The Grand Budapest Hotel


            On December 8, 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby - age forty-three and editor-in-chief of the world-famous fashion magazine Elle - was living the "good life" to the extreme when he became the victim of a devastating cerebro-vascular accident that left him in a state of total paralysis, incapable of any verbal communication, in what is known in the medical community as "locked-in syndrome." His mental faculties totally intact as he lay motionless in his bed at the Marine Hospital of Berck-sur-Mer in northern France, Bauby learned to communicate with the outside world using his left eyelid, the only part of his body over which he still had any control. During the next fourteen months, using a communication code developed by his therapist and his publisher's assistant, who transcribed this code, Bauby was able to compose, letter by letter, a lyrical and heartbreaking memoir of his life struggle. Bauby died in 1997, two days after its publication.As the film opens, Bauby, known as Jean-Do to his intimates, comes out of a three-week deep coma, unaware of what happened to him, what is going on around him, and where he is. What we see is not a person lying in a hospital bed, but a blurred image with some silhouettes moving in and out of it. "What's going on?" we ask, and so does Jean-Dominique, in a voice-over (Mathieu Amalric). The image soon becomes clearer, and we understand we are looking subjectively, from Jean-Do's point of view, at a hospital room.. Soon, the face of a man who identifies himself as Dr. Mercier (Jean-Philippe Écoffey) appears in our field of view, asking questions. Jean-Do answers, but his answers are not understood by the doctor, as Jean-Do cannot speak: we are only hearing his internal voice.Suspense is built as the patient's face is progressively revealed. We first get a glimpse of Jean-Do's face reflecting in a mirror as he is being wheeled in the great hall of the hospital. His reaction to his reflection is, "God, who's that? I look like I came out of a vat of formaldehyde." Indeed, it takes about thirty minutes into the film before we get to clearly see Bauby's distorted, frozen face.Hospital assistants introduce themselves to Jean-Do, assuring him of their total dedication to his medical care and well-being, including his speech therapist, Henriette (Marie-Josée Croze), who will teach him the communication code, his physiotherapist, Marie Lopez (Olatz López Garmendia), and Dr. Lepage (Patrick Chesnais), a neurosurgeon who will supervise Jean-Do's care. Besides the hospital's therapist team, there is also Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner), his estranged partner and the mother of his three children.The therapy which permits a way to communicate consists of the alphabet, arranged in the order in which letters would be most often used (ESARINTULOMDPCFBVHGJQZYXKW); she begins reciting this alphabet, and he blinks when she says the needed letter. Once a word is begun, the therapist can often guess the word after a few letters, saving time and effort. The therapy starts on a rather disappointing note, when a desperate Jean-Do dismisses Henriette. "It won't work. Leave me alone." He changes his mind following the visit of an old friend, Roussin (Niels Arestrup), who had been a hostage for four years in Beirut. Relating his own experience, he tells Bauby, "Hang on to the human who is inside you," to which Bauby answers, "Easy said." However, on his second encounter with his speech therapist, to Henriette's great distress Jean-Do spells out, "I want to die." Jean-Do's remarkable strength of character eventually leads him to acknowledge his desperate situation, but also to realize that he still has his imagination and his memories. In a beautiful metaphor, we see a diving bell which physically imprisons the patient, and the freeing of his imagination in the form of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis and fluttering among fields of flowers.Bauby had a book contract with a publisher, Betty (Anne Alvaro), to write the feminine version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Betty is incredulous when, aware of her client's present condition, she receives a phone call from Henriette, informing her that Jean-Do is willing and able to fulfill the terms of his contract. Bauby, in order to survive his ordeal without losing his mind, had decided to write a memoir, if only to prove to his ex-colleagues that he is not a "vegetable." ("What kind? "he asks, "a carrot? a leek?") Still somewhat skeptical, Betty sends an assistant, Claude (Anne Consigny), to take Jean-Do's dictation. Soon the dictation starts. It's a slow, tedious process, where Jean-Do wakes at 5 a.m., and until 8 a.m., composes and memorizes parts of the text beforehand to be later "dictated" to Claude. The progress is painstaking: only one to one-and-a-half pages of text per day. Jean-Do develops a very close relationship with Claude, to the point that she seems to fall in love with him.In what follows, we see episodes of Jean-Do's fantasies, a mixture of memories and dreams, some poignant and some comical or sexy, with some fantastic mise-en-scènes. For example, elusive appearances by characters such as Nijinsky (Nicolas Le Riche) or Empress Eugenie (Emma de Caunes); symbolic scenes like Bauby in his wheelchair on an isolated pontoon in the beach at Berk; glaciers crumbling into the sea; a wild dinner at famed Paris' Le Duc seafood restaurant, with a beautiful woman. There is a marvelously touching recollection of Jean-Do joking and teasing his 92-year-old father, Papinou (Max von Sydow), while shaving him. Céline comes to see him often at the hospital and help out as much as she can, organizing a picnic on the beach with the whole family on Father's Day, or reading to Jean-Do the voluminous mail that he receives daily.The ending of this film consists of a dream sequence showing the opening scene of Truffaut's The 400 Blows, but this time the film is in color, as Jean-Do is driving through Paris in his new car. He is happily going to see his children at his estranged wife's country house. He takes his son, Theophile (Théo Sampaio) for a ride and suffers a stroke.
    

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly


            
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Sound of Metal

Biette

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1

Insulaire

Venus in Fur

The Rabbi's Cat

Chicken with Plums

A Christmas Tale

Sink or Swim

Late August, Early September

Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait

My Golden Days

My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument

John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection


            The film opens soon after the events of Casino Royale with Bond driving from Lake Garda to Siena, Italy. With the captured Mr. White in the luggage compartment of his car, Bond is attacked by pursuing henchmen. After evading his pursuers, and killing several of them, Bond arrives at an MI6 safe house.M updates Bond on Vesper's boyfriend, Yusef Kabira, whose body had been found off the coast of Ibiza, however, the body is not Kabira's, leading M to conclude that he's still alive. Bond slyly pockets a picture of his former lover Vesper Lynd and Kabira.Bond and M interrogate White regarding his secretive organization and it becomes apparent that MI6 knows little to nothing about them. White is quite amused and tells them that they "have people everywhere". At that moment, M's bodyguard, Craig Mitchell, reveals his allegiance to the organization by shooting the MI6 guard and attempting to assassinate M. Bond thwarts the attempt by throwing a chair at Mitchell; allowing M to escape. As Bond struggles with Mitchell, a stray bullet from Mitchell's gun hits White, who seems mortally wounded. Bond pursues Mitchell over several rooftops, eventually ending up in a building under renovation, momentarily causing chaos in the Palio di Siena horse race. A hand-to-hand fight ensues in a building containing renovation scaffolding. Bond and Mitchell lose their pistols. Bond is able to recover his own and kills Mitchell. When Bond returns to the safe house, he discovers White has escaped and the place is deserted.Following a forensic investigation into Mitchell's apartment and the discovery of marked American currency, Bond heads to Port au Prince, Haiti to track down Mitchell's contact, Slate. Moments after Bond enters Slate's hotel room, Slate attacks Bond, and Bond is forced to kill him. Bond assumes Slate's identity and picks up a briefcase held for Slate at the front desk. As he exits the hotel, a Ford hatchback arrives and he is picked up by a woman named Camille Montes, who believes Bond is Slate. Examining the briefcase, Bond learns that Slate was sent to kill Montes at the behest of her lover, Dominic Greene, the chairman of an ecological organization called Greene Planet. Camille tries to shoot Bond and fails, and kicks him out of her car. Bond steals a motorcycle and follows her to the waterfront. While observing her meeting with Greene, Bond learns that Greene is helping a dangerous Bolivian general, Medrano, overthrow his government in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of desert. What he is unaware of is that Camille seeks revenge against Medrano after he murdered her family years ago.Greene has Camille escorted away on Medrano's boat to "sweeten" their deal, but Bond rescues her. A furious boat chase takes place around the harbor and Bond thwarts Medrano's men and arrives at another landing, giving the unconscious Camille to someone to take care of her. Bond then follows Greene to a private jet, which flies him to a lavish performance of Puccini's Tosca at Lake Constance, Austria. On the plane, Greene meets with the CIA's section chief for South America, Gregg Beam, and Felix Leiter, who, when asked if he recognizes Bond from a picture, says he does not. Greene also confirms a deal he'd made with Beam to control whatever resources his organization finds in or under the seemingly worthless piece of desert in Bolivia. Beam assumes that Greene has discovered oil there.Arriving in Austria, Bond discovers that Greene's organization is named "Quantum" and several members are attending Tosca. Bond infiltrates Quantum's meeting at the opera, stealing one of the member's earpieces, and listens in on their conversation which concerns their sinister business dealings around the world. Bond, announcing that Quantum should probably "find a more secure place to meet", tricks them all into standing up to leave so he can take photos of them. He transmits the photos back to MI6 where M's agents begin to identify them.As Bond leaves the theatre, a gunfight ensues in a restaurant. A bodyguard of Guy Haines, an adviser to the British Prime Minister, is killed by Greene's men and Bond is framed. M has Bond's passports and credit cards revoked because she believes Bond has killed too many potential sources of information. Bond travels to Italy to reunite with his old ally René Mathis, whom he convinces to accompany him to La Paz, Bolivia, to investigate one of Greene's business dealings there. On the flight over, Bond drinks several of his signature martinis and broods over Vesper; he feels betrayed and heartbroken. In La Paz, they are greeted by Strawberry Fields, an MI6 field operative from the British Consulate, who demands that Bond return to the UK on the next available flight. Bond disobeys and, refusing to check into the seedy hotel Fields had chosen, checks into a luxury hotel with her (claiming to be teachers on sabbatical who have just won the lottery). Bond seduces her in their hotel suite.Bond meets Camille again at a ecological fund-raiser being held by Greene, where she is busy spoiling the fun of Greene's party by pointing out his hypocrisy and lies to wealthy donors. Bond and Camille leave hastily together, but are pulled over by the Bolivian police. The police order Bond to pop the rear hatch of his car, revealing a bloodied and beaten Mathis. As Bond lifts Mathis out of the vehicle, the policemen shoot and fatally wound Mathis. After Bond subdues the police, he has a moment of relative tenderness with Mathis as the dying man asks Bond to stay with him. Mathis tells Bond that Vesper "gave everything" for him; his dying wish is that Bond forgive Vesper, and that he forgive himself.After depositing Mathis' body in a waste container, Bond and Camille drive to Greene's intended land acquisition in the Bolivian desert and survey the area in a Douglas DC-3 plane. They are intercepted and shot down by an Aermacchi SF260 fighter and a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. They escape from the crippled plane by parachuting together into a sinkhole. While finding a route to the surface, Bond and Camille discover that Greene and Quantum is blockading Bolivia's supply of fresh water, normally flowing in subterranean rivers, by damming it underground. Bond also discovers that Camille has spent years plotting revenge on General Medrano for the murder of her family and that Bond foiled that plan in Haiti when he rescued her.The two return to La Paz, where Bond meets M and learns Greene has killed Fields and left her sprawled on the bed, covered in petroleum. M tells Bond that Fields lungs are also full of the substance and that she was likely murdered by Quantum. Believing that Bond has become a threat to both friend and foe, and acting under higher orders, M orders him to disarm and end his activities in Bolivia. Bond escapes the agents who arrest him, defying M's orders to surrender. M tells her men to watch him because she thinks he is "on to something." Even though he has gone rogue, M confesses that she still has faith in him, and that he is "still [her] agent." Before he leaves, Bond demands that M include in her report that Fields performed her duties to the best of her ability.By this point, both the American and British governments have agreed to work with Greene, because they think he has control of vast supplies of oil in Bolivia. Bond meets with Felix Leiter at a local bar. Like Bond, Felix thinks his government is on the wrong track. Leiter discloses that Greene and Medrano will meet at an eco-hotel, the Perla des las Dunas, in the Bolivian desert. Bond is forced to run when several CIA commandos suddenly appear and open fire.At the meeting in the hotel, Greene pays off the Bolivian Colonel of Police, who organized the meeting. Greene then threatens Gen. Medrano into signing a contract granting Greene's company an overpriced proprietary utilities contract in Bolivia, which will be the only source for fresh water for the country. At first, Medrano refuses but Greene counters saying that Quantum is extremely powerful and influential, able to work with or topple any government or dictator and that Medrano could possibly be castrated and replaced with someone else if he does not agree to Greene's demands. Medrano gruffly signs the document and leaves with the money.After the meeting, Bond kills off the Colonel of Police for betraying Mathis, and sets off a chain of explosions in the hotel when a hydrogen fuel tank is hit by an out of control vehicle. He battles hand-to-hand with Greene, who flees the hotel, limping from an injury to his foot. Camille foils Medrano's attempted rape of a serving girl, and after a fight (during which Medrano tells Camille that she has the "same frightened look" her mother had before he killed her), Camille shoots Medrano. Bond rescues Camille from the burning building, and captures Greene. After interrogating him, he leaves Greene stranded in the middle of the desert with only a can of motor oil. Bond tells him that he bets Greene will make it 20 miles across the desert before he considers drinking the oil, contrasting the resources of oil and water. Bond drives Camille to a train station, where she muses on what life holds for her now that her revenge is complete. They kiss briefly but passionately before she departs.Bond travels to Kazan, Russia, where he finds Yusef Kabira. Yusef is revealed to be a member of Quantum who seduces high-ranking women with valuable connections, getting them to give up government assets as ransom for himself in fake kidnappings where he is supposedly held hostage. He'd previously tricked Vesper Lynd into the same sort of betrayal of MI6 and plans to do the same with Canadian agent Corinne Vaneau, even giving her the same kind of necklace he gave Vesper (an Algerian love knot). Surprising them at Yusef's apartment, Bond tells Corinne about Vesper and advises her to alert the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Bond leaves Yusef's apartment and is confronted by M who is somewhat surprised that Bond did not kill Yusef, but rather left him alive for questioning. M reveals that Leiter has been promoted at the CIA to replace Beam, and that Greene was found dead in the desert, shot in the back of the head and with motor oil in his stomach. Bond doesn't volunteer any information on Greene, but tells M that she was right about Vesper. M then tells Bond that MI6 needs him to come back to the agency. Bond walks off into the night telling M that he "never left." As he leaves, he drops Vesper's necklace in the snow.The traditional gun barrel sequence that opens nearly every film in the series (with the exception of this film's predecessor, Casino Royale) appears just before the closing credits.
    

Quantum of Solace


            This synopsis is especially detailed in the hope that it will help interpret this enigmatic film.La moustache starts with a view of waves in darkness. The first words, in darkness, are "What if I shaved my moustache off?" Now, we see Marc (Vincent Lindon) shaving, and his girlfriend Agnes (Emmanuelle Devos) responds "I don't know you without it". She leaves, and he submerges in his bath water for a moment. Only then is there music as background to his shaving the moustache and thoroughly washing it down the drain. Later, there is a ring, and he starts for the door. She comes in asking "why didn't you let me in?". He waits in vain for her to notice his clean lip. Instead, she says he hasn't commented on her "tarty look". They drive to their friends Serge (Mathieu Amalric) and Nadia's (Macha Polikarpova) house, and he says to go in while he parks. Even Serge's little girl doesn't notice the missing moustache.Marc overhears Serge call Agnes two-faced, and insists on hearing the story. About 10 years ago, Serge and Agnes (Serge's ex) spent a weekend with two other couples. Serge insisted that it was clear that Agnes arranged to hog the heat, and Agnes still adamantly maintains that she didn't. This suggests Agnes might be a liar. On their drive home, Marc says "the joke has gone far enough", her pretending not to notice he shaved the moustache. She adamantly insists "I don't understand?.Finally in bed she yells "You know you've never had a moustache". He says she plotted with Serge and Nadia, so she phones them and they deny it. He checks their Bali trip photos which show a moustache, but she is asleep by then. Next morning, he sees her take the photos while she thinks he is asleep. He sees them later, but takes no actionThroughout the whole movie, he has proofs of his moustache but never uses them. It seems almost deliberate. Perhaps he is somehow not able to use them.After that, he starts to grow his moustache again. He goes to work, but even the luncheon counter man does not acknowledge a missing moustache. A fellow-worker says "The advantage is we're dealing with both neophytes and experts. The message changes, but not the words and visuals. I like that idea".Marc restarts smoking after three years. That night, he nearly attacks her and breaks down. He shows her some moustache remains, but they are beyond recognition. Later, naked in the shower, he lets the remains of his moustache go down the drain. After making love, she says "I'm not lying to you Marc. I've never lied to you" and he says "I know. That's the worst part. Should I see a psychiatrist?". Next morning, he gives up regrowing a moustache. She says "It's like freaking out when you're high. Just remember, it ends at some point. It has to end."Later, he asks a stranger the difference between a new and old picture of him. The stranger immediately acknowledges the difference as "Oui, la moustache". He goes home and they try to relate well. She buys a green jacket for him, which he doesn't like. Their restaurant is all different. He likes it. She says it tastes odd. She feels like she is color blind or dyslexic. He promises "I'll always be here, whatever happens". She also restarts smoking. At home, his dad leaves a message reminding them of tomorrows visit. She denies they ever went to Bali.Bruno (Hippolyte Girardot), from work, says Marc hasn't had a moustache in the last 15 years. Later, we see a clothes washer spinning. At noon, Agnes asks "Are we going to your parents". He says no, and she calls with an excuse. She then doesn't know who Serge and Nadia are, and swears Marc's father died a year ago. He points out she just said "parents" a minute ago, which she denies. As he's going for a nap, he says "Agnes, you're not going to vanish?". His nap is in fetal position, as the camera spins and fades into a clothes washer spin that stops. As he wakes, she gives him a pill.Next, he wakes drugged to hear her and Bruno saying that the asylum people are coming to commit him. He manages to dress sufficiently, runs into the street, and grabs a cab. He tries to locate his parents house, where he was born, but can't find it (this personal inability may disprove she is simply gaslighting him). His cell phone says "parents" (not "mother"), but the number is invalid. He decoys Agnes and Bruno to his mothers house (that he couldn't find), grabs his passport, and drives to the airport.Next stop, Hong Kong, where he walks alone among crowds. He buys a Hong Kong postcard for Agnes writing "Without your eyes, I see nothing", but keeps it in his green jacket. About to fly elsewhere, the customs man looks closely at him since the picture has a moustache. Suddenly, he changes his mind and rushes out of the airport. Now he walks alone while the crowd walks elsewhere. He sits on a seat facing differently from the crowd. The dark water comes as he naps. He wakes to snickers at him letting his seat face differently, and corrects it. Then, repeated scenes of him going through travel turnstiles, walking with the crowd, and facing the 'proper' direction. He is just traveling, never going anywhere. He tires and falls behind, losing the crowd, On impulse, he hops a boat to Macao China. He thinks of calling home, but changes his mind and throws his cell phone in the water.In Macao, he wanders into a dingy hotel, and vegetates there. Scenes of an old man and even a dog also vegetating. He still won't send the postcard. He has grown a beard and moustache.One day, Agnes shows up in his room at the Macao hotel. She has made herself at home, and continues a conversation like they had just seen each other an hour ago. No explanation of how she found him in this furthest corner of the world. He looks very unsure he wants to restart the relation. She asks "what's this clowns jacket" of the green jacket she insisted on buying him. He shaves his beard, leaving his original La Moustache. Friend show old pictures of them with him having the original moustache. Agnes expresses no surprise. The whole episode of him with no moustache has vanished. He throws away the postcard.That night, she says "I almost thought you'd shave your moustache off earlier. I'd like to see you without it one day". He does shave it off, and she acknowledges it this time, immediately saying "You've done it. It's nice". She feels his bare lip, and they sleep.We see the postcard sinking deeper into water. Marc wakes in the darkness, staring...
    

The Moustache

The Son of Joseph

On Tour

Oxygen

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

Alice and Martin

The Blue Room

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

57,000 Kilometers Between Us

Tomorrow and Thereafter

Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian

Barbara

On War

If You Don't, I Will

Love Is the Perfect Crime


            The young man Jean is hired as an assistant to the aging photographer Stéphane. Stéphane has abandoned commercial photography and is consumed by a project to take life-size pictures of his daughter Marie using the antiquated technique of daguerreotype. The project involves arduous exposure times of more than an hour, during which Marie must be fixed by a frame not to blur the picture.As Jean works in the old house of Stéphane and Marie, he learns that Stéphane's wife, Denise, committed suicide after some illness and seems to haunt the house. Marie takes care of the greenhouse on the estate and dreams of becoming a professional gardener. She and Jean become lovers and Jean encourages her to leave her father and take up a position at the Botanical Gardens of Toulouse that she has been offered.One day as Jean is having lunch in a restaurant, he is introduced to the real estate agent Thomas, who tries to convince Stéphane to sell the old house for a development project. Stéphane furiously rejects the offer, even though it involves a substantial sum.One night the workshop is haunted by the ghost of Denise and Marie falls down the stairs and remains lifeless on the floor. Jean rushes her to hospital in his car, but she is thrown out of the car in an accident. When Jean looks for her body, he finds her conscious and seemingly well. They return to the house. Stéphane has assumed that Marie is dead and is overcome by grief. Jean convinces Marie to let Stéphane believe so, so that he can sell the house and Marie can move to Toulouse.Marie moves in with Jean while Jean tries to find the deed to the house so that it can be sold. Eventually Stéphane again refuses to sell the house and Jean decides to forge his signature on a proxy. Thomas rejects the proxy and requires to see Stéphane in person. Back at the house Stéphane is overtaken by his grief and shoots himself. When the real estate agent arrives, he finds Jean with Stéphane's gun and blood on his hands. Stéphane shoots Thomas before he can alert anyone. He and Marie leave for Toulouse. On the way, they stop at a small church and engage in a kind of marriage ceremony in the empty church. The ceremony is interrupted by the priest who tells Jean that the church is closed and asks him to leave. Marie is nowhere to be seen and it becomes apparent that her entire presence after the accident has been a delusion.
    

Daguerreotype

Families

The Sinkholes

The Screen Illusion

Ismael's Ghosts

Le grand appartement

A Tramway in Jerusalem


            Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.From Wiki: "Billionaire Eric Packer (Pattinson) rides slowly across Manhattan in his limousine that he uses as his office while on his way to his preferred barber, even though there are traffic jams. The traffic jams are caused by a visit of the president of the United States and by the funeral of Eric's favourite musician, whose music he plays in one of his two private elevators. He has recently married. In the car and elsewhere, he has meetings with his wife, who does not want sex with him, to save energy that she needs for her work. Instead, he has sex with other women. In his car, while having a meeting, he has his doctor carry out his daily medical checkup; Eric worries about the doctor's finding that he has an asymmetrical prostate. After devastating (not from Wiki - losses from) currency speculation, he kills his bodyguard and follows a path of further self-destruction, including visiting his potential murderer and deliberately shooting himself in the hand."And getting desired haircut.
    

Cosmopolis

Never Ever

Wonders in the Suburbs

Mathieu Amalric

Mathieu Amalric

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