Un coeur en hiver (1992)****

 Reviewed by Shu Zin

UN COEUR EN HIVER is a strange little film written and directed by Claude Sautet. It is about as French as it gets. Daniel Auteuil is the guy with the heart in hibernation, and he assumes this role with subtlety and finesse. As a gifted maker of violins, he drives just about everybody in his life a little crazy with his detached silence, his passive aggression. It is easy to find him detestable. This story takes place over about a year, when he becomes involved with a beautiful young violinist, Camille Kessler, played by the lovely and vulnerable Emmanuelle Beart. 

There is a great deal of emotional and sexual tension in this quiet, odd film, but somehow, everyone seems real and credible. And utterly French in sensibility, right down to the foppish, uneasy, self-conscious discussion of aesthetics we are privileged to see and snicker at. One of the greatest aspects of this puzzling, disquieting film is the lovely score, brimming with violin sonatas and trios by Debussey. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Shu Zin

Un coeur en hiver (1992)****

 Reviewed by Shu Zin

UN COEUR EN HIVER is a strange little film written and directed by Claude Sautet. It is about as French as it gets. Daniel Auteuil is the guy with the heart in hibernation, and he assumes this role with subtlety and finesse. As a gifted maker of violins, he drives just about everybody in his life a little crazy with his detached silence, his passive aggression. It is easy to find him detestable. This story takes place over about a year, when he becomes involved with a beautiful young violinist, Camille Kessler, played by the lovely and vulnerable Emmanuelle Beart. 

There is a great deal of emotional and sexual tension in this quiet, odd film, but somehow, everyone seems real and credible. And utterly French in sensibility, right down to the foppish, uneasy, self-conscious discussion of aesthetics we are privileged to see and snicker at. One of the greatest aspects of this puzzling, disquieting film is the lovely score, brimming with violin sonatas and trios by Debussey. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Shu Zin

Inspector Bellamy (2009)****

Reviewed by Shu Zin

INSPECTOR BELLAMY is a sensitive, thoughtful character study of a middle-aged detective on vacation in Nimes, where he and his wife stay at the house Bellamy and his brother grew up in. As the very last movie directed by the prodigious Claude Chabrol before his death in 2010, I find it quite the nuanced study of a man past his peak, full of little insecurities, yet still alert, sympathetic and kicking when it comes to solving crime. 

Gerard Depardieu does a great job playing the kindly inspector. Those who find him gross because he is fat have eyes in their heads, but not much in the way of humanity or empathy; they should probably stick to the slim, vacuous people from Hollywood. For me, the actors tonnage added to the credibility and pathos of the character. 

The supporting characters, Bellamy’s wife (Marie Bunel), his troubled brother (Clovis Cornillac), the odd fellow who confesses to murder, the sophisticated fellow who, curiously, lives on the street and his girlfriend of 5 years, a gay dentist and his sweetie, even the wife of the mysterious insurance guy who confesses, are all well-acted, intriguing characters, and while this may not be one of Chabrol's very best films, it has charm and held me engrossed in these people and the story. Highly recommended, and if, like me, you have seen everything you can lay your hands on by Chabrol, see it as a final tribute to his long and prolific career. He is one of the most interesting French directors in my opinion and, certainly, he left an enormous body of work to entertain and intrigue French film lovers. 

Reviewed by Shu Zin

Inspector Bellamy (2009)****

Reviewed by Shu Zin

INSPECTOR BELLAMY is a sensitive, thoughtful character study of a middle-aged detective on vacation in Nimes, where he and his wife stay at the house Bellamy and his brother grew up in. As the very last movie directed by the prodigious Claude Chabrol before his death in 2010, I find it quite the nuanced study of a man past his peak, full of little insecurities, yet still alert, sympathetic and kicking when it comes to solving crime. 

Gerard Depardieu does a great job playing the kindly inspector. Those who find him gross because he is fat have eyes in their heads, but not much in the way of humanity or empathy; they should probably stick to the slim, vacuous people from Hollywood. For me, the actors tonnage added to the credibility and pathos of the character. 

The supporting characters, Bellamy’s wife (Marie Bunel), his troubled brother (Clovis Cornillac), the odd fellow who confesses to murder, the sophisticated fellow who, curiously, lives on the street and his girlfriend of 5 years, a gay dentist and his sweetie, even the wife of the mysterious insurance guy who confesses, are all well-acted, intriguing characters, and while this may not be one of Chabrol's very best films, it has charm and held me engrossed in these people and the story. Highly recommended, and if, like me, you have seen everything you can lay your hands on by Chabrol, see it as a final tribute to his long and prolific career. He is one of the most interesting French directors in my opinion and, certainly, he left an enormous body of work to entertain and intrigue French film lovers. 

Reviewed by Shu Zin

Loulou (1980)

If you were a young adult in the late 1970s this film will likely strike a chord with you, as it captures a time when romantic notions of love were replaced by a raw, aggressive sexuality. Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu are, not surprisingly, quite amazing as an earthy Parisian couple who have nothing in common off of their mattress, but their athletic escapades provide sufficient common ground for them to stay together. While the Netflix plot summary describes Huppert as in flight from an abusive husband (Guy Marchand), we can’t really surmise that from the film, as director Pialat is quite stingy with the couple’s backstory. The straight-laced Marchand becomes violent and mean once he discovers he’s being cuckolded, and his fits of temper seem perfectly logical in context.


Huppert appears to be escaping nothing but middle-class boredom, and the thuggish ex-con Depardieu provides her with the spark of dangerous excitement she seeks. The couple thrives in their free love fantasyland for a while, but eventually remnants of their past lives, and a careless pregnancy, signal incoming trouble in paradise. Maurice Pialat does some very good work here, presenting this liberated but confused era with an almost tactile immediacy. While the filmmaking style could be considered verite, there is still a subtle subjectivity that sneakily leads us into making stern value judgments about these characters without abandoning our interest in them.


Particularly impressive is Huppert, who is one of the few actors ever to share a film with young Depardieu and not be gobbled up in the process. Their chemistry on screen is quite believable and, through her instinctive technique, she allows Depardieu to become a much deeper and more appealing character than the physicality of his role would suggest. In all, “LouLou” manifests a time, a place and a mindset that’s a lot more enjoyable to watch than it was to live through.


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Loulou (1980)

If you were a young adult in the late 1970s this film will likely strike a chord with you, as it captures a time when romantic notions of love were replaced by a raw, aggressive sexuality. Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu are, not surprisingly, quite amazing as an earthy Parisian couple who have nothing in common off of their mattress, but their athletic escapades provide sufficient common ground for them to stay together. While the Netflix plot summary describes Huppert as in flight from an abusive husband (Guy Marchand), we can’t really surmise that from the film, as director Pialat is quite stingy with the couple’s backstory. The straight-laced Marchand becomes violent and mean once he discovers he’s being cuckolded, and his fits of temper seem perfectly logical in context.


Huppert appears to be escaping nothing but middle-class boredom, and the thuggish ex-con Depardieu provides her with the spark of dangerous excitement she seeks. The couple thrives in their free love fantasyland for a while, but eventually remnants of their past lives, and a careless pregnancy, signal incoming trouble in paradise. Maurice Pialat does some very good work here, presenting this liberated but confused era with an almost tactile immediacy. While the filmmaking style could be considered verite, there is still a subtle subjectivity that sneakily leads us into making stern value judgments about these characters without abandoning our interest in them.


Particularly impressive is Huppert, who is one of the few actors ever to share a film with young Depardieu and not be gobbled up in the process. Their chemistry on screen is quite believable and, through her instinctive technique, she allows Depardieu to become a much deeper and more appealing character than the physicality of his role would suggest. In all, “LouLou” manifests a time, a place and a mindset that’s a lot more enjoyable to watch than it was to live through.


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The Wages of Fear (1953) ✭✭✭✭

"Wages of Fear" starts as a flabby, dawdling tale of class struggle in a squalid South American village, then morphs into a primeval drama of survival; as lean and mean as Yves Montand's sweaty undershirt. With a big American oil company wildcatting in the area, desperate and dodgy men from all over the world have descended on this dusty venue in hopes of making a quick buck, but the supply of labor far exceeds the demand, and these men are left stranded and idle with broken spirits and no plane fare home.


Montand stars as one of these lost souls, an itinerate roughneck named Mario, who befriends Jo (Charles Vanel), a fellow French expat, and the two of them sit and while away the hours reminiscing about swanky Parisian cafes while chickens and mangy dogs nip at their feet. These expository scenes comprise the first hour of the film and effectively establish the men's dire plight, as well as the callous attitude of the oil drillers toward human life.


When the oil company hires the wretched men for a suicide mission: drive two trucks loaded with volatile nitroglycerin 300 miles over treacherous mountain roads, the extended dramatic build-up pays off in spades. Lovers of tense, nail-biting action will be spellbound as the men make their way through the rocky wilderness, where any sudden move will set off a Hiroshima-size explosion. This is elemental drama stripped to its barest essentials, as there is no room for error or compromise.


The men must use every bit of their strength, ingenuity and a measure of sheer brutality in order to survive. This is not a perfect film by any means. There's some very heavy-handed religious symbolism and the ending is a definite WTF moment, but director Clouzot has created an icon of sweat-drenched suspense. The film has been remade and ripped off innumerable times, but it has never been surpassed.

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The Wages of Fear (1953) ✭✭✭✭

"Wages of Fear" starts as a flabby, dawdling tale of class struggle in a squalid South American village, then morphs into a primeval drama of survival; as lean and mean as Yves Montand's sweaty undershirt. With a big American oil company wildcatting in the area, desperate and dodgy men from all over the world have descended on this dusty venue in hopes of making a quick buck, but the supply of labor far exceeds the demand, and these men are left stranded and idle with broken spirits and no plane fare home.


Montand stars as one of these lost souls, an itinerate roughneck named Mario, who befriends Jo (Charles Vanel), a fellow French expat, and the two of them sit and while away the hours reminiscing about swanky Parisian cafes while chickens and mangy dogs nip at their feet. These expository scenes comprise the first hour of the film and effectively establish the men's dire plight, as well as the callous attitude of the oil drillers toward human life.


When the oil company hires the wretched men for a suicide mission: drive two trucks loaded with volatile nitroglycerin 300 miles over treacherous mountain roads, the extended dramatic build-up pays off in spades. Lovers of tense, nail-biting action will be spellbound as the men make their way through the rocky wilderness, where any sudden move will set off a Hiroshima-size explosion. This is elemental drama stripped to its barest essentials, as there is no room for error or compromise.


The men must use every bit of their strength, ingenuity and a measure of sheer brutality in order to survive. This is not a perfect film by any means. There's some very heavy-handed religious symbolism and the ending is a definite WTF moment, but director Clouzot has created an icon of sweat-drenched suspense. The film has been remade and ripped off innumerable times, but it has never been surpassed.

More Info