We finally get to see Woody's latest, and it's his best film for a while and my first Film of the Year. It's a reasonably straight drama along the lines of Match Point and Irrational Man, with themes of fate and irony.
In a single shot, Lou de Laâge is approached on a Paris street by a former classmate, Niels Schneider, and they begin to reignite, even though she's married to wealthy Melvil Poupaud, who it turns out is not just a snob, but controlling and murderous. (What's the model railway thing about?) Into the mix comes de Laâge's mother, Anna Laik, who amusingly loves her son-in-law as much her daughter.
It's a cool film, underlined by several cool tracks by the like of Nat Adderley, 'Cannonball's' younger brother, such as In the Bag. Vittorio Storaro's photography is as sublime as ever, the performances are good, the murder quite shocking in its casualness - I even wondered if there was a Jamal Kashoggi reference going on here.
It's also funny to see Woody's regular font Windsor Elongated in French! We assume AD Delphine Bertrand was bilingual. And then she messaged me! "I have lived in California and work mainly on American feature films coming to shoot in France. I was 2nd AD on Midnight in Paris and Magic in the Moonlight… It was a very nice surprise for me when 10 years later, they asked me to be Woody’s 1st AD. Working with Woody and Vittorio is one of the best experiences of my life!"
There's an argument for saying it's like a Golden Era Chabrol: high society, food, adultery, murder, irony and cool detachment.
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