walter m
With her mother(Aurore Clement) moving into her duplex after the death of her father, Charlotte(Sylvie Testud) soon realizes Paris, much less her apartment, is not large enough for the two of them, their furniture and her mother's grand piano from which she gives lessons. So, Charlotte has to go to a cafe to find it quiet enough to concentrate where instead she finds inspiration for the erotic story she has been commissioned to write. And that's also where she meets Samuel(Jean-Pierre Marielle), a realtor, who shows her a studio apartment that she cannot quite commit to.
While the idea of Chantal Akerman making a screwball comedy sounds as weird as Spike Lee directing an episode of "Downton Abbey," the results with her movie "Tomorrow We Move" are actually pretty good as she pulls it off in fine style, keeping events basically moving throughout, especially in an epic open house sequence. It helps of course that she has the perfect actor, Sylvie Testud, to embody her character's neuroses in comic fashion. However, not everything is fun and games and unconventional family structures, as the past keeps rearing its head in an exploration of the fate of the European Jewish diaspora.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
Quirky, fun, very French film about a mother and daughter and their odd relationships to men, each other, and real estate. Director Chantal Akerman films like a painter -- the color palette alone tells much of the story, as does music performed live in the film (the mother is a piano teacher). A modest, smartly written, well-acted gem.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
DEMAIN is a world filled with mundane concerns, filial duty, intimate reminiscences and quick friendships between strangers. And if the film lacks grand passion and other pyrotechnics, it is no less for it. Bursting with gentle humor, DEMAIN can at times resemble a musical w. beautifully timed if quietly unconventional cuts. For all that it is accused of experimentalism, DEMAIN is approachable. The plot is on firm ground -- uninspired porn-writer Charlotte Weinstein is trying to write a story and trying to sell her flat -- but there is no drama, no intrigue. As music is deliberately cut to tease, there are no dazzling orchestral swells stroked & cosseted beyond reasonable expectation. Ambient sounds deftly interweave with 'the score' and often serve as transitions. Like in real life, the music appears only when someone plays the piano or turns on the stereo. The door closes. The music ends. Next scene.
Much of the dialogue is snappy, but true to off-screen life where most of us are not sesquipedalians (nor are vice-presidential nominees apparently...), only a small stock of words is employed and recycled with Gertrude Stein-esque repetitions. People repeat themselves and each other; same thoughts & phrases are adaptable to a number of situations and contexts. Unlike many films in which eccentric people take center-stage, the cast of quirky characters is not portrayed in sharp relief to a backdrop of stultifying conformity. A central character who is pregnant is identified simply as 'La Femme Enceinte,' her husband is 'Mari de...' If people seem a bit odd -- well, who isn't? If a rose can be likened to itself--no more, no less but is still plenty adequate--, then DEMAIN is a humble but very satisfying gift.
NOTE: Sylvie Testud, who plays the adorable Charlotte Weinstein, sings 'Simon, Simone.'
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Funny in a french way. I could my lungs constricting from all the visual dust...
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I really had no clue what to expect with this film. In addition to being one of the world's greatest and most unique directors, Chantal Akerman tends to throughly confound expectations with her films. This could be best described as a mannered, formalized film that tries to mix screwball comedy with sexual frustration, writers block, and maybe even the musical. It's probably best appreciated as a deconstruction of genres rather than a conventional narrative. A lot of it is fun, but the film ends up going on way too long.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
vaudeville saoulant et suffoquant. A la limite du supportable.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
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