Movies I've seen in the past month

Knocked Up (2007)

A one-night stand results in an unexpected pregnancy for entertainment reporter Alison (Katherine Heigl) in Judd Apatow's romantic comedy. Determined to be a good mom and keep her career on track, Alison decides to try to make things work with the baby's father, slacker Ben (Seth Rogen). It's anything but smooth sailing as the odd couple gets acquainted, but Alison finds there's more to Ben than she originally thought. Paul Rudd also stars.

This movie may be a bit too raunchy for some but it's pretty funny and actually a real love story which is surprisingly moral. I give it four stars.


Pierrepoint (2005)

Following in his father's footsteps, Albert Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall) becomes one of Britain's most prolific executioners, hiding his identity by working as a grocery deliveryman. But when his ambition to be the best inadvertently exposes his gruesome secret, he becomes a minor celebrity and faces a public outcry against the practice of hanging. Juliet Stevenson plays Pierrepoint's oblivious wife in this fascinating biopic based on real events.

The most gruesome part of the movie was watching all the executions when Pierrepoint is chosen by Field Marshal Montgomery (the famous "Monty" who was in command of Allied ground forces during WWll from Operation Overlord until after the Battle of Normandy) to execute 200 Nazi war criminals after WWII. Pierrepoint was the only hangman who was efficient enough to hang them all in ten days. In his life-time he also executed 433 civilian men and 17 women including "Lord Haw-Haw" (William Joyce, the WWII traitor) and Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain in 1955. This was an excellent movie. I give it four stars.


Amazing Grace (2006)

Based on a true story, this historical drama starring Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four) tells the story of William Wilberforce, an 18th-century English politician who fought for the abolition of slavery. Despite staunch opposition, Wilberforce waged an aggressive campaign using boycotts, petitions and slogans. Director Michael Apted's (Coal Miner's Daughter) powerful film also stars Albert Finney, Michael Gambon and Rufus Sewell.

I reviewed this movie at length soon after I saw it three weeks ago and gave it a bum rap at the time but time has mellowed my opinions and I now think it was pretty good. I give it three stars.


I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)

Firefighters Chuck Ford (Adam Sandler) and Larry Allensworth (Kevin James) are guy's guys, loyal to the core -- which is why when widower Larry asks Chuck to pose as his gay lover so that he can get domestic partner benefits for his kids, his buddy agrees. Things get dicey, however, when a bureaucrat comes calling, and the boys are forced to present a picture of domestic bliss in this comedy co-starring Dan Aykroyd and Steve Buscemi.

This had the potential to be good story and could have been hilarious but, apart from a few chuckles, the movie was pretty lame - and feel-good preachy at the end. I give it two stars.


Zoo (2007)

This documentary closely examines the sensationalized story of a man from Seattle who died from a ruptured colon after having sex with a horse in a barn. Director Robinson Devor transcends the shocking headlines to explore the circle of people who secretly possess an interest in bestiality. Two friends of the man who died as well as a horse advocate provide narration for much of the film.

I got this movie because I read about this event when it happened and wanted to know more about it. (Oh, okay, I'll admit I also got it out of morbid curiosity.) I should have known that it would be crap by the fact that it won some award at the pretentious Sundance Festival. This has to be the worst movie I have ever seen. It was not only creepy; (almost the way I imagine a fake snuff movie would be) it was also dishonest and manipulative. But I couldn't stop watching it because it was like a train wreck. Eventually the reason for the creepiness and dishonesty became apparent when, right at the end, an animal rights activist says that she found zoophilia disturbing at first but came to understand how people could come to "love" animals. Yeah, the damned director is probably also an animal "lover." What a load of horse-whappy! Now you know why I watch mostly kids' movies. I give it a "don't bother."



Clatterford: Season 1 (2006)

In Clatterford, a quaint village in the English countryside, members of the local women's guild meet to discuss all manner of topics -- from making jam to ending world poverty. This loopy Britcom comes courtesy of "Absolutely Fabulous" creators and stars Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. The hilarious series also stars Maggie Steed as the Women's Guild head, Dawn French as a cheese factory worker and Sally Phillips as a New Age devotee.

I got this because I loved Saunders' Absolutely Fabulous. I was expecting it to be the same sort of over the top comedy but it turned out to be a gentle satire set in my favorite part of England where I lived for a few years, the beautiful Cotswolds. I give it three stars.


La Vie en Rose (2007)

Marion Cotillard stars as beloved Parisian singer Edith Piaf, whose passion for her music saw her through a life filled with tragedy. From her forlorn childhood in a brothel to her big break at Louis Leplée's (Gérard Depardieu) nightclub and her premature death at the age of 47, director Olivier Dahan creates a loving portrait of the legendary chanteuse. Sylvie Testud and Pascal Greggory co-star in this critically acclaimed biopic.

I reviewed this movie at length soon after I saw it last week. I give it five stars.


Spider-Man 3 (2007

After defeating eight-armed cyborg Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) faces off against a new crop of villains, including the shape-shifting Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), in the third adventure of the comic book series. While Spidey's superpowers are altered by an alien organism, his alter ego, Peter Parker, deals with nemesis Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) and gets caught up in a love triangle. Kirsten Dunst and James Franco co-star.

Not bad. I really enjoyed Spiderman 1 and 2 and the special effects in #3 are fantastic as usual but a cartoon story does have it's limitations and I think Spiderman 3 has reached the limits. Still, it was good fun and so I give it three stars.


Night at the Museum (2006)

Chaos reigns at the natural history museum when night watchman Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) accidentally stirs up an ancient curse, awakening Attila the Hun, an army of gladiators, a T. rex and other exhibits. Larry tries desperately to keep marauding Neanderthals and Mayans in check, fighting a losing battle until President Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) comes to the rescue. Owen Wilson and Dick Van Dyke co-star in this family-friendly fantasy.

Not bad. The special effects were excellent. I give it three stars.


Evan Almighty (2006)

In director Tom Shadyac's raucous follow-up to the 2003 comedy Bruce Almighty (also helmed by Shadyac), God (Morgan Freeman) summons narcissistic newscaster turned congressman Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) to build an enormous ark in preparation for a devastating flood. Unfortunately, Evan's perplexed family interprets his latest hobby as a midlife crisis gone wrong rather than as a divine assignment from the man upstairs.

I got this because some conservative blogger (I forget who) mentioned it last week as being fun for the whole family which, as you can see from my choices, is the category into which most of my favorite movies fall. I didn't expect too much - just something silly to watch on Friday night. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a really delightful movie. I give it four stars.

Edith Piaf - The Little Sparrow

Last night we watched the movie, "La Vie en Rose," the life story of the French singer, Edith Piaf. Her signature song, "La Vie en Rose," was written in 1945 and recorded soon after. It became a world-wide hit and I grew up listening to her part-English version of it on the radio and could sing it from a very early age - doing "pretend French" rolling my Rs with Piaf's guttural North African/Belleville accent. She got under my skin in the same way that Judy Garland did but Piaf touched some deeper, sadder African part of me that Garland didn't reach.

Piaf was born in 1915 in the slums of Belleville, Paris, which was (and still is) home to mostly Moroccans and Algerians. Her mother, a cafe singer, was half Italian and half Algerian. Her father was circus acrobat. While he was in the army during WWl, Edith's mother left her daughter with her Algerian mother, Aïcha Saïd ben Mohammed, and disappeared. When her father returned from the war, he took Edith to live with his mother who was a cook in a brothel where Edith lived until she was 14. The prostitutes became mothers to little Edith.

From the age of 3 until she was 7, Edith was blind because of some disease that she had picked up in the brothel (which they called keratitis in those days but which is nowadays thought to have been meningitis.) Supposedly she recovered her sight miraculously, after the prostitutes saved enough money to send her on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. From then on, Edith believed that St Thérèse took care of her. But her childhood illness damaged Edith's health permanently and she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis from then on to the point where she hobbled like an old woman even in her teens.

When she was 14, her father took her out of the brothel so that she could join him doing his travelling acrobat act all over France but her arthritis prevented her from performing acrobatics so her father insisted that she sing to accompany his act. When she was 17, she broke with her father when she had a baby by her petty ganster boyfriend. Her child died a few months later of meningitis. Piaf then became involved with her boyfriend's fellow gangsters and continued making a living singing in the streets of Paris.

In 1935 when she was 20, she was discovered singing on the street by a nightclub owner (played by Gerard Depardieu in the movie) who gave her a job singing in his club. It was he who gave her the nickname "Piaf" (Paris slang for "Little Sparrow) because she was so tiny - only 4'8" - and birdlike and it was he who insisted that Piaf always wear a black dress on stage which became her trademark. From then on her singing career took off and she became famous all over France.

Her rise from squalor and poverty to fame and fortune happened during WWll and the Nazi occupation of France when she was forced to sing for the Nazis. From Wikipedia:

According to one story, singing for high-ranking Germans at the One Two Two Club earned Piaf the right to pose for photographs with French prisoners of war, to boost their morale. The Frenchmen were supposedly able to cut out their photos and use them as forged passport photos, and some of them managed to escape.

After the war, she toured all of Europe, South America and the USA. In 1947 during a tour of the USA, she met the love of her life, world champion middle-weight Algerian boxer, Marcel Cerdan, who was unfortunately already married. In 1949, Cerdan was killed in a plane crash and Edith was devastated. She had always been a heavy boozer but she now began drinking even more heavily.

In 1951 she was involved in a car crash and had many broken bones. She was given morphine to which she became addicted for the rest of her short life. When asked why she took morphine, she answered: "Because is helps me to ignore my body." That is understandable since she had been in pain since childhood because of her arthritis. Piaf died in 1963 at the age of 47.

Her tragic life was evident in her voice. People who heard her sing felt that she expressed their own personal tragedies and heart-breaks. They said of her "she is my sister/daughter/mother; like my own family." Piaf's melancholy was not popular when she first came to the USA and it took a while for Americans to warm to her. She was France's Judy Garland but, instead of smiling through her tears and putting on a brave face as Garland did, Piaf let everyone see her broken heart through the palpable sorrow in her voice.

The poster for the movie:























A close-up of the actress who played Piaf, the beautiful Marion Cotillard.




















Cotillard as the younger Piaf:























Cotillard as the older Piaf:























Piaf performing with an accordion when she was 19:























The most famous portrait of Piaf:
















Piaf with the love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan:























Piaf past her prime when she was already addicted to alcohol and morphine:



















Piaf's final appearance when she could barely walk because of her arthritis and her abdomen was swollen from liver cancer:























Here is the trailer for the movie, La Vie en Rose:



Here is Piaf singing her signature song, "La Vie En Rose" in 1954:



This is Piaf singing my favorite song, "Hymne à L'Amour." It gives me a bitter-sweet pleasure and I cannot hear it without getting teared up. This was recorded in 1949 after the death of her lover, Cerdan:



There are hundreds of Piaf videos on YouTube. I chose these two because they have English subtitles.