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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Dark Comedy > Kidnapping > Elderly > French > Politics > Photo Journalism > Character Study > Euro > The Little Bedroom (2014/Cinema Libre DVD)/1,000 Times Good Night (2013, 2014/Film Movement DVD)

The Little Bedroom (2014/Cinema Libre DVD)/1,000 Times Good Night (2013, 2014/Film Movement DVD)


Picture: C/C+ Sound: C/C+ Extras: C-/C Films: C/B



Here are two serious dramas for your consideration...


Stephanie Chual & Veronique Raymond's The Little Bedroom (2014) comes from France and is about an older man (Michel Bouquet) who is put in a care home, then in anger that his son has sold his place without his permission or consideration, gets his nurse to get him out and put him up at her place. Of course, he is suddenly a wanted, missing man, so what will they do next?


The humor is overly obvious and actors not bad, but in 87 minutes, I was surprised the makers did not take more advantage of the situation for character study, realism and to do something different throughout. I kept expecting this one to pick up, but top no avail. It simply plays it too safe and having two directors was a bad idea, as it is in most cases.


A trailer is the only extra.



Erik Poppe's 1,000 Times Good Night (2013) on the other hand is a remarkable, excellent drama about a photographer Rebecca (Juliette Binoche) who insists on going into the worst parts of the world and snapping images that she feel the world needs to see to expose the truth, even including the Middle East (much like Catherine Keener in War Story, reviewed elsewhere on this site) where women are particularly not respected. This is very dangerous, especially in an atmosphere where journalists are being captured, tortured and killed more and more often. In this case, Rebecca is nearly killed when she is witness to a suicide bomber she is covering.


Back home with her husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) she is safe and taken care of, but he is rightly sick of all of it and she promises to quit, not well and hurt physically. They have two daughters and the older one starts to become interested in Africa for a school assignment, but Rebecca has some ugly things to share. Even with this, the daughter still wants to visit that country...


This is a stunning, excellent drama that shows Binoche in excellent form yet again and is as well written as it is directed, as Poppe was such a photographer before he became a dramatic filmmaker. Everyone is so good here and the script maturely goes all the way on everything it needs to on the subjects at hand and is impactful all the way. This may be the victim of political censorship top some extent, but don't let that stop you form seeing one of the best foreign films (includes plenty of English language dialogue) of the last few years. See it!!!


Interviews and Behind The Scenes footage are the extras.



The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on both DVDs are digital shoots, but Bedroom tends to be softer by design and than gets in the way of enjoying it on playback, plus I bet the style would carry over to Blu-ray and HD. Night is warmer, more consistent and calls for a major Blu-ray. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Bedroom is also a bit limited, though the drama is on the quiet side, while the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Night is better and has some surround engagement. Wish this one was lossless.



- Nicholas Sheffo


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