#Olivier Dahan

[famy-x]

La Vie en Rose Directed by Olivier Dahan 2007 France

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Best Marion Cotillard movies and performances:

1. Inception - Christopher Nolan (2010)

2. Le Petit Prince - Mark Osborne (2015)

3. Un long dimanche de fiançailles - Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2004)

4. La Môme - Olivier Dahan (2007)

5. Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen (2011)

6. Jeux d'enfants - Yann Samuell (2003)

7. De rouille et d'os - Jacques Audiard (2012)

8. Deux jours, une nuit - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (2014)

[ronnydeschepper]

Vijftien jaar geleden zag ik "La môme" (Olivier Dahan)

Op 07/10/2009 zag ik “La môme” van Olivier Dahan uit 2007. Continue reading Vijftien jaar geleden zag ik “La môme” (Olivier Dahan)

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: La Vie en Rose

Rating: PG-13

Director: Olivier Dahan

Cast: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve, Gérard Depardieu, Clotilde Courau, Jean-Pierre Martins, Catherine Allégret, Marc Barbé, Caroline Silhol, Manon Chevallier, Pauline Burlet, Élisabeth Commelin

Release year: 2007

Genres: drama, music

Blurb: From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life is a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love.

[filmsetseriespourtous]

« Les Seigneurs » : une comédie disponible en VOD

En quête d’une bonne comédie à visionner ? Si tel est le cas, découvrez « Les Seigneurs ». Il s’agit d’un film réalisé par le cinéaste Olivier Dahan. L’intrigue suit Patrick Orbéra, qui a connu une belle carrière en tant que footballeur. Alors qu’il est devenu alcoolique, il est contraint de se reprendre en main, au risque de perdre la garde de sa fille. C’est alors qu’il met le cap sur une…

[adarkrainbow]

Fairytales in French cinema

Pictures from 2001's "Le Petit Poucet", Olivier Dahan's adaptation of the "Little Thumbling" fairytale. It might have been translated as "Tom Thumb" in English, despite the movie not having to do with this tale.

On an international level, you might have heard of it thanks to its soundtrack, which was created by Joe Hisaishi, the man behind the music of many great Japanese movies (notably those of Miyazaki and of Takeshi Kitano).

[moviereviews101web]

Under Paris (2024) Movie Review

Under Paris – Movie Review Director: Xavier Gens Writer: Yannick Dahan, Xavier Gens, Maud Heywang, Yael Langmann, Olivier Torres  (Screenplay) Cast Bérénice Bejo (Final Cut) Nassim Lyes (Mayhem!) Anaïs Parello (Offensive) Iñaki Lartique (Plus belle la vie, encore plus belle) Plot: Sophia, a brilliant scientist comes to know that a large shark is swimming deep in the river. Runtime: 1…

[cristalconnors]

JULY SCREENING LOG

79. Evil Dead Rise (Lee Cronin, 2023)- 7.7

80. La Vie en Rose (Olivier Dahan, 2007)- 4.7

81. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)- 7.5

82. Thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke, 2003)- 8.2

83. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023)- 7.9

[maaarine]

Simone, le voyage du siècle (Olivier Dahan, 2021)

[alittlefrenchtree]

ALFT Cultural Rewind 2022

For the first time this year, I tried to write down everything I've consumed in terms of movies, books and TV Shows during 2022. I live having these lists and I've decided to share in case you're looking for some random recommendations. Feel free to ask for more opinions, thoughts on anything if you want 😊

purple is for things I liked 💜

Movies I’ve watched in 2022

1) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - David Fincher

2) Flickan som lekte med elden — Daniel Alfredson

3) Amadeus - Milos Forman

4) En attendant Bojangles — Régis Roinsard

5) Licorice Pizza — Paul Thomas Anderson

6) Lynx — Laurent Geslin, Laurence Buchman

7) The Chef (Boiling Point) — Philip Baranti ; James Cummings

8) Her — Spike Jonze (Rewatch, one of my favorite movie ever)

9) Arthur Rambo — Laurent Cantet

10) White Snake — Amp Wong : Zhao Ji

11) Death on the Nile — Kenneth Branagh

12) Enquête sur un Scandale d’État - Thierry de Peretti

13) Goliath — Frederic Tellier

14) The Batman — Matt Reeves

15) Notre Dame Brûle — Jean-Jaques Annaud

16) En Corps — Cédric Klapish

17) Les Bad Guys — Pierre Peril

18) À la folie — Audrey Estrougo

19) Fantastic Beasts : The Secrets of Dumbledore — David Yates

20) Downton Abbey : A new era — Simon Curtis

21) Sentinelle Sud — Mathieu Gerault

22) Elvis — Baz Luhrmann

23) Tenor — Claude Zidi Jr.

24) Tron — Steven Lisberg

25) La nuit du 12 — Dominik Moll

26) Sundown— Michel Franco

27) Nope — Jordan Peele

28) Three Thousand Years of Longing — George Miller (my favorite movie of the year)

29) Tout le monde aime Jeanne - Céline Devaux

30) La page blanche — Murielle Magellan

31) Everything, everywhere, all at once — Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

32) Lord of the ring 1 — Peter Jackson (rewatch)

33) Lord of the ring 2 — Peter Jackson (Rewatch, even if I had forgotten all about it)

34) Lord of the ring 3 — Peter Jackson (Rewatch, even if I had forgotten all about it)

35) Don’t Worry Darling — Olivia Wilde

36) Le visiteur du futur — François Descraques

37) Les secrets de mon père — Véra Belmont

38) Entergalactic — Fletcher Moules

39) Dragon Ball Super — Tetsurô Kodama

40) Maria Rêve — Lauriane Escaffre, Yvonnick Muller

41) Simone : Le Voyage du siècle — Olivier Dahan

42) My Policeman — Michael Grandage

43) Mascarade — Nicolas Bedos

44) Armageddon Time — James Gray

45) Bones and All — Luca Guadagnino

46) Close — Lukas Dhont

47) Les Bonnes Étoiles --(브로커 - Beurokeo) — Hirokazu Kore-Eda

Books I’ve read In 2022

1) The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest — Stieg Larsson (the rec is for the whole trilogy)

2) The art and soul of Dune — Tanya Lapointe

3) Un dernier tour de piste — Martin Fourcade

4) The Dark Half — Stephen King

5) Death note — Tsugumi Ōba & Takeshi Obata (Let’s pretend I’ve read all of them and not stop reading before reaching the end for an unknown reason)

6) Le Match de ma vie — Nicolas Mahut

7) Les liaisons dangereuses — Choderlos de Laclos (First re-read since high school. It’s a good things I don’t remember what my literature class sounded like because I think all the toxic/criminal behavior in this book were not called out enough by my teacher.)

8) Midnight Sun — Stephanie Meyer

9) Children of Dune — Frank Herbert

10) Blackwater : The Flood — Michael Mcdowell

11) Les Ravissantes — Romain Puertolas

12) The Royal Game — Stephan Zweig (Re-read, I love this short novel so much)

13) Le plongeur 

14) Le Diner de Babette 

— Karen Blixen

15) Onze Minutes — Paulo Coelho (Re-read, still interesting)

16) Desolation Road — Jerome Noires (Re-read as well, not sure why I felt the need to pick it again but ok book)

17) Double Fault — Lionel Shriver (Re-read as well, didn’t really like it the first time but it’s definitely more interesting/relevant to read when you care about tennis)

TV Shows I’ve (tried to) watch(ed) in 2022

-Mr Robot Season 1 ; Episode 1 to… 4 I think?

-Grey’s Anatomy ; Seasons 1 to 6 (Regular rewatch that stopped by itself at some point)

-Designated Survivor ; Season 1

-House MD ; Season 1, a few episodes (Failed my rewatch, will try again in 2023)

-The Undoing 1 season (✅ completed)

-Severance ; a few episodes ?

-Balthazar ; Season 4 (Only here for Tomer Sisley)

-Veronica Mars ; 4 seasons (✅ completed) (Rewatch except for the last season)

-Outlander ; Season 6

-Heartstopper ; Season 1

-Timeless ; 2 Seasons (✅ completed)

-Moon Night ; 1 Season (✅ completed)

-Quantico ; 1 Season

-Obi-Wan Kenobi ; 1 Season (✅ completed)

-Lost ; Season 1 and 2

-Mind Hunter ; Season 1 and 6 episodes of Season 2

-Shokugeki No Soma ; All 5 seasons (✅ completed) (4 AMAZING seasons. Last one should be forgotten)

-The Walking Dead ; 6 seasons (Rewatch of the first season to try to finish it soon. First time I had stopped around season 8 or 9 I think ?)

-Emily in Paris ; Season 3 (The last source of joy left in the world)

-10 pour 100 (Call my agent) ; 2 seasons and 5 episodes of season 3 (Current watch, very easy to binge watch)

[sa7abnews]

Best French Films - Cinéma Saturday - La Vie en Rose

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/06/best-french-films-cinema-saturday-la-vie-en-rose/

Best French Films - Cinéma Saturday - La Vie en Rose

The D-Day commemoration weekend last weekend delayed our Ciné adventures, but here we are back again with a dramatic bio-pic full of outstanding performances, amazing hair, makeup and costumes, and of course, classic French songs. The sound of romance, struggle, French culture and hope in post-war France, Édith Piaf's remarkable voice still gives so much to audiences today. Do you know about her dramatic, sometimes erratic life?

This week's film is La Vie en Rose / La Môme directed by Olivier Dahan and starring an incomparable Marion Cotillard.

Cast & Crew

Director: Olivier Dahan Cast: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Gérard Depardieu,Pascal Greggory, Jean-Pierre Martins, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve, Clotilde Courau Screenplay: Olivier Dahan and Isabelle Sobelmann Cinematographer: Tetsuo Nagata Costume Designer: Marit Allen Producer: Alain Goldman Year: 2007 Genre: Romantic period drama and biographical musical drama Awards & Accolades: Almost too many to mention! This is a highly critically acclaimed film, which was also loved by audiences, with over 5M admissions in France alone. For a complete list of awards and nominations, see TF1's page here. Golden Globes 2008: Winner for Best Actress Marion Cotillard. Cesar Awards: 5 awards and 6 nominations including wins for Best Actress – Marion Cotillard; Best Production Design; Best Photography;Best Costume Design;Best Sound. Nominations: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor – Pascal Greggory,Best Supporting Actress – Sylvie Testud, Best Film, Best Writing (Original) and Best Editing. Academy Awards 2008: Oscar for Best Actress – Marion Cotillard, Best Make Up (and a Nomination for the Best Costume Design.) BAFTA awards Best Actress, Best Music, Best Costumes and Best Make up and Hair Design.

Synopsis

From the slums of Paris to the limelight of New York, Edith Piaf’s life was a battle to sing and survive, live and love. Raised in poverty, Edith’s magical voice and her passionate romances and friendships with the greatest names of the period -Yves Montand, Jean Cocteau, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Dietrich, Marcel Cerdan and others- made her a star all around the world. But in her audacious attempt to tame her tragic destiny, the Little Sparrow – her nickname – flew so high she could not fail to burn her wings.

What I liked about this film

There are some roles which just seem to me made for certain actors. Or perhaps there are certain actors who are just made to play particular figures in history. Whichever way you look at it, Cotillard's performance in this film is outstanding and has an almost mesmeric perfection in every scene. At no point is the audience thinking about what a great job she's doing of imitating Piaf, she just IS Piaf. That's how good this performance is. It makes this film unmissable and so much more than just a bio-pic.

Whether you are familiar with the stories of Piaf's life and her difficult childhood, poverty and street singing beginnings or you just know her name, this film can be immensely enjoyable as there is a great story, wonderful zipping between the "present" of the 1960s and her past with a tight cast of characters. If you love classic chansons, this film is for you! Little stories about how songs were written for her to sing, how she worked on developing her singing and expression are just so fascinating.

So with all of that, I had to include this film in a Cinéma Saturday blog post. This film incorporates lots of what Francophiles love about France: history, music and culture. (It's a fabulous film for anyone not so in love with France too.) Piaf defined a kind of hope and courage so needed during WWII and she rose to immense fame and popularity the world over.

We follow Édith in early childhood and get to see the poverty and remarkable situations in which she grew up, often being dramatically abandoned or dramatically taken away, she seems to have suffered a great deal. Such was the case for so many people at that time who lived in abject poverty, following WWI, in situations and conditions which today seem as alien as medieval medicine. She grew up in a bordello, was blinded by keratitis for several years of her childhood and then abruptly taken off on tour around France with her acrobat father. Estranged from her mother, and to suffer her own losses of child, lovers and friends, Piaf's life is like an embellished dramatic fiction, except that it just isn't! Thus the makings of a dramatic and very affecting film were forged in her experience and Dahan makes a beautiful film which deals with these events very well. Each era is very well realised from her birth in 1915 to her death in 1963, we see both the poverty-stricken Piaf and the excess-driven chanteuse starring in her top billing in Paris and New York, with everything in between. From immense highs to heartbreaking lows, this films really gives you these points in Piaf's life and takes you along for the journey. It's immersive through its careful execution, production design and costumes and Cotillard's remarkable performance.

As the audience we find the story involving and interesting, but we are captivated by Cotillard's Piaf, just as I imagine we might have been with the real little sparrow/ little kid (la môme in French is often translated as either the sparrow or the kid). For Cotillard, she learnt the Piaf songs and lip-synced to perfection. She was immersed too, just as the duainece is. Of course that is also difficult to move on from, as an actor. Cotillard immersed herself completely in Piaf's life, her gravelly voice, with shaved eyebrows and high hairline and contorting herself into looking Piaf's diminutive height. She has famously described how hard it was to let go of Piaf after the filming had finished, quoted in The Guardian:

Living in that 'darkness' of the creative process where you have lost yourself in someone else's life gives us the magic we see on film. So as difficult as it was for Cotillard, we have to be glad she did all the work she did as this performance is completely unforgettable!

Let yourself be immersed in early twentieth century France (and the USA) along with one of the most recognisable soundtracks you'll ever hear, full as it is with Piaf's world-famous hits including La Vie en Rose, Je ne regrette rien, Milord, Hymne à l'amour and many more. Recognised finally for her single La Vie en Rose (1945) and inducted into the Grammys Hall of Fame in 1998, Piaf has always been special, revered in France and became famous worldwide. As time goes on and the centenary of her birth was celebrated in 2015, if a little more muted than previous celebrations, Piaf deserves to be remembered still. The classics are sometimes forgotten in the noise and clamour of contemporary life.

Singing with so much feeling and emotion, she has an ability to carry you along with her, just like Dahan does in this film. Let yourself be taken away into a different time, with the beautiful music of Piaf. A remarkable woman who lived an incredible life, sadly shortened by liver cancer, she died in 1963. Given the high honour of the French flag over her coffin, she is buried in Père-Lachaise, where over 500,000 people lined the route of the funeral cortège to the cemetery, where another 40,000 people came to pay their respects to the singer who died aged 47. It is said that Jean Cocteau said , "Ah, la Piaf est morte," … "Je peux mourir aussi." [Ah, Piaf's dead. I can die too. "] And then he promptly died of a heart attack.(The Guardian)

Probably the greatest French singer of all time, Piaf was a star that shone brightly in the sky and continues to do so through her musical legacy.

Trailer

Where to Find It

Handy links are provided here for easy reference – just click on the images. (clicking will show the product in your Amazon region, affiliate links are marked with*)

UK DVD BluRay

France/EU DVD*

BluRay*

Streaming Amazon US

Soundtrack*

"Best of" album (remastered)*

If you're inspired to explore more about Édith Piaf and classic French chansons, you might like these Spotify playlists and albums:

*Product links might include Affiliate links which mean that you can support the blog and podcast by making a purchase at zero cost to you. Thank you for your support – it's so appreciated.

Have you seen this film? Did you like it? Let me know what you thought by email: hello at francewhereyouare dot com or over on social media.

I love to talk cinema!

Remember – signing up to the France Where You Are newsletter guarantees a monthly newsletter full of France including the exclusive news on forthcoming episodes and interviews on the podcast. There might be some more Piaf coming soon…

[abraham2love]

olivier dahan : director

full movie

[891movies]

431 to go

The Wild Bunch (1969, dir. Sam Peckinpah): About twenty minutes in I realized I had actually seen this movie before but as I could barely remember any of it, I decided to finish watching. And boy am I glad I did! One of my favorite watches from the list in a while, as entertaining as it is horrifying.

The Quiet Man (1952, dir. John Ford): I so wanted to like this movie. It is absolutely gorgeous to look at but unfortunately it kept trying to convince me that John Wayne doesn't suck.

Angel Face (1952, dir. Otto Preminger): Could have been compelling if not for the completely flat main characters. It's a shame, as Mitchum and Simmons are clearly capable of much more than the script offers.

Ace in the Hole (1951, dir. Billy Wilder): Extremely controversial opinion but Wilder might be one of my favorite directors. This movie is a masterpiece, feverish and haunting and no less relevant now than it was seventy years ago.

La Vie en Rose (2007, dir. Olivier Dahan): I've never been a big fan of biopics and this movie did not change my mind.

Monsters (2010, dir. Gareth Edwards): There is a lot to like here but unfortunately this movie is majorly held back by uninteresting main characters. Those last ten minutes were pretty great though!

The Great Beauty (2013, dir. Paolo Sorrentino): This is a beautiful film and it expresses some interesting ideas but it felt a bit too.... I'm trying to find a nice way to say "up its own ass" and coming up empty. But yes, that. I also don't love that the main character's misogyny gets brought up and immediately dismissed as misanthropy as if he doesn't save his most vitriolic dressing downs for women.

[moviesandmania]

UNDER PARIS Xavier Gens' Netflix shark attack movie - now with trailer

Under Paris is a 2024 French action horror film about a large shark prowling the River Seine for human flesh. The movie is being touted as an “ambitious elevated genre film.” Directed by Xavier Gens (Mayhem!; The Crucifixion; Cold Skin; The Divide; The ABCs of Death, segment “X Is for XXL”; Hitman; Frontier(s)) from a screenplay written by Yannick Dahan, Maud Heywang and Olivier Torres. The Let…

[indiejones]

THE 100 GREATEST DIRECTORS IN THE HISTORY OF WORLD CINEMA! (@INDIES)

.Roman Polanski

.David Lean

.Alfred Hitchcock

.Frank Capra

.Elia Kazan

.Dasari Narayana Rao

.Fred Zinnemann

.Milos Forman

.Kamal Amrohi

.Peter Jackson

.John Huston

.Billy Wilder

.Frank Lloyd

.Roland Joffe

.Lekh Tandon

.Asit Sen

.B.R. Chopra

.Edgar Wright

.Chris Columbus

.Ernst Lubitsch

.Alain Resnais

.Guru Dutt

.George Cukor

.Ivan Reitman

.Mahesh Kaul

.Jayant Desai

.Richard Curtis

.Robert Clouse

.Basu Bhattacharya

.Maurice Pialat

.David MacDonald

.Mel Gibson

.Anthony Minghella

.Jamie Uys

.Joseph Mankiewicz

.Pierre Chenal

.David Fincher

.Ken McMullen

.Jeremy Leven

.Mary McGuckian

.Alfonso Cuaron

.Rob Reiner

.Delbert Mann

.Louis Malle

.John Cromwell

.Charles Chaplin

.A. Bhimsingh

.Jean Delannoy

.Mervyn LeRoy

.Nancy Meyers

.William Wyler

.Bhargava (Kannada)

.Jonathan Lynn

.Peter Weir

.Robert Rossen

.Roger Michell

.Robert Zemeckis

.Robert Z. Leonard

.J. Lee Thompson

.Robert Wise

.Jerome Hill

.Anthony Quinn

.Jacques Audiard

.Agnes Jaoui

.Mervyn LeRoy

.Roland Emmerich

.Wallace Worsley

.Stephen Herek

.Blake Edwards

.Andrew Fleming

.John Frankenheimer

.Claude Autant-Lara

.Kenneth Branagh

.Lasse Halstrom

.Ralph Nelson

.Andrei Tarkovsky

.Robert Stevenson

.John Madden

.Stanley Kramer

.Olivier Dahan

.Norman Z. McLeod

.Mike Newell

.Raymond Rouleau

.Michael Curtiz

.Nora Ephron

.Arthur Hiller

.Vittorio De Sica

.Bernardo Bertolucci

.Sohrab Modi

.John McTiernan

.Steven Spielberg

.Tay Garnett

.Abel Gance

.Richard Linklater

.Merian C. Cooper

.Michael Bay

.Renny Harlin

.Victor Fleming

.Phil Karlson

.Satyajit Ray

.David Yates

.John Guillermin

.Oliver Stone

.James Cameron

[adarkrainbow]

2001′s Petit Poucet (A)

When talking about “Hop o Thumb” (I hate that name), “Little Thumbling”, aka the “Petit Poucet” story, there is a movie that is strangely not talked about anymore... 2001′s Petit Poucet, a French movie by Olivier Dahan (a man mostly known for making biography-movie , he did the famous “La Môme” movie in 2008 about Edith Piaf’s life, and more recently has been talked about for his movie about Simone Veil).

It is very strange that nobody talks about this movie anymore because, when it was released, it was a very big thing in France. Everybody talked about it, there was a lot of merchandise around it, it was a big-budget movie for the time. And yet nowadays it is... not talked about anymore. Kind of forgotten. (But mind you, that’s the fate of almost all French fantasy movie, except a few, they all tend to be forgotten as a whole. French people only seem to like fantasy from other countries... The worst thing is that I had a VHS tape of this movie as a kid, and I still have the VHS case plus a bonus booklet that came with it - but the actual VHS tape is currently nowhere to be found... 

As you can guess, this movie is an adaptation of Charles Perrault’s Little Thumbling story. But it is one of those movies where people questionned a bit if it was for kids or for adults - because it was a quite dark and violent movie. We are definitively not on the level of a Guillermo Del Toro movie... but that was still a quite dark one. But you’ll see what I mean.

In terms of story, the movie stuck quite closely to Perrault’s story except for one or two changes... 

For example, and that’s a main source of the darkness of the movie, there is a whole new subplot explaining the famine and poverty in the realm - there is now a brutal and violent war going on, causing lots of death and robbery everywhere. No need to tell you that the violence of war is obviously paralleled with the violence of the ogre himself... (Above that’s not the ogre, but a leader of enemy soldiers). This also ties to how Perrault wrote Little Thumbling’s ending as the boy using the boots to carry the messages of an army to the king, about battles - in the original story it is treated as a heroic, fantastical feat, but in the movie they tie it to the very horror of war. There is notably one very dark scene in this movie where we learn how come Little Thumbling got the news of the battle - here, by stumbling randomly on a battlefield covered in corpses (while using the seven-league boots) and being handed a paper by a dying soldier... Yep, that’s this kind of dark movie.

Another important addition to the movie (important enough to become the main poster for it) is the creation of a new character - a mysterious girl in a blue cloak, sort of reverse Little Red Riding Hood, that tries to help the lost boys in the woods... and that is later revealed to be one of the ogre’s seven daughters. The movie decided to highlight even more the parallel between the ogre’s family and Poucet’s own family by adding the character of the “seventh daughter”, who like Poucet is disdained and unloved by his family - but in this case, because she is a gentle girl who refuses to be an ogress. No need to tell you, she survives the ogres’ massacre. 

Speaking of the Ogre, he and his scenes are one of the most memorable and famous parts of this movie. And this brings me to the main topic with this piece, what really makes it stand out. Because to be fair, the scenario itself isn’t particularly brilliant (I mean the effort to explore the implications of Perrault’s story and the creation of a darker world is nice, but that’s not on a mind-blowing level), and the acting is a bit uneven (with half of the cast being extremely good actors, and the other half being... not so good ones, or rather decent ones that looks not-so-good compared to the brilliant performances of their co-stars). 

No, what really make the strength and the power of this movie was its visuals. You can guess it from the pictures above (and I have more to show you), but this movie is a movie heavy on visual, a true “artistic” piece with beautiful sets and superb costumes. It is worth watching just for the beauty of it, with such a strong use of contrasting sets, color palettes, and artistic almost painting-like landscapes - I would compare it to the visuals of a Guillermo Del Toro movie, this is the same kind of “dark fairytale movie”, if you know what I mean. I could also compare it to the “Company of Wolves” movie, there is this same kind of carefully worked, beautiful but dark fantastical visuals.

Anyway since there is more to say about this movie, I’ll probably make more posts. I can’t recall or find back how it was received when it was released. And the reviews and opinions found on Internet websites (AlloCiné, SensCritique and other French equivalent of Rotten Tomatoes) are... not that kind, ranging from “bad” to “okay”. What is usually praised is the ambiance of the movie, the strange and unique visuals, the exploration of the misery and brutality of the times of Perrault, an excellent music - and again the visuals. But on the flipside, people heavily criticize the fact that this movie feels much too long, stretches the original story with a lot of padding that ultimately makes it feels “empty”, that it attempts at scaring the audience fails, and that the “realism” of the story feels like it breaks the original “wonder” nature of the tale. 

In fact, as you can guess, opinions are so divided you find the same points in both the “good” and the “bad”. Some say that the visuals are strange in a good way making a surreal and ghostly ambiance ; others say the visuals are “more strange than fantastical” and just look cheap. Some say the music is wonderful, others say it is bad. Some say that to add more darkness and violence to the story makes it more appreciable, others say it just feels too dark... It also doesn’t help that often those reviews date from 2010 to 2018, and they are judging a 2001 movie... Of course heavy criticism of special effects are to be expected. 

But this movie exists and it is one of the noteworthy adaptations of Little Thumbling.