Tag: Olivier Gourmet

Foreign movies are so hard for me to finally get to watch, but there are sooo many of them that I have to see for the Oscars. Booo. And it isn’t even just things nominated for Best Foreign Film! We have things that are foreign nominated for best Animated Film (which I will review in the next week), and we have Two Days, One Night, of which had Marion Cotillard nominated for Best Actress.

Best Actress! My weakest category! And this was literally the last one I had to watch to get all of the acting categories down. So of course I made this a priority outside of all the foreign movies.

So I grabbed my tissue, and prepared for the worst. After all, foreign movie nominated for Oscar and straight drama? I assume someone is going to make me cry.

Even the ice cream looks depressing.

Sandra (Marion Cotillard) has an issue. She might be losing her job. She works at a plant that only has 17 employees. They make solar panels for whoever wants solar panels. Sweet gig I guess. But Sandra has been having some emotional and psychological issues lately. She had a nervous breakdown and took time away from her job, spending time at home with her kids and husband.

But the company employees have found out they totally don’t need her at the job. Everyone overall works roughly 3 hours more a week, but they still get the job done, and it isn’t a big deal that she isn’t there. They can do it with 16. So the higher ups put it to a vote for the remaining workers. They either vote to keep Sandra as a member of their company, or they vote to receive their yearly bonus. Yep, they put her against about 1,000 euros. That’s pretty hardcore.

So it comes to no surprise when the vote goes 14-2 against her. However, they say that the company man being at the vote and it not being secretive influenced it heavily. They convince them that Monday there has to be a re-vote, a secret ballot, without outside influences in the room. So Sandra has the weekend to find her co-workers, appeal to their better nature, and hope they will keep her around too.

Also with Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salee, Olivier Gourmet, and Shaun Weiss. And obviously more, but some people have smaller roles or only one scene.

Trying to save your job while being silently judged. That is probably worse than sad ice cream.

Great acting alert, great acting alert!

Fuck. Cotillard did so good. I haven’t seen her in most things, like a lot of people, but I was super impressed. She lost a lot of work and constantly felt like she was on the verge of another break down. She was also incredibly realistic. And a good person. Which made her easily relatable. Her heart break and her sadness was our heartbreak and our sadness. The film itself is such a simple concept yet entirely captivating. It helps that they present you with such a simple goal too. She just needs to convince 7 coworkers to vote for her on Monday. Simple as that.

She doesn’t want to be an inconvenience, she doesn’t want to guilt trip people too much. After all, other people have their own problems and families to look over and had plans for that money. They don’t deserve to lose their bonus, yet she also doesn’t deserve to lose her job. It is real, it is relevant, and it is has a lot of gripping human drama. Man. Those French/Belgian people really knew how to connect to me on levels I didn’t even expect before.

Fuck, I guess I should watch The Immigrant now?

If you have no idea who Mesrine is, then you should probably read the review of part one, of this two part movie series. That way you knowledge can increase by about 3% on the subject!

Knowledge, it makes you happy.

After the events of the first film, Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) found himself alone, on the run, and mad. How does Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 begin? Shit, with Mesrine dying. Spoilers? Not really. Hopefully you would guess a nationwide gangster ended his career in prison or in death. Why they started with his body, not sure.

Last time we got to see kidnapping, killing, some extortion and breaking away from the police twice.

Well this movie is really no different. Some more escapes, some more kidnapping. He has different lovers in this film (Ludivine Sagnier). Some notable police workers (Oliver Gourmet and Christophe Vandevelde). And of course new accomplices and criminals (Gerard Lanvin, Mathieu Amalric, and Samuel Le Bihan).

Why be vague? I explained that last time. Because its all about the experience, damn it.

There must be some kind of way out of here, said the gangster to the thief. In prison.

But is it ust as good? To me, it didn’t feel as good. It is a bit longer, but I think a lot could have been cut out. Overall, it just felt like more of the same.

Maybe my problem is considering it two movies (you know, because it was released that way…) and not as one super really long movie. But in that case, overall it might have been better to just make it like a long three hour movie instead of a little bit over four hours overall. I guess it is because it became more of a biography and really did want to talk about all of his exploits. Not just the cool shit. I respect that, but I didn’t care about most of it.

I will say his death was kind of bad ass, as were his escapes. I also loved that everytime he got caught he was generally happy. Posing for the press, making great courtroom stands and what not. Then you know, escaping. Well done Mesrine.