Paris (2007) + In
The Loop (2009/IFC Films/MPI Blu-rays)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: B- Extras: C/C+ Films: C/C+
There are
two types of films that want to be intelligent and keep getting made, but do
not always work. One is the
broadly-casted comedy with a few name actors meant to be a high profile subject
that is fun. The other is satire on
media and war. You can see why either
kind of film would be more enticing than exploitation or mere formula, but they
have also become formula and we have the latest versions of both prototypes to
look at again.
Cédric
Klapisch’s Paris (2007) has Juliette Binoche as a
woman whose brother (Romain Duris) needs a heart transplant, or he’ll die. He was a dancer and they are very close, so
she’ll do what she has to and help him, but there are many others who will be
and are a part of it. The screenplay by
Klapisch wants to do too much, be a character study of the city, its people and
so much more, which waters down the original starting point and wants it all to
be happy like Crash. Unfortunately, that makes the long 129
minutes go on and on with limited point and once again, all should have looked
at a bunch of Robert Altman films.
Rewriting the script after would have helped. Mélanie Laurent and Francois Cluzet also
star.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is shot in real anamorphic 35mm Panavision
and has some good looking shots, but they are all done in by the slight
softness and slight motion blur throughout the film. Director of Photography Christophe Beaucarne
(Coco Before Chanel) did a fine job
here, but the playback is just not up to what he put on screen. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix is pretty
good for a dialogue-based film. Extras
include a table read of the film, trailer, Deleted Scenes and three making of
featurettes.
Armando
Iannucci’s In The Loop (2009) wants
to be a darkly witty satire about the U.S.
and U.K.
going into The Middle East when on the verge of going in, extremely bitter
politician Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) says he sees such an event as unseen,
which gets people inside both governments going nuts. This has Tucker landing up in the U.S. and Washington,
D.C. with bizarre results.
The
screenplay has some interesting in-jokes, crude comments unlimited and other
absurd moments, but it does not add up to a satire that works very well. James Gandolfini (repeating a little of what
he did with Robert Redford in The Last
Castle), Steve Coogan, Anna Chlumsky, Gina McKee, Tom Hollander, Chris
Addison and David Rasche are not badly cast, but the result is more like a
run-on sentence than a satire. It gets
tired after the reality it cannot find anywhere else to go sets in and since we
know what happened (and is still happening) in The Middle East, it needed to
say more and has zero to add.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image is shot in High Definition video and is
softer than expected with plenty of motion blur and other stability
issues. It is more like watching a
telefilm than a feature film as a result.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 is more like simple stereo being
stretched out more than it should be. Extras
include a behind the scenes featurette, TV spot, trailer and deleted scenes
that are as redundant as the final cut.
- Nicholas Sheffo
