Grey Souls

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Audience Member It had to be good but it wasn't.I mean I didn't even realize what the end was.A time-killer movie.I could definitely have watched another rather than this one. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member visually stunning (everything has a blue glare) but rather depressive atmosphere, very bleak, story was not that captivating. A 9 out of 10 for cinematography, 5/10 overall. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member [img]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r79/humanformdivine/Movies/home_decoup_02.jpg[/img] [color=black][/color] [color=black][font=Tahoma]Grey souls”, the title alone suggests an ambience of melancholy, a lugubrious environment and disassociated dynamics among the characters, who, not knowing one another substantially die as a result of each other. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Tahoma][color=black][font=Tahoma]The first victim is a a little girl named "Belle de Jour", found strangled near a water canal, and looking ghastly frightening, this did not, however, stir up Judge Mierck (Jacques Villeret) who ever indifferently has his regular take of raw eggs in the morning right over the dead body.[/font][/color] [color=black][font=Tahoma]Then, a school teacher does the unimaginable by asking all his students to war gas masks as he takes all his clothes off and urinates on the blackboard in a frantic, noisy scene. [/font][/color] [color=black][/color] [center][img]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r79/humanformdivine/Movies/18442529_w434_h_q80.jpg[/img][/center] [color=black][font=Tahoma]Lysia Verhareine (Marina Hands) later arrives as the mad teacher's substitute and lives in his old apartment which he had completely destroyed, even worse than Geoffrey Rush as Marquis deSade in Quills. The apartment is the property of the Procurer. The relationship between Hands and the latter does not develop, she spends all her time writing letters to her beloved one on the front while the procurer secretly reads them, they seem to have re-kindled whatever he felt for his late dead wife, the only contact they had once, was over a mute dinner when Belle de Jour was the servant. Hands is then found dead (??) after receiving the news that her sweetheart has now become a casualty of war, making her the second victim, female and young, mirroring the procurer’s wife who drowned in the canal and "did not know ugliness".[/font][/color] [color=black][font=Tahoma]This spiraling demise knew no one as the deputy policeman's wife bleeds to death during childbirth, unable to get the needed help as all roads were blocked by the army. Maurice Rifolon, accused of murdering Belle de Jour confesses to the crime and later hangs himself, Yves leFloc, a farm boy and a suspect of the same murder is forced into confession, left outside in the cold and later dies of capitol punishment. [/font][/color] [indent][indent][indent][left][img]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r79/humanformdivine/Movies/18442536_w434_h_q80.jpg[/img][/left] [/indent][/indent][/indent][color=black][font=Tahoma]The link between all these characters is practically inexistent, they either don't know one another at all, or their contact is limited to duty: Belle de Jour works for the Procurer, Lysia substitutes the mad teacher and the only person she communicates to is unseen in the movie, the policeman’s wife doesn’t go out all that much, the two accused were surreally brought into questioning and basically shaped to fit the requirements of the crime situation. When one compares what took place in those people's lives to the situation of the East of France, a country in war in 1917, one can definitely begin to fathom to "coldness" of the movie and the rather absurd aspect to it all. Distance had made out of every one of these people solitary, and solitude is a killer. In a huge contradiction to it all, Yves Angelo concludes his movie with a spec of hope, the deputy's baby was given back to him, the nuns can no longer take care of her, and now it is his job to nurture and protect his enfant , so that maybe he won’t end up as un-sheltered as Belle de Jour. [/font][/color] [img]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r79/humanformdivine/Movies/18442532_w434_h_q80.jpg[/img] [color=black][font=Tahoma]For all those interested, here is an amazing quote from the movie, uttered by the procurer to a man accused of a crime and is receiving capitol punishment. The English translation cannot possibly do it just so I’m delivering it in its original language: [/font][/color] [color=black][/color] [color=black][font=Tahoma][color=black][font=Tahoma][b][i]« Mais la sauvagerie n'est rien en définitive lorsqu'elle n'est pas soutenu e par la haine. La haine, cet aliment froid, cet acide qui ronge la morale et la conscience et finit par instiller, dans l'esprit de certains, cet étrange désir: tuer. Tuer son semblable, son semblable c'est á dire celui qui est fait á notre image. Notre semblable. Ce n'est pas un inconnu comme vous le croyais que vous avez ouvert le ventre avec votre couteau, ce n'est pas un inconnu que vous avez tranché la gorge ensuite, ce n'est pas dans le coeur d'un inconnu que vous avez pour finir plonger á 4 reprises votre lame, après avoir essuyé votre arme dans l'herbe comme si vous venez de tuer un lapin ou bien un porc. C'est votre semblable que vous avez assassiné, c'est un homme. C'est vous-même. Par votre geste, vous avez contribué á rabaisser l'humanité que vous portiez en vous, cette parcelle d'humanité que nous portons tous au plus profond de nous-mêmes et dont nous sommes garants, comme d'un trésor inestimable, une infinie et une fragile merveille. Vous avez souillé ça, sans états d'âmes, vous méritez la mort, car il n'est pas concevable que l'Humanité continue á porter dans son sein celui qui l'a salie, celui qui a jeté la boue sur sa pureté et sur sa grâce! »[/i][/b][/font][/color] [/font][/color][/font][/color][color=black][/color] [color=black][font=Tahoma][color=black][font=Tahoma]Personally, I liked the movie's theme, it tries to demonstrate the real effect of war on people and the complete disassociation it creates along with the shattering of any kind of human connection, however, I do believe it could have used a lot more drama to it, not necessarily action, but definitely an edge. Although amazingly filmed, I would have loved to witness some scenes evoking feelings and stirring me up, same as in The Deer Hunter, but I guess Angelo wanted to convey the whole and genuine sensation of coldness and distance that battles force into people and how feelings are sometimes fired away from one’s heart, how an entire society can exist without living, can dwell door to door and not have any kind of warm human contact and how war does indeed tear the fabric of human bonding.[/font][/color] [/font][/color] Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Laurel et Hardy version sale et triste Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member This is sort of interesting. It's of course a sad movie as it has to do with the FWW and besides that there are others misfortunate events. The film is kind of slow and very silent but not boring. I wouldn't know if I should reccomend it or not. I consider it just as another option. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member a decent plot, a decent movie, nothing more Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Grey Souls

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