn't have missed in 2015:
15 - The Man from U.N.C.L.E. by Guy Ritchie (UK)

I swear this was the biggest surprise of 2015. I went to see it without any expectation and I enjoyed every minute of it. It is brilliant, intelligent, funny, well directed, the actors are irresistible and it has the most wonderful vintage touch (it is set in Berlin and Rome in 1963).
James Bond can get his pension! 

14 - Vincent n'a pas d'écailles by Thomas Salvador (France)

If you think super-heroes are coming just from the US, well, you need to change your mind because France has his super-heroe too, and he is the funniest and the sweetest one you can ever imagine: Vincent. This was the most cheerful film of the whole year.
Vincent n'a pas d'écailles mais il a la grosse pêche!

13 - La Isla Minima by Alberto Rodriguez (Spain)

This is an unforgettable film mainly for his atmosphere, for the rot you can smell, coming from the wet soil as much as from the people around. The two policemen are so well sketched (and the two actors who played them, Javier Gutiérrez and Raúl Arévalo, so good) that are able to eclipse any True Detective of the world. Que viva España ! 

12 - Les Cowboys by Thomas Bidegain (France)

A very sad movie on a very actual theme: the story of a young girl leaving behind her family and her life to embrace a new religion that will take her (for ever) apart from the world she knows. Thomas Bidegain's (Audiard's screen writer) breakthrough is a precious and sorrowful thing. 
The last scene is the most intense one I've seen in ages. Believe me.

11 - Louder than bombs by Joachim Trier (US)

The first American movie of the Norwegian film-maker Joachim Trier is about secrets, family relationships, the inner life of people, the worst fears in life, and the deep solitude we can feel being part of this strange world. His universe is so particular and well defined, that you just want to lose yourself in it. Simply mesmerising.

10 - Life by Anton Corbijn (US)

Anton Corbijn has the special power of making interesting and original biopics, a genre usually devastated by common places and boring details. Here he has the guts to resuscitate James Dean (the absolutely astonishing Dane DeHaan) and the facts behind the famous picture in Times Square under the rain. The rest is history...

9 - Maryland by Alice Winocour (France)

An ex-soldier suffering of post-traumatic disorder becomes the body-guard of a rich business-man and his family (a wife and a kid). The so-called “Belgian Brando”, Matthias Schoenaerts, gives another amazing performance as a troubled, fragile and simple man lost in his obsessions: his boss wife and the sounds he hears in his head. The most incredible use of sounds after Punch-Drunk Love. Alice Winocour, the woman behind the camera (and Mustang's co-writer) really rocks! 
8 - Youth by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)

The most visionary of Italian film-makers strikes back after the world-wide success of La Grande Bellezza with a much more accomplished and mesmerising film. Youth is about the passing of time, of beauty, of desire, but also a meditation on vocation and talent. The images are luxurious, magnificent and inspired. And Michael Caine as the main character is the best possible choice (but I have also adored the brief appearance of Jane Fonda). Flamboyant, is the word.

7 - La loi du marché by Stéphane Brizé (France)

Happiness is not an option in this Dardennesque, rigorous film about a man who has lost his job and all the rest together with it, starting from dignity. A very tough film to watch (the scene of the job interview by skype made me want to run away) but a very rewarding one. Vincent Lindon and Stéphane Brizé, who already broke my heart with the wonderful and underrated Quelques heures de Printemps, delivered here an unforgettable film.

6 - Sicario by Denis Villeneuve (US)

Denis Villeneuve’s cinema is one of the most interesting of these last years. With just a bunch of titles: Incendies, Prisoners and Enemy, he proved to be a superb film-maker. Sicario is his best work to date: he puts a woman (great Emily Blunt!) at the centre of the movie obliging the audience to a complete identification with her and he shows us one of the most terrifying stories set on the border between the US and Mexico. The best direction of the year, a visual and human shock. Breathtaking.

5 - Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Turkey) 

This was a breath of fresh air, a driving force that can’t be easily stop: the one of 5 Turkish sisters ready to fight against a mean, archaic and macho’s mentality to have back their freedom and their lives. Written by two women, the Turkish Deniz Gamze Ergüven and the French Alice Winocour, the film represents France to the Oscar as Best Foreign Film. The reality is: it represents any place in the world where women still have to fight to have what they simply deserve. Girls Power!

4 - Dheepen by Jacques Audiard (France)

Jacques Audiard must have put a smell on me: I go simply nuts every time I see one of his movies. He’s got something that other film-makers don’t. A sense of the direction, a capacity of talking about human beings’ darkest corners and that mix of prosaic and poetic elements which is the “Audiard’s touch”. Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival (he already deserved that for Un Prophète but, hey, better later than never!).


3 - The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece/Ireland)

In a not-so-far away future, singles are not accepted anymore. Men and women who can’t find their soul-mates within 45 days, will be transformed into animals. The genial idea of Greek film-maker Yorgos Lanthimos gives birth to one of the most unsettling, original and brilliant movies of these last years. One of those works that divides audiences in two. As the French say: ou ça passe, ou ça casse. 
I have personally adored it.
 
2 - Saul Fia by László Nemes (Hungary)

The best movie about the Holocaust ever made. 
You don’t spend two hours at the movies, you spend two hours in Auschwitz. 
The experience is far beyond cinema, and it is almost unbearable. If you manage to arrive till the end, you’ll see what a man is capable of. When it’s over, you don’t know if you’re still alive, but you’ll see the world with different eyes. 
First feature film of a 38 years old guy, László Nemes. Mazel tov!
 
1 - As Mil e Uma Noites (Vol. 1-2-3) by Miguel Gomes (Portugal)

There are the other movies and then there is this one: a monster, a protean creature, a space oddity. 
6 hours long divided into 3 volumes, As Mil e uma noites is a new form of cinema, the weirdest mix of fiction, documentary, real life, poetic vision and mythological tale. 
How Miguel Gomes had such an incredible idea to talk about the economic crises that recently hit Portugal in this way, it is a great mystery. The most wonderful of all.
As you must have guessed, this is a masterpiece.