Father Geek here finally with this weeks Euro-AICN column, lightning kept knocking me off line earlier, but the heavens have given us their OK at last...

EURO AICN

Hey folks... Edgard here with the weekly edition of the Euro News... Today I received my formal invitation for my High School 10 years reunion... meaning that has been already 10 years I was a foreign exchange student in the US of A... boy, time goes fast... 10 years... this "reunion" idea is quite weird as it is not really a tradition in Belgium or France... so of course I plan to go and see people who probably remember me only as the "Belgian dude" or "the one with a funny accent" (if they remember me at all)... it was so fun being one of the "foreigners"... very cool to get girls actually... 10 years... sigh... don't know why I am sharing that with you, sorry... enough about me already...

This week we will get less news and more "content" stuffs... content with Ethan's column rumbling about THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, SWORDFISH, MAJOR DUNDEE and TRAFFIC... content with some reviews (BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY, BELPHEGOR, JUST VISITING) and of course the content of the next Cannes Festival... so here it is... let's start with some news...

ITALY

* Hi Edgard, hi Harry. Robert here... As you probably know, the shooting of Gangs of New York wrapped last week. We had the pleasure to provide some more details about a few important scenes of the Martin Scorsese’s movie. This time my colleague Giovanni Colucci has seen a scene setted in a pool-room: "I've seen six takes which probably will make a scene -i think important- about a discussion between the bosses of the city while they're playing billiards. This scene reminded me, of course, The Color of Money, the wonderful Martin Scorsese sequel of Robert Rossen's The Hustler". From what i've seen Scorsese used again billiards (the game) and the billiards-room (the place) as a metaphor of the characters relationships. Mostly political relationships. There are a lot of men in this scene. I've recognized only the great Jim Broadbent. In GONY Jim Broadbent is Tweed, the faithful Billy "The Butcher" Poole's (Daniel Day Lewis) friend. Poole and Tweed are the leaders of the Natives, a New York gang which trade-mark are their silk-hats. The place of the scene has to be a private house. This is very elegant -the billiards room is full of carpets- whith wonderful curtains, plants, statues, lamps and paintings. Old West style. This is New York's other face. In the bloody, dirty and dusty streets there are such wariors as Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Billy Poole. In this place thare are clean politics such as Tweed. They rules without soiling their hands. In fact all the men involved in this scene are formal dressed.

More, Giovanni has seen another scene directed by Victor Armstrong:

“The internal corridor of what seemed to me an office. The corridor is shooted by all its length and it faces the street by a window. This window is very big. Next to the window there's a table. A man, shooted by his back, walks trough the corridor to the window. The camera, with a fluent movement, follows him. The office is full of people wearing silk-hats. Suddenly a stone, thrown by the outside, breaks the window's glass. After it, we can see a ferocious crowd who breaks into the office by the window. The director of this scene is Victor Armstrong, the action-unit director of Gony. The scene is repeated by different points of view: from the outside and from the inside. Always with the camera oblique and with the ralenty. I've noted an interesting detail: when the crowd breaks into the office, an american flag slowly falls down. From what I've seen the window was broken four times, and four times rebuilt”.

You can read the full report (with more interesting particulars) at:

Robert

SPAIN

* From Screendaily : Spanish producer Lolafilms has signed two-time Palme d’Or winner Bille August to direct The Maid Of Buttermere, a long-gestating period love tale set in England’s Lake District. No cast has yet been confirmed for the film, which was written by Raymond Khoury as an adaptation of a novel by intellectual, TV presenter and author Melvyn Bragg. A start date is also uncertain given the film’s Lakeland setting, which is close to one of the centres of foot and mouth disease in the UK. Production is now expected to begin by the end of the year. The Maid Of Buttermere (working title) tells the story of a handsome rogue who sets out to seduce a wealthy debutante but winds up falling in love with the village’s local beauty. The picture was previously in development at MGM/UA in association with Tribeca Films and OAK Partnership. Directors Carlos Saura and Fernando Trueba, and actors Hugh Grant and Colin Firth were all previously linked at different stages.

August, who has been working on the film for several months, won the top prize at Cannes with Pelle The Conqueror in 1987 and Best Intentions in 1992. His most recent work is A Song For Martin, a Norwegian-Swedish co-production, which followed a period working on bigger budget English language productions that included Les Miserables, Smilla’s Sense Of Snow and The House Of The Spirits. Currently awaiting release from Lolafilms UK’s first-year slate are John Malkovich’s The Dancer Upstairs, Chris Monger’s That Girl From Rio, Manuel Gomez Pereira’s Off Key and Susan Seidelman’s Gaudi Afternoon.

Also in development on Lola’s growing English-language slate is Alex de la Iglesia’s ambitious Fu Manchu, tipped to star Antonio Banderas, which also looks likely to crank up before year-end, although a SAG strike could complicate matters. Lola Spanish-language title Torrente 2: Mission In Marbella (Torrente 2: Mision En Marbella) last weekend became the highest grossing Spanish film ever, surpassing previous record-holder the original Torrente, The Dumb Arm Of The Law (Torrente, El Brazo Tonto De La Ley).

UK

* Empire Online covered the UK premiere of the Nicolas Cage / Penelope Cruz film CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN :

The azure seas of sunny Cephallonia where Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is set were a far cry from a dismal, cold and wet Leicester Square last night (19 April). But that didn’t stop the starry cast from showing up for the word premiere of the film based on Louis de Bernieres’ hit novel. Despite the appalling weather and torrential rain, the film’s golden couple, Nic Cage and Penelope Cruz, braved the elements to sign autographs and shake hands with fans outside the cinema as the crowd screamed their approval. But while they did manage to spend months sunning away the days on a Greek island, the shoot wasn’t all tans and margaritas. “There were a lot of challenges, I was trying to stretch myself in new directions and really learn different things," said Cage. "I didn’t know how to sing really, I didn’t know how to conduct opera but I was busy so I didn’t have a lot of time to do anything else except go home after work and keep playing the mandolin and learn that accent.”

Playing the eponymous Captain, Cage is beguiled by Greek beauty, Pelagia, played to stunning effect by Spanish star Penelope Cruz. “She is a great lady and a great actress,” Cage said of his co-star. “One of the things about Penelope is that you don’t really see her acting and that’s very hard to do. I’m not exactly sure how she does it, I wish I could do it. You don’t see the wheels spinning when she’s acting. She’s an incredibly natural performer.” However, the secret behind Cruz’s thesping finesse may be less due to hard work and concentration than simple relaxation. By her own admission, Cruz spends a vast amount of her time fast asleep. “Yes, because if I don’t then I am unbearable,” she said. “If I don’t sleep I have a really bad temper. My record is 18 hours.” Joining the pair were Olivia Williams, Graham Norton and fellow Corelli star John Hurt, minus the grey handle-bar moustache he sports in the film. “It’s not a fake one, it was mine,” said Hurt, “and it saved me having to have one stuck on me every day in the blinding heat. No one ever gets the colour right on fake moustaches, they never look quite right I think.”

Pictures of the event are available from this page : Just Click

See also Empire's firts look at a 17 minutes preview of FINAL FANTASY at : This Site

FRANCE

* Several news from the French website Allocine.fr :

- Herschell Gordon Lewis, "father" of the gore films, could direct a sequel to the cult BLOOD FEAST ("Blood Dinner" being an unofficial sequel). Lewis last film was BLACK LOVE, made in 1972. No words on the script yet, but shooting could start this summer.

- Robert Carlyle could play Brian Jones, one of the founding members of the Rolling Stones in STONED, a movie about the life of this musician. Johnny Lee Miller is also on the rank for this role.

- Ken Loach's next film should be SWEET SIXTEEN, about a Scottish teenager confronted to the crime world in Glasgow.

- BAISE-MOI, the controversial French film, will be distributed in North America by Remstar (Canada) and FilmFixx (USA). First in L.A. and N.Y. in June, and more during the Summer. RAPE-ME (US title) has been already shown during the San Francisco Film Festival two weeks ago.

- MIAMI VICE on a big screen ? It seems that Edward James Olmos (Castillo) is discussing this possibility with Universal right now... no words yet on the possible casting...

FESTIVAL DE CANNES

Last week was announced the official list of films selected for the next Cannes Festival, we already put in on the AICN website at Our Massive Archives

You can also find directly the information about all the events and films of the Cannes Festival on their official website : Just By Clicking Here (the website should be updated in the following days with detailed information on the selected films).

Meanwhile here're some events worth to mention already :

* On the 16th May, the director Wong Kar-Wai will give a cinema lesson. And on the same day, Martin Scorsese will present his film on the story of Italian cinema, "Il mio viaggio nel cinema italiano".

* Like each year, the Festival de Cannes is having a retrospective. This year, it will focus on The Golden Age of American Comedy with movies like "Monsieur Verdoux"; "It happened one night"; "The Philadelphia Story"; "Bringing up Baby"; "Trouble in Paradise"; "Unfaithfully yours"; "A Foreign Affair"... and much more classics (see website for complete list).

* Gérard Oury (French director of classic comedies) and Melanie Griffith will be guests of honour and will be awarded during the festival.

* Tributes will be given to Vittorio De Sica, Claude Sautet and Robert Enrico.

* Characteristics of the 2001 Selection (text taken on the website) :

The grand return of the Americans, including the Opening Ceremony film, Moulin Rouge, by young Australian director Baz Lurhmann, five American films in competition, among which two studio productions (Moulin Rouge for Fox and Shreck for Dreamworks), and three independent pictures. The latter are two Palme d'Or winners (Coen brothers and David Lynch) and an actor-director Sean Penn for his third film. An outstanding Japanese presence, with three films in competition, three for Un Certain Regard, and one Midnight screening. An interesting face-off can be expected In Competition between a master (Imamura) and two newcomers (Aoyama and Kore-eda). An impressive French selection, in any category (details not yet available). The confirmation of Southern Europe's strength with three countries in competition: Spain with Marc Recha, Portugal with Manoel De Oliveira and Italy with Ermano Olmi and Nanni Moretti In Competition and Francesca Archibugi (Italy will be present in Cannes this year with a tribute to Vittorio de Sica and a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary on Italian cinema). Other countries competing at Cannes: Bosnia In Competition and Thailand in Un Certain Regard.

* And to finish with Cannes this week, here's Grozilla's comments on some of the films selected :

Just seen "Kaïro". Not the best Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film but quite interesting. Looks like a Ring seen from Tarkovski's or Antonioni's Point of view... Big buzz on the Thaï film ( "Tears of the black tiger", I guess). Some pals try to sell it to me as a cross between, Western & Douglas Sirk mélodrama....

Claire Denis' "Trouble Everyday" seems quite something. Here's the pitch : One guy has just married. On his wedding night he can't get a boner. So he goes to scientist friend of his who give him a new pill (like Super Viagra). It works but make the guy full of new appetite : for live flesh !!!! Then one female contract killer hired by pharmaceutist corporation is looking for him to get the pill ... Wow ! I like Claire Denis, but I never imagined she would make gore movie... I've heard the cast is Vincent Gallo (The main man), Alex Descas (The Scientist) and Beatrice Dalle as...The killer ! With music from The Tindersticks (like Nénette & Boni, one previous Denis' film). Last summer on a radio, Denis told the shooting of this film (wrapped for quite a year now) wasn't happy at all. It seems that she and some people of the crew yelled at each other... She's currently shooting a new film with Valerie Lemercier and Vincent Lindon on love at first sight between (it's what I understood) some rich guy and a hooker.

Grozilla®

ETHAN'S CORNER

Last week THE TAILOR OF PANAMA appeared on bootleg video in Serbia. I was anxious to see it because I am a huge fan of John le Carre`s novel. My film school proffessor Nebojsa Pajkic always said that adaptations of spy novels should be made by filmmakers that are interested in intimate stories. This theory makes sense because all of the great adult spy novels have a deep intimate feel and moody internal structure. Sadly Hollywood always hires action directors to make spy flicks. In case of THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, Tony Scott was the first attached director. He retreated to make SPY GAME and John Boorman stepped in. Boorman`s involvement was a promising move but in the end I must confess that Tony Scott would have done a better job. Boorman simply extracted the proceedings (physical works) from le Carre`s novel and then hacked it into movie. He showed no attitude or opinion regarding the story. THE TAILOR OF PANAMA is a great novel and authors had two clear paths in terms of directing the novel. The first one was to make a dark thriller with a FIGHT CLUB twist when you discover that Harry Pendell was performing OUR MAN IN HAVANA routine. This path was promising to turn the movie into a smart, twisted pic that would keep all the kinkiness of le Carre`s prose. The second approach was to turn this into a bizarre comedy along the lines of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH with a tiny influence of Kubrick. Boorman made no choice as if he was scared to decide. It is peculiar that this movie had le Carre`s blessing.The character selection in the script is fine and I think that the proper THE TAILOR OF PANAMA screenplay should keep the same characters. Casting is also pretty fine. Geoffrey Rush is a bit too soft for the character of Harry Pendell. I would have suggested Michael Caine or Brian Cox but Rush is competent enough to keep us amused. The casting of Pierce Brosnan is very smart because the character of Andrew Osnard is le Carre`s version of Bond that exists is his Smiley world of cooruption, alcoholic spies nad deception. Jamie Lee Curtis on the other hand is smartly referring to her TRUE LIES role of Harry Tusker`s wife. Sad fact about this flick is that all that matters in this le Carre adaptaton is the scene when Brosnan gets jiggy with Jamie`s boobs. The rest is very mediocre and completely lobotomized.

SWORDFISH is entering the test screening agony. I hope that the results of these test screenings won`t make Joel Silver cut this R - rated pic written by Skip Woods, the substitute Shane Black. Joel Silver had a pretty poor record after THE MATRIX because ROMEO MUST DIE and EXIT WOUNDS sucked. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL recovered him a bit in my eyes. Still, Silver`s getting drowned in the hip-hop hell. SWORDFISH promises to be a very eighties work. Of course, no one can match the metaphysics of Shane Black and no one will ever be as gutsy or as dirty as him. As I write this coulmn my view slides toward the video colection where I look at LETHAL WEAPON 1 & 2, LAST BOY SCOUT and LONG KISS GOODNIGHT. Great works. Skip Woods may be the answer. His style (THURSDAY) feels a bit Tarantinesque but it also looks like a fun lovin` fare with Mickey Rourke having a cameo. Thus I believe that SWORDFISH will provide the sufficient firepower, bodycount, nudity and one-liners. Travolta needs a proper comeback not some Tarantino joke fest. SWORDFISH may be the right thing. Let`s hope this summer proves succesful for ballsy, macho flicks like SWORDFISH, McTiernan`s ROLLERBALL and Harlin`s DRIVEN. Don`t worry Sena won`t spoil it...

In the oldies department I`ve seen another extremely important movie. This one is exclusively interesting to die-hard fans. I am talking about Sam Peckinpah`s MAJOR DUNDEE. MAJOR DUNDEE is the missing evolutional link between The Cavalry Western and Marijuana Western. On the visual field it belongs to the cavalry tradition. Shots are static and long and the only improvement is Peckimpah`s imanent obssession with bloodbath. Stoprytelling is confusing because producers made all kinds of cuts that forced Peckinpah to disown the film. Even though MAJOR DUNDEE is set in the time of Emperor Maximilian`s rule like WILD BUNCH. The evolution appears in the character setting. MAJOR DUNDEE anticipates the landmark depth (ambivalence) of Peckinpah`s heroes. Author also twists the cavalry genre cliche. In every Cavalry Western you have the character of beautiful maiden that represents home and looks like a woman that would interest you until the end of time. Maidens in MAJOR DUNDEE are treated as objects of desire and lust. Casting is a little bit faulty. Richard Harris is fine as the Confeserate aristocrat. Charlton Heston however can`t fit into Peckinpah`s world because his face emanates grace. I mean this guy starred as Moses. Moses brough laws and laws are the only thing Peckinpah`s characters can`t stand. Anyway if you are interested in movie history check this movie out. I guess it is available on VHS.

Ethan's I DISAGREE review :

T R A F F I C

America needed a movie that would inform the nation about the danger of drug abuse and how the whole society should engage and solve that problem. Otto Preminger made that movie in 1955 and named it THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. Steven Soderbergh wanted to erase this fact and he made TRAFFIC - the movie with structure and ambition reminiscent of megalomaniac propaganda movies made in the country that was called Evil Empire by Raoul Walsh`s supporting actor Ronald Reagan in his presidential years.

TRAFFIC is a movie with several narrative flows. Each one of those stories is linked by the subject of drugs and Soderbergh tries to present the entire narco cosmos that includes South American producers, North American distributors, and mostly white teen costumers opposed to honorable law and order enforcers who daily risk their lives in order to prevent Mexicans from delivering drugs to ghetto blacks that offer it to white highschoolers (feels like a racial prejudice flick, hm?).

Epic structure proved to be quite engaging in the case of Martin Scorsese`s mob masterpieces (GOODFELLAS, CASINO). The audience was able to really dive into his underworld. Scorsese`s classics however always focused on the main characters and their epic structure only existed in terms of numerous supporting characters and the time that was covered in the movie. In spite of ambitious cosmogony those movies managed to evoke the magic of cinema and involve the audience into the proceeedings. Unlike Scorsese, Soderbegh opted for the structure of the television series and he compiled the narative out of a sum of completely apart stories. That decision isn`t much of a surprise since TRAFFIC is Steven Gaghan`s adaptation of the British television series. Soderbergh only forgot the fact that movies are different from television. Television allows the informational input of the story while movies are supposed to transcend. This is why television is information- oriented while movies are about storytelling. TRAFFIC is crucified between the TV creenwriting and the celluloid consumption. In terms of script you can define TRAFFIC as a compiled TV series presented in one feature. Thus TRAFFIC cannot be an epic since it isn`t about neither characters or emotion. Even Zeitgeist isn`t presented in an engaging manner. TRAFFIC is the movie that only deals with the problem and dealing with problems has nothing to do with art or filmmaking.

These opinions show that TRAFFIC has serious problems in the screenwriting department. Even though these problems are pretty naive compared to how bad direction is.

The only virtue of Soderbergh`s direction is effective and cunning use of the cast. He probably realized that this kind of story wouldn`t correspond with the audience because these short chapters don`t provide enough space for character development. This is why Soderbegh courted Hollywood`s biggest stars to take a sallary cut and act in his movie that may even win them an Academy Award. Stars wanted to exploit Soderbergh because they remember how he defined star personality of George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez and Julia Roberts. But instead of stars exploiting Soderbergh he exploited them and made the characters work through their magnetic performances.

In terms of style, Soderbergh denies any kind of artificality and conservative concept of ciematographic statement. While Scorsese`s mob classics were the true example of style and impressive celluloid achievements, Soderbergh insists on mockumentary aggresive realism. His camera is shaky, angles are used without any concept and the whole thing looks like a TV report. Even this kind of anti-cinematic approach isn`t presented in a consistant manner because the author often uses conventional visual devices. This kind of incosistency shows that Soderbergh isn`t ready for radical changes that would be basically wrong but at least brave. TRAFFIC thus creates the very precise separation in the world of aggresive realists and divides them between posers that cowardly betray cinema (Soderbergh) and the group that does the same thing with true belief (Von Trier and his DOGME crew). The lack of emotion and consistency in Soderbergh`s approach implies that he may have used this style in order to simplify TRAFFIC from producer`s point of view. This method surely accelerates the rhytm of shooting. We will probably know more about this when TRAFFIC becomes an encyclopedic item.

Oscars have turned into the device of strategic manipulation and its` significance lies in the fact that Academy Awards may be interpreted as the blueprint of Hollywood`s transformation. TRAFFIC won the Oscar for screenwriting adaptation and with certain benovolence I may say that Steven Gaghan (who wrote exceptional Friedkin work- RULES OF ENGAGEMENT) wrote a decent TV series script. I don`t think that anyone will take that style of writing as a rule. The scary thing about TRAFFIC is the Oscar for Best Direction. Best Direction Award is awarding the method and this rises the serious question of whether Hollywood is planning to support this way of filmmaking or not. I hope that Hollywood was just faked by Soderbergh and that this Oscar is given in order to protect Hollywood`s upcoming investments in his movies. If Soderbergh`s method of direction gets endorsed by Hollywood the outcome may be very evil. The only good thing about TRAFFIC is that it brought an Oscar to brilliant Benicio Del Toro.

TRAFFIC`s aestetic nad emotional potential equals a poor man`s anti drug campaign. If you really want to see a movie that would spoil any kind of drug abuse for you go and see Darren Aronofsky`s REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. In case you are looking for a pleasant and charming cinema experience even Soderbergh himself wouldn`t recommend this to you.

God bless, Ethan

Edgard here... I just wanted to comment Ethan's review... as often I disagree with him (that's why he's one of my best contributors, he's more critical than I am)... I really liked TRAFFIC and Soderbergh is someone who keeps surprising me in many good ways... meanwhile I agree on one thing : REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is far more powerful concerning drugs; as Harry wrote about it, REQUIEM... should be shown in schools. Now did Soderbergh made TRAFFIC as an "anti-drug" film, I don't think so... I see more TRAFFIC as a film about money, power, politics and wasted lifes... it's more about illegal activities... Soderbergh could actually have made the same film about the bootleg video's traffic or fake clothes sales... it would be the same : it comes from somewhere, it involves a very organised network, and it gets in your house, any house... but of course showing Michael Douglas' daughter sniffing drugs is probably more effective and "cinematic" than showing her watching an illegal copy of "Episode 2" or wearing fake Levi's... In other words, TRAFFIC might be about drugs, I don't see it as a "drug movie"... it's more about the organisation of its sale than about dependance...

LISA'S REVIEW

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY

By Lisa Cannon

British Filmaker Sharon Maguire has struck gold with her debut for Bridget Jones's Diary. A cinematic splash of humour, humanity, sweetness and eccentricity, electrify this movie. It opens with the rather frumpy Bridget (Renee Zellweger) who surprisingly PUT ON Two Stone for the part ( R-E-S-P-E-C-T), eating and drinking herself into a stupor over the 'another year gone and still no boyfriend syndrome'. Seeing as her pajamas and similarities to singing drunk were like mine, I instantly liked Bridget and was intrigued to watch the rest.

As the film progressed, it unraveled a simple tale of woman's trials and tribulations in the world of relationships, and Bridget, like all of us is no exception to the rule. She is dumped, cheated on, in love, out of love, hates men, loves men, flirts and chases men, and dismisses men, but ironically WANTS men. She epitomises the girl next door who sloungers in front of the TV in her PJ's with Dad after watching Corrie, a Pizza in one hand, washed down with a Crunchie and a Cuppa Tea. She's the Girl who reads Cosmo and wishes her sex life was as interesting as in all the columns, swears to herself she WILL experiment if and when she actually DOES get a boyfriend. She's the Girl who gets blind drunk and makes a fool out of herself at parties, but whom everybody loves. She's also the Girl who knows she's a great catch if she could just find someone who could love her for the way she was..... plump, ditzy, neurotic, but positively an irresistible and human example of woman.

Moreover, Bridget is a great character to play, she is fun and quirky, charming and very British. Surprisingly, Renee Zellweger did a superb job of a toffee nose-potty accent. She did not falter once and her plainness and radiance of a woman trying desperately to understand herself and men was executed perfectly. My hat goes off to Miss. Zellweger who, as I said earlier gained two stone for the role, showing us and Hollywood, she is not afraid to eat Mac D's, booze over her weekly units, smoke endless fags and show off her Cellulite!!! Hoooooorah. About time we saw an American actress who is prepared to suffer for her art!.

Hugh Grant is (Can You Believe it?) not the same old yawn yawn floppy haired, stuttering idiot as in all his previous million movies, he is instead, Mr. Suave, yawn yawn floppy haired, but without the stutter. Still, good casting decision. The Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral crew have adopted him as their mascot, because after all, none of those films would have been the same without Mr. Grants floppy haired English charm. He simply fits the bill. Colin Firth ( Mark Darcy) on the other hand, was as dreary and offensive as gone off eggs, but was great as the 'second choice'. Classic touches such as the Reindeer jumper scene and the 'blue soup' made the film very watchable. I found myself rooting for Bridget for all the good she tried to do herself after she had done so much harm. In saying this, I mean I thought she was credible, warm, human and very normal. So normal in fact, I thought I was watching my best mate on screen. It was her down to a T. Then again, it was very much a person all people male and female could identify with and have a friend of. Bridget Jones is- the Average Joe Bloggs and for that there is no apology needed, she's the best kind to know.

In a Nutshell, a mix between The Royal Family, Shirley Valentine, Sex and the City and Friends. So, Girls and Boys, if you like any of the above you must go and see Bridget Jones. It's girlie, but your Dad unadmittingly wouldn't think it was half bad either!...

http://www.showbizireland.com

EDGARD'S REVIEWS

BELPHEGOR

The genre film seems very popular right now in France. Not only popular, but also a crowd pleaser as French cinema is feeling quite good right now... After the thriller CRIMSON RIVERS and the adventure/action film BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES, comes an adventure/horror/comedy film called BELPHEGOR. Based on a book and a black and white TV show from the sixties, it tells the story of a ghost haunting the Musée du Louvre, searching for a way to get back to the Dead world... and did I mention it was the ghost of an Egyptian mummy ?... Well yes... it sounds a bit like THE MUMMY... comedy, special effects, adventures, evil Egyptian stuffs... but it is not really THE MUMMY either... far from it actually...

The film follows a young woman (Sophie Marceau) who happens to live in front of the Louvre... One day she visits the museum during the night (because she can get in via her basement... long story) and gets close to a mummy... and Bam !... the mummy's soul or evil double or whatever you can call it... takes possession of her... Now she starts writing Egyptian, yelling at some innocent kids, killing birds, looking funny in the eyes, and dressing in a black costume to haunt the Louvre at night... and - of course - she kills a couple of guardians in the process... Hopefully for her and us, a young electrician (Frederic Diefenthal from TAXI 1 & 2) is in love with her so he does everything to help her without killing her... And you add to this the museum's director (who does not believe in ghosts), an english woman making research (who explains everything about Egypt), an old cop (who has seen that 30 years ago and wants his revenge) and a few stupid guides...

So is it good ? Well... to be honnest... not really... if you remember well I reviewed the script of the film last fall and it was already bad... when read the script my main problem was a mix of genre : horror or comedy ?... The movie suffers from the same problem... it's not scary and not as gore as I thought it would be (it is actually not gore at all... it's a PG film). What about the comedy ? Well, the comedy comes as usual from all the secondary characters... the guides, the cop, the director... and I really didn't get into it... I guess some thought the dialogues were fun as I heard many laughs, but personally I did not... too French for me maybe (yes, I am Belgian remember...). It seems also the director edited the movie in a very sharp way... I remember in the script that the characters had some depth, but here the beginning goes very very fast... you get introduced to Sophie Marceau's character... boum ! 30 secondes later here's the electician... boum ! the grandmother (of Marceau's character) dies... boum... they go to the Louvre.. boum the ghost... very quick, then... well it slows down quite a bit as for an hour you watch the ghost appearing and disappearing in the Museum...

There was an opportunity to do something fun and cool, but unfortunately it's a mix between today's technology and yesterday's (actually 20 years ago) story telling... Of course I don't like to be entirely negative, so there're a few things I like. For example the use of special effects; very often in French cinema the SFX are overused (see LES VISITEURS 2)... here they used it well just for what's needed... good point there. Good point also for Frederic Diefenthal who's probably the only one who's not annoying in this film (sorry for Sophie Marceau's fans, but she has nothing much to do here except looking sad and possessed). And - as I love Paris - good point for the nice views of Paris and especially of the Louvre... The movie made me want to go back there soon... just hope I won't meet an angry ghost because of this negative review.

To know more on this film, check the official website : By Just Clicking Now

JUST VISITING

Major flop in the States, big disapointment in France... for the rest of the world, JUST VISITING has straight to video written all over. So why come back on this (very) average film... well although I thought it was just okay (okayyyyyyy !!) I think it was an "interesting failure" (you can add this to your list : masterpiece, good, average, bad, crap and "interesting failure"). Most of the time American remakes of French comedies are crap (Jungle 2 Jungle; Mixed Nuts; Pure Luck; Father's Day to name a few)... some are average (Birdcage, Three men & a baby)... and rarely good (True Lies is actually the only remake I can think of that's better than the original... thanks to Cameron and the action sequences). I don't really want to go back on JUST VISITING's story, I am sure you can find it by yourself... I just wonder why John Hugues (who's behind this remake) made two strange choices :

1. to keep the original actors from the French film... if Jean Reno is more or less famous in the States, who knew Christian Clavier ?

2. why not adapting the story totally for US audiences ?... why keep this link to Medieval times that's not really part of the US history ?

Imagine the same plotline. Imagine two guys from the pre-Civil War period in America. Imagine two US actors... I don't say you have a success, but at least more chances to get one... Now I actually think John Hugues choices - as weird as they were - are quite daring and I respect it... it would have been nice it it had worked... The result here is probably the first remake made mostly for people who have seen the original film !! JUST VISITING makes sense only if you start comparing the two versions... You have the same actors, the same plotline... it's just the background that has changed ! The funniest change concerns the... teeth of the two heroes. In the French films, they have rotten teeth (medieval times, guys)... here, it's magic, nice teeth... it looks like American audience can't deal with some historical facts (repeat after me, "it's only a movie"). Another change - quite more interesting - is the "social" approach. The French film was funny on 2 levels : the "time clash" of course; but also the way the nobles were presented... this is of course a typical French tradition : nobles living in castles or big houses in the country with all the social rules that it implies... funny for French audience, not abroad... So the American film is left only with one level of fun; and instead of the "noble" storyline, the movie pays more attention to the "slave", André le Pâté, discovering what democracy is all about... and here's the (weak) link to America history : the search for freedom (my American friends, when are you going to understand : you're not the only democracy in the world ?). The result is strange, as in the French film Clavier's character was really annoying, here he gets some humanity and you can't help but feel a bit moved by his relation with the knight (Reno).

My final word is that JUST VISITING is another example that French comedies should NOT be remade for US audiences, it never works... still if you have seen the French film, it can be an interesting experience to compare it with this one... if you're a student and have to make some assignement on cultural differences, you know now 2 films you should watch...

Well that's it for this week... don't forget we expect your reviews, comments, questions, or whatever... send us your stuff to our EURO AICN offices in Paris by A Simple Click of the Mouse