the only movie i caught during the ropert retrospective was the only one i hadn't seen before,
the apple of my eye, which was pretty much savaged by the french critics when it released in 2016. but i ended up liking the movie a lot, a very dense (it is barely 90 minutes with credits) romantic comedy in the 1930s tradition, where two pairs of siblings (two struggling greek musicians, and a blind piano tuner and her cocaine addicted sister) cross paths in an apartment building, the catch being that the younger musician only realizes he's fallen in love with the blind sister after he claims to have lost his eyesight after she was rude to him in the elevator.
so it's a classic romantic deception plot, full of wordplay, physical comedy and sometimes frankly bizarre tonal shifts. i asked the friend who programmed it if he could ask ropert if she was a farrely brothers fan and she confirmed she was, complaining that
dumb and dumber to only received a very small release in france.
le cou de clarisse, benjamin esdraffo 2003
the first and only short feature by esdraffo, who is probably best known as a composer (most of the ropert and bozon movies, whit stillman's
love & friendship, adolfo arrieta's wonderful
belle dormant).
a very young and mustachioed serge bozon is a cab driver, axelle ropert is his partner and works as receptionist at a hotel, the great jean-christophe bouvet plays the mysterious astronomer who rents the hotel's attic room. a peculiar, modest movie, full of strange little tangents (it is the kind of movie that finds time for a loopy cafe conversation between an elderly michel delahaye and cecile decujis, the editor
breathless and many of rohmer's best movies) and still resolves its wisp of a plot in 40 minutes. mostly a footnote but a lovely one nonetheless.
vas-tu renoncer?/edouard et charles, pascale bodet 2021
the friendship between manet (benjamin esdroffo) and baudelaire (pierre leon) as akind of present day art world comedy full of the bustling streets of paris and technology (first shot is of an iphone screen).
serge bozon in a very strange wig plays who speaks in odd, garbled french, and the movie is full of extremely stylized comedic movement that at points verge on the choreographed movement in moguillansky's
castro. but there's a sturdy melancholy under everything - manet, under constant attack by his critics, begs for the support of his friend, but baudelaire, nearing the trip to belgium that would signal the end of his writing career, refuses to offer it.
i don't know bodet's work other than seeing her appear in brief roles in movies like
etoile violette and
deux remi, deux, and unfortunately most of her earlier films are either not available or not available with subtitles...
very happy to know another klossowski lover! i found that an english translated of la vocation suspendue actually was published recently and i was so excited i almost spilled the mug of coffee in my hand this morning and promptly ordered it. very excited to read; this is a piece of the klossowski puzzle i have been longing to examine as i myself attempted a vocation in the roman catholic church (multiple times...). lol this should be in the what are you reading thread but yeah, can't wait for the book to arrive. and then to watch the ruiz film.
