Le Skylab

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05/29/2014 Very French. Very nice. See more 09/14/2013 altos e baixos, mas no todo um filme bem bacana, com destaque para as crianças :) See more @Ollie1972 09/08/2013 In July 1979 during the Summer holidays, a whole family (parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and other relatives) are gathered to celebrate Granny Amandine's sixty-seventh birthday somewhere in Bretagne/France. Albertine, who was ten years old at the time, vividly recounts this brief but life-changing experience... Julie Delpy stars, directs and has written this coming of age comedy/drama based on her own childhood memories. To state the good things first; it´s well made, it´s well acted and there´s a good mix of happiness, emotional drama, indifferences in opinions, darkness, the battle with love and puberty, sex, politics, mental illness, sadness, womens lib and the fear of the end of the world. However, with these ingredients you would think there´s a strong piece of film infront of you, but sadly enough, sincere as it is, "Le Skylab" is really not. I kept on waiting for the movie to lift and emotionally grab me, but it never did. It was stuck in this blend uneven zone and it never managed to break free. Delpy doesn´t captivate you due to a pace that becomes way too slow and even if the acting is great, the characters doesn´t manage to become solid pillars of the movie. There´s scenes that stands out, but not enough scenes. And I must say, I really hated the poor ending of the movie. See more 04/08/2013 Una buena muestra de que actrices que jamas llegan a levantar el vuelo como tales, sobresalen como directoras(o como directores en el caso de Ben Affleck...) porque con un punto de partida mas que simple, la caida del satelite Skylab a la tierra, y concretamente en el lugar donde la familia se ha reunido, Julie DElpy traza un retrato mas que realista de la francia de finalers de los años setenta, con las tensiones racistas y los partidarios de De Gaulle enfrentados. Entre medio, un grupo de adolescentes buscandose a si mismos e intentando alejarse de sus mayores. Simpatica la presencia de Emmanuelle Riva, La nominada ancianita de Amor. Entretenida y con momentos francamente divertidos... See more 03/24/2013 Me encanta esta peli See more 12/18/2012 SKYLAB:closely observed people 3.5/5 It's mid-July, 1979, and the American space station, Skylab, is plummeting back to earth. In spite of the title, this event merely serves to set the date on Julie Delpy's film, for the setting is rural Brittany, France, which, as we now know, is a long way from the eventual crash site around the south coast of Western Australia. Rather than in space, Skylab's focus is on matters very much more down to earth as some twenty-four members of an elderly lady's family converge on her large, country house to celebrate her birthday with good food, wine and companionship. Skylab is about ordinary people and their behaviour with all its human fallibility. As the family gathers around the dinner table, set out on the lawn, there is the usual small talk between people who haven't seen each other for some time. Rude jokes are told, songs are sung, the children go off and play and nothing of any great importance happens. Although much of this is amusing, it would be a mistake to describe Skylab as a comedy. On the other hand, it would be even more of a mistake to conclude that Skylab is dull, pedestrian viewing. As groups break away and form new groups, the camera follows them around with Delpy putting them under the magnifying glass and giving the audience a voyeuristic pleasure in sharing their experiences. The children are particularly engaging as they bicker, show off and generally struggle with the inevitability of maturity and the mystery of that most important matter - sex. All of this seems entirely convincing. Every member of the cast gives a performance so natural that you could believe Delpy just assembled them and told them to do whatever felt right. But appearances can be deceptive and it is the skill of the director that makes the film work. Like an entertainer keeping a dozen plates spinning at the top of poles, she moves, with great dexterity, from group to group, spending just enough time to play out the scene and milk it for laughter or poignancy or a mix of both. While Skylab may not be a major work, yet there is much to savour. Without violence or sex (although there is a little of both) and without spotlighting one or two characters above the rest, there is a fascination of being a 'fly on the wall' and of being privy to these people's private lives. Skylab shows that the minutiae of human behaviour can, when observed as sharply as this, be just as diverting as the most improbable and grandiose of sci-fi spectaculars. Phil. See more Read all reviews

Le Skylab

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