Farewell, My Queen (Les adieux à la reine - 2012)

We very much liked this beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen), with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets, at the end of the empire. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. Kruger (last in these pages in Unknown, but I didn't notice when I wrote about Inglourious Basterds that she was Helen to Orlando Bloom's Paris and Brad Pitt's Achilles in Troy (2004)) is very good as the petulant queen. If you saw Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), with Kirsten Dunst as the queen at the beginning of her reign, you can well imagine her growing up to be this adult. Seydoux (quite the chameleon, she had one look as a blonde assassin in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, another in the modern part of Midnight in Paris, and yet another as the demure brunette in this one) convinces us of her devotion. Lvovsky has acted in, written, and directed a number of things, but I didn't recognize her all the while admiring her work as Madame Campan. Ledoyen's (I didn't see her in The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio but quite liked The Valet (2006), among others) Duchesse is a frosty foil to Kruger's affectionate queen.

Director Benoît Jacquot (none of his many titles rings a bell, though this has been hailed as his "triumphant return"--strange, since he directed a 2010 release) and Gilles Taurand adapted Chantal Thomas' novel for the big screen.

It's been two months since we saw this. I was going to skip the music since I don't recall it. But then I realized it was scored by Bruno Coulais (most recently composed for Babies). Here's a clip from this one. Rottentomatoes' critics loved it, averaging 93%. Audiences not so much with 60. We did. It isn't yet out on DVD so save it to your netflix queue.

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Yeah, I was behind in blogging when I left town on September 22, and since then I've been home for about 10 non-consecutive days, so here are brief summaries in the order in which we saw them, which I hope to flesh out soon, randomly. Please don't judge me for quoting myself later--a gal gets only so much inspiration. As of tonight three* are still playing on first-run screens in this area and one** in a second-run movie house.

Farewell My Queen, seen on 9/5. Beautiful costume drama about the spoiled Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), her devoted servant (Léa Seydoux), and her best friend (Virginie Ledoyen) with both of whom she cuddles every chance she gets. Noémie Lvovsky has a wonderful turn as the head ladies' maid who speaks volumes wordlessly. We liked it a lot.

**Premium Rush, seen 9/14. Awesome special effects of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle messenger appearing to weave madly in and out of Manhattan traffic. An inventive action movie with Michael Shannon playing yet another crazy guy, this one evil.

Celeste and Jesse Forever, seen 9/19. A grown-up romantic comedy co-written by and starring Rashida Jones as a career woman pulling away from her Peter Pan husband played by Andy Samberg. We loved it. Shot mostly with a handheld camera, this induces motion picture motion sickness (MPMS) on the big screen. Lucky for you, it isn't playing on any now and you'll be fine watching it at home.

*The Master, seen 10/3. Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as his angry protégé. Amy Adams supports as the cult leader's wife. Beautiful photography, wonderful period (1940-50s) set dressing and costumes.

*Looper, seen 10/5. Joseph Gordon-Levitt again, this time playing a young Bruce Willis, much the same way Josh Brolin played a young Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III. Only here, in addition to imitating the voice, Gordon-Levitt's eyebrows and certain facial characteristics have been altered digitally so that he resembles Willis. Good acting and well-crafted story about time travel in the near future--the third feature from director/writer Rian Johnson.

*End of Watch, seen 10/18. Pretty darn good, this veers wildly yet successfully between being a goofy buddy picture and a violent cop drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. There are some bloody images that will stay with you. It's also a serious MPMS inducer since a subplot is that Gyllenhaal's character is documenting his life with a hand-held camera. Apparently I was warned but didn't look at my notes before we picked something to see while we were out of town last week.

Completed full posts will be linked to the titles as I complete them.