Sirāt (2025)

Amy and I had mixed feelings about this intense story of a Spanish man, accompanied by his young son, searching for his daughter at a rave in Morocco. It's beautifully photographed, with a gripping plot and trippy music but, no spoilers, s**t happens that's hard to take.

Sergi López stars as the father Luis and Bruno Núñez Arjona as his son Esteban. The actors playing the main ravers Steff, Josh, Bigui, Tonin, and Jade were hired off the street and are using their own names or, in the case of Bigui, nickname.

Oliver Laxe directs from the screenplay he co-wrote with Santiago Fillol. Seminal Spanish director/producer Pedro Almodóvar and his brother Agustín Almodóvar are among the production team.

Kangding Ray's score is available on Apple Music

Here's a bit of trivia cribbed directly from imdb: The Sirat Bridge, in Islamic belief, is a narrow and perilous bridge that every person must cross on the Day of Judgment to enter Paradise (Jannah). It is described as being thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword, with the faithful crossing it swiftly, while sinners may fall into Hell below.

Amy has traveled extensively in Spain (and elsewhere) and she commented on the risky behavior of the Spanish kids, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to do drugs and dance. 

I would suggest reading this article after watching the movie if you want to avoid spoilers.

López was last blogged for Perfumes. All the other actors listed above are making their feature debuts. Laxe has directed three other features, two of which were co-written by Fillol, who co-wrote one other without Laxe. This is Ray's second score.

Nominated for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, it has twenty wins, including the Jury Prize, Soundtrack Award, Palme Dog, and Art House Award at Cannes, and 96 other nominations. Yes, there are two dogs in it but we assume no animals were harmed.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are dancing with a 92% average, while its audiences, like us, are watching from the sidelines at 62. As a paid member of the Independent Feature Project (open to anyone!) I could stream it since it is nominated for The Best International Film of the Independent Spirit Awards. It's not currently streaming anywhere nor playing in my neck of the woods. We saw it on December 31.

Perfumes (Les parfums - 2019)

Deb and I really liked this French dramedy about a down-on-his luck chauffeur and a prickly woman who creates fragrances. Grégory Montel's Guillaume is a multi-layered divorcé with an adorable tween daughter and Emmanuelle Devos portrays Anne as on the spectrum (all the blurbs refer to her as a "diva" but I think not). Sergi López makes an appearance in the third act and I won't say his character's name because it's a bit of a spoiler. 

Director/writer Grégory Magne keeps the pace going accompanied by Gaëtan Roussel's score. It's not available online but I did find a clip on YouTube. Cinematographer Thomas Rames provides pretty scenes of various locations in the country.

Devos was last blogged for Wild Grass and Lopez for Potiche. Magne has one other feature to his credit and Roussel and Rames each have four

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are smelling oh-so-sweet with averages of 100 and 90%, respectively. We watched it July 9 on Amazon Prime Video with a subscription.

Potiche (2010)

Charmante! Jack and I loved this tale of a woman finding her power in 1977 France when she takes over from her chauvinist husband the umbrella factory founded by her father. Potiche means trophy wife in French. Catherine Deneuve (at 67 years of age she has 111 credits; my faves are Belle de Jour (1967), The Last Metro (1980), Indochine (1992) for which she was Oscar-nominated, and 8 Women (8 Femmes - 2002), among many) has aged beautifully. It must have been a little strange for her to play her current age in a piece set in a period in which she flourished as a young beauty. Back in Los Angeles in the 90s, I had occasion to sit across a room from Kate Walsh, before she became famous for playing Addison Montgomery on Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. I was convinced that Walsh was Deneuve's relative (compare this photo with this and see if you agree) but never got around to asking her. In an episode of Grey's, someone flirting with Addison asked her the very question. No, both times. But I digress, as usual. 

Deneuve's character, Suzanne, has class and warmth, even when she doesn't (and you'll just have to see the movie to find out what I'm talking about). Much has been written about Gérard Depardieu (just two months younger than Deneuve, he has 187 credits--I can barely read through them all, much less name my favorites, but I did love Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Préparez vos mouchoirs - 1978) and Jean de Florette (1986), among many) co-starring again with Deneuve as he did in The Last Metro and a number of others, and much has been written about how big he is now. Yep, he's big! His Maurice Babin is a reasonable man whom Suzanne pushes, just as she pushes her husband Robert, played by Fabrice Lucchini (I wrote about him in Paris). Suzanne and Robert's grown children are played by Judith Godrèche (was in the fabulous Ridicule (1996) and L'auberge espagnole (2002), to name a few) and Jérémie Renier (I wrote about him in Summer Hours), with co-starring roles by Godrèche's Farrah Fawcett haircut and the disco wardrobe on both of them (costume design by Pascaline Chavanne, designer on Under the Sand (2000), 8 Women, Swimming Pool (2003), Ricky, all by the same director as this one, François Ozon, and lots more).

Which brings me to Ozon, whose past work I covered in my post on Ricky. His timing is impeccable and the production values are high--not only the hair and wardrobe but also the sets--and he adapted the play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy on which this movie is based (I believe he has written or adapted the screenplays of all of his features). Ozon added the twists in the third act.

Ozon's regular composer Philippe Rombi once again does the honors, supplemented by pop songs of the period (here's a complete list with a window from which you can play two tracks). Sergi López, one of the stars of Ricky, has a cameo driving a camion (French for truck). And fans of The Sopranos will appreciate the name of the strip club, Badaboum. You don't need to have lived through the dawn of women's liberation (or remember when Jane Fonda instructed us to purse our lips to show that we were breathing while exercising) to love it, but having done so added a certain je ne sais quoi. Rated R for a couple of sex scenes with no actual nudity and highly recommended for all except subtitle-phobes.

Ricky (2009)

You have to see this delightful French movie about a "magic baby." It is perfection. The story is imaginative, the child actors are sublime, and the adults aren't bad either. Director François Ozon (I loved Under the Sand (2000), 8 Women (2002), and Swimming Pool (2003)) "liberally" adapted the screenplay from the short story “Moth” by English author Rose Tremain (though that fact is omitted by imdb). Let's start with the baby. About a year old, Ricky (tiny Arthur Peyret) is the cutest and his every movement and sound is realistic. For his snorts while nursing to his coos and shrieks and offscreen wailing, props go out to the sound editing department, and we can only guess how many camera takes it took to show him kicking in his crib and flailing about in the "magic" sequences. Then there's Ricky's seven-year-old sister Lisa (Mélusine Mayance), who could not be farther from the "staring simpleton" she voiced in the 2010 Oscar nominated short Magic Fish. Mademoiselle Mayance portrays a full range of emotions and is also adorable. Lovely Alexandra Lamy plays the mother, a desperate factory worker living in council housing (that's the projects to us Yanks) and Sergi López (scary in With a Friend Like Harry (2000), which I loved, and terrifying in Pan's Labyrinth (2006), which many loved but I hated for his character's sadism) is the Spanish man whom she meets at the factory, who is (for a change) not creepy.

The trailer hints at what is magical about Ricky. I had not seen the trailer and I guessed just before the reveal. But even if you know, the movie isn't spoiled. Closing tonight in our burg, it's not yet out on DVD. I hope you remember why you added it to your list when it's released...the poster might help. The movie is R rated, so don't bring your kids unless you're OK with their seeing how babies are made. At 89 minutes, it's compact, so stay until the end for a bonus credit. I started translating it, but before I finished, the subtitle appeared on the screen. Staying will also give you the opportunity to listen to the rest of the Phillippe Rombi (Under the Sand, Swimming Pool, many more) soundtrack, which also includes a song by Cat Power. If you don't mind spoilers, or are lucky enough to have seen it already, here's a press kit.