Following in the footsteps of one of my all-time favorites, the dyptych Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, this Julie Delpy effort might have suffered from heightened expectation except that mine had been lowered by lukewarm reviews -- so I have to declare myself pleasantly surprised. I was thoroughly entertained and fell in love with Julie all over again, even though her character is what the French call a “beautiful pain in the ass” (cf. Catherine in Jules & Jim). Julie not only scripts, directs, and stars, but composes the music, and recruits her real mother and father to play her mother and father in the film. Anthony Lane in The New Yorker rightly describes this as “not a vanity project, but an insanity project” -- but I think admirably so. It’s impossible not to see this story as autobiographical -- about a thirtysomething French woman stopping in Paris for two days on the way back from a vacation in Venice with her New York boyfriend (Adam Goldberg) -- but all the characters are seen with such gimlet-eyed satire that it is easy to indulge Ms. Delpy’s highly particular view of the world. These folks are nuts, but in a way that rings true. Whatever Delpy may lack in comparison to Richard Linklater’s real-time, you-are-there intimacy, she makes up for in genuine laughs, and for me even her narrated slideshow passages worked. Despite what you might have heard, this is worth seeing. 2007, dvd, n.) *8* ((MC-67.)
Speaking of films worth seeing, now that I’ve seen it in widescreen glory at the Clark, along with an enthusiastic full house to conclude my “Green and Pleasant Land” film series, I want to bump up my recommendation of Miss Potter (2006), really one of the overlooked gems of recent years, with Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter and Ewan MacGregor as her publisher-fiance. (Use “search blog” box above to find my original review.)
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