Se7en is not just a film about a fool man and the seven deadly sins. It is also a film really mark by neo-noir aesthetic, violence and cynicism about modern and contemporary lives. It presents us the city as a utopia breaker and a violent, post-modern world without any hope, and then it confronts old and new schools, with their differences of methods, self-control and sense of justice, like between Noir and Neo-noir.

The city presented in Se7en is a completely post-modern city, symbol of crimes and carelessness of people for their neighborhood. It is a selfishness world were criminals do what they want because of an inefficient Justice and also because of the indifference of the other people for these acts. Nothing optimistic is emerging from this city, only disillusionment and cynical view of the world. This pessimism infects everything/everybody who is relied to this city, and no characters is excepted.

Somerset is a character who doesn’t believe in Justice anymore and who doesn’t trust most of the people. He closes in on himself and tries to avoid relation with people. He just relies on himself for solving criminal cases, even if he knows there is not lots of chances to solve them. He doesn’t see the arrival of the precipitated and hard-boiled Mills with a good eye, knowing perfectly this type of behavior is dangerous in these sorts of big towns. He knows this cruel city since too much time to believe something good can emerge of it. He is a part of this no-pity and helpless world, and understand the most important about it: There is nothing to understand, nothing rational in this world.

Contrariwise, Mills arrives from a peaceful little town, full of good intentions, with a heroic and optimistic mind, but the big city eat all his utopia in only seven days. His impulsiveness and his reactions from the hip put him several times in trouble (especially every times he is face to face with John Doe: In the staircase, in the deadlock, in the police car towards the crime scene, and when John Doe starts to speak about Tracy) or do him making mistakes, like when he doesn’t look for enough details (Gould cabinet, with the wife’s picture, and then behind the painting). This impulsive and uncontrollable character, lost with his strong behavior and reacts, makes him the perfect embodiment for Wrath. This character was too eccentric and his wife was too human to support this urban life, and the urban life will win.

Tracy Mills, like her husband, was too good and lost in a destroyed world, and her status could only be as a victim. She repeats all along the film she hates this city, the working conditions, the people, her flat, and much than everything else, she is afraid to give birth to a child in a place without hopes and chance of childhood dreams.

John Doe is the direct and perfect victim of this no-hope and insane society. His madness is a reaction to the amplification of external violence, illustrate here by the biblical reference to the seven capital sins. He reacts to violence by violence, but per contra to David Mills, who have a violent behavior too, his madness makes him participate to this city of doubt and violence, it already destroyed him a long time ago, while Mills is not yet a part of this insanity. He will become a part of it thanks to John Doe.

The sets come to amplify the ill-being and evil of the city by installing us in a dark, gray, ruined ancient place, full of scattered smokes, with several people falling at different time on the sidewalks, and a bunch of homeless people, everyday victims of the cruelty of the city, and the only available witnesses, the only people who look around them. They are a part of this world. That is why Mills and Somerset use the false testimony of a homeless woman for covering their chase with Doe, the shots and the fractured door, she is the perfect witness.

Most of the places are contaminated by this dark and old city: The police station, all gray and smoky; Mills’s flat, which looks apparently nice, but which is an awful place just near the subway (we can say than this flat is another evidence of the Millses arrival from a nice place, trying to integrate it on this new place, but can not because of the submerging city); the restaurants, all smoky, disgusting and noisy; the old, empty of people library, only inhabited by the watchmen; and the crime scenes, all in ultra-modern and impeccable places, too perfect to be real and human (Greed and Pride), or in disgusting places, too nasty to be innocent and places of life (Gluttony, Lust, Sloth); and Doe’s flat, covered by black and red, huge crosses on the wall, boxes with memories of the different murders like in a museum of horrors, and lines of pictures of the victims on the bathroom. The only sunny moment, far from the gray, is the discovering of the two corpses, but even here, telephone poles come to remember the presence of the invasive urban life.

To accentuate this already unwelcoming city, the scenes are most of the time illuminated by a low-key lighting, even sometimes just lighting by a flashlight (some parts of Doe’s flat, Gluttony crime scene), or only by very small lights (The parts of Doe’s flat with red lighting, the diffuse red of Lust crime scene, the rays of light through the curtains of Sloth crime scene…). Even the last part, with a end of day bright lighting, is in back light, putting the characters faces in shadows. The only sequence in high-key lighting is in Millses’ flat, this place broken with the outside world, but gradually contaminated by shadows after the discovering of the subway noise.

The sound of the city reinforced this unfriendliness and violence. The soundtrack is full of terrific sound backgrounds: screams, quarrels, gun shots… This soundtrack put us in a statement of insecurity

All these elements combined create the perfect post-modern city, without hope, laugh and possibility of redemption, a world where death, madness, or selfishness are the only solution, and where everything is solve by violence.

Se7en also present us two different generations, two different methods and reactions to events. As between Noir and Neo-Noir, one is calm and reflective, with an impressive cold-blood, using all methods of finding evidences, living in a world he knows, when the other is violent and impulsive, in a world he doesn’t understand, boiling blood and looking solely for action instead of building theories.

Not only metaphors of the differences between Noir et Neo-Noir, these characters are the real antithesis of each other. Somerset just wants to leave this place, where all his hopes were broken; he doesn’t except anything or any results from Justice anymore. In the other hand, Mills thinks he can change this world alone, he asked to be posted here, he is sure he can help and it is not too late, even if he will finish by changing his point of view. Mills in the new guy, curious in an unknown world, full of principles, when Somerset saw almost everything, even if nothing could prepare him to what happened, He uses old police methods, not very legal, like the informant who pirates the FBI system for having information he could wait several month to have; he knows all the tricks for surviving in this city: being discrete, breaking laws when you know nobody will know it (He uses an informant, but it is his little secret. Contrariwise, when Mills breaks the door, he can not do anything, except manipulating the testimonial of a homeless woman to protect them), being cold-blood and calm in every occasion… Somerset is cultivated, he knows lots of books and the biblical references on them. He believes in the power of these statements about religion, and he knows thinking John Doe is only fool is a mistake: he thinks is directed by a superior power, but he takes pleasure to commit his crimes and accomplished them in a methodical and calculated way, and takes time to make it. Someone only fool doesn’t take so much time and impeccable precision. But Mills is rational, he doesn’t believe in the power of writings and just separates people in an easy way: The fools and the rationals. He thinks all the mad people are the same.

In Se7en, the new replace the old. But like most of the time in real life, the new is too overstrung and is outdated very quickly. Mills refuses to be taken as a beginner, but he is, and he will but his wings by wanting to be considered as equal as the old part. He is nervous and never stops to speak and to tell stupid jokes for relaxing, when Somerset just need to be concentrated on his work, and not disturb by an unknown and pretentious new partner. Somerset is tired of violence, when Mills, in the heat of his youth, want to experiment this same violence. Mills bets all on clear evidences, as fingerprints, things which are based of established and modern science, when Somerset looks at the psychology of the killer by analyzing the previous murders and the words he left on the crime scenes.

Their working methods are therefore drastically different, but even if they look like in opposition, they are additional. It is this duality and in the same time this complementarity who cause this perfect and complete dual of characters, at the beginning hateful each other, and finally inseparable.

This Neo-Noir in a post-modern world, invaded by old Noir revial is therefore the duality of the old, pessimist and imaginative, and the new, violent and rational. Se7en adds up these opposite but inseparable types of characters to a post-modern and devastated city, where reign violence and nonsense. It gives us a dark and miserable point of view about Justice and redemption, and about good and humanity. Everything is just destruction and contamination of others happiness by our own disillusionment and loss of faith in humanity.

Pour commencer, Sam Worthington, cette espèce de quiche monumentale, reste fidèle à sa réputation de tas de muscle inutile et inexpressif. Rien d’étonnant, donc – comme la plupart des éléments du film.

Parce que oui, autant vous mettre dans cet état d’esprit avant d’aller voir ce film : la seule chose étonnante du film est la crétinerie incroyable du scénario, mine d’or de raccourcis scénaristes en tout genre, qui vous fera penser à plusieurs reprises « Ah bon ? Ah bah oui, si tu le dis… ». Grâce à ce film, j’ai découvert (entre autres) que cambrioler un bâtiment blindé, si c’est pour prouvé l’innocence d’un gus, n’est pas puni par la loi, et que les tests ADN ne prennent que 10 minutes à faire. Merci les copains ! Ajoutons à cela le plan d’évasion farfelu à base de papa décédé employé d’un hôtel, de baston ridicule et de meilleur pote mais en fait non ! Je savais que t’étais vilain, mais je t’ai fait croire que j’étais un débile !, qui, durant toute la durée du film, m’a fait tiré une tronche ressemblant grosso modo à ça :

Je ne connaissais pas le réalisateur, dont c’est le premier gros film, je crois. Toujours est-il que je ne sais donc pas si c’est son propre… « style » ou bien qu’il n’a pas eu d’autre chose que de suivre les producteurs bourrins adeptes de la « recette qui marche », mais le film est sans originalité, que ce soit au niveau des cadrages ou des déroulements des actions. Dos au mur est un immense cliché fade ou se multiplient les classiques plans aériens sur les buildings new-yorkais et les gros plans sur les boobies de Genesis Rodriguez – dont le personnage n’existe que pour le fan service, ne nous voilons pas la face. Exemples :

N’ayant plus grand chose d’autre à dire sur ce film plat et inconsistant, je pense que je vais conclure cette critique – probablement la plus courte que j’ai jamais publié ici – par vous conseiller grandement d’aller voir autre chose, les thrillers passionnants ne manquant pas. Allez donc plutôt voir la Taupe, les acteurs sont bons et l’histoire est palpitante. A des années lumières de la typique machinerie hollywoodienne décrite précédemment.

Et comme l’a si bien dit mon camarade de classe m’accompagnant ce jour là : « c’était un bon téléfilm. Heureusement que j’avais déjà rentabilisé ma carte UGC illimité ce mois-ci. »

L’année 2011 ne fut pas spécialement riche sur ce blog, mais beaucoup plus IRL. Et je ne parle pas que pour moi. L’année fut riche en rebondissements, révolutions, scandales sexuels, crises économiques, et j’en passe.

2012 ne sera sûrement pas triste non plus, avec son lot de crises économiques (encore), élections de par le monde, et fin du monde, qui sera sûrement un amalgame de crises économiques (toujours) et de panique générale. En fait, quand on y réfléchit bien, la fin du monde pourrait bien être le résultat de la panique des crédules sûrs que tout est fini et qui vont nous mettre un bazar monstrueux le 21 décembre. Je le sens bien comme ça…

En plus, 2012 n’est pas l’année de la fin du monde, mais l’année d’une nouvelle ère.

En gros, on va bien se marrer cette année.

Sur ce, bonne année encore et à bientôt dans une nouvelle ère !

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Happy New Year 2012, everybody!

2011 wasn’t really rich on this blog, but terribly much in real life. And I don’t just speak about me. This year was full of twists, revolutions, sex scandals, economic crises, and others.

2012 will certainly not be sad too, with a bunch of economic crises (again), elections everywhere, and end of the world, which will probably be an amalgam of economic crises (always) and panic. Actually, when you think about it, the end of the world could be the result of credulous panic, confident with the idea of the end of everything, and who will create a huge mess on Dec., 21. I can feel it…

Therefore, 2012 is not the year of the end of the world, but the year of a new Era.

Anyway, this year will be fun.

So, happy New Year again, and see you soon in a new Age !

Potté accepte de mettre sa rancœur de côté et repart à l’aventure avec son vieil ami, à la recherche des haricots et de l’Oie aux Oeufs d’Or.

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Tout d’abord, je dois avouer que j’étais un peu septique avant de le voir. Potté étant un personnage de Shrek, je me demandais si ils arriveraient à inventer une histoire satisfaisante. Et c’est très satisfaisant.

Bon, ce Puss in Boots n’est pas au niveau des deux premiers Shrek, mais c’est un film plus qu’acceptable, et surtout une bonne tranche de rire.

Mêlant encore une fois divers contes en un joyeux et réjouissant bazar, on retrouve avec plaisir Potté, entouré de sympathiques nouveaux personnages, toujours aussi drôle et séducteur (ce qui inclut quelques blagues grivoises qui feront bien rire les parents traînés par leur mioche au cinéma).

Je n’aime pas les oeufs, et je n’aime pas leur forme. Les trucs tout rond, tout lisse qui se cassent comme un rien ne me donne pas confiance. Donc je n’ai pas eu une once de sympathie et de confiance en Humpty. Mais Kitty est vraiment adorable, avec ses petites pattes toutes douces et son joli minois de minou.

Le personnage de Potté est vraiment approfondi, car au final on en savait assez peu sur lui. On ressent de la compassion et de la tristesse pour cette petite boule de poil.

Car même si Puss in Boots est un film d’animation comique, on passe par toutes sortes de sentiments. Amour, déception, abandon… Potté n’est pas épargné et s’en prend plein le museau tout au long du film. J’ai même versé ma petite larme, accablée par ses malheurs.

Et les amoureux du regard Potté vont en avoir pour leur argent : Potté bébé nous montre son premier regard Potté. Émoi dans la salle à la vue de ce petit chou. Craquant !

On apprend vraiment tout des origines de Potté, y compris comment il a acquis ses bottes et son chapeau. Je ne vais pas trop vous dévoiler l’intrigue, ça ne serait pas drôle.

(Pas comme pour Immortals où on se fiche littéralement de l’intrigue. Quel film de merde, celui-là…)

Etant toujours aux Stazunis, j’ai eu le droit à un petit extra introuvable en salles, en France : Antonio Banderas en Potté, Salma Hayek en Kitty, et Zach Galifianakis en Humpty. Et je peux vous affirmer qu’on s’en prend plein les oreilles. Surtout que je pense très sérieusement qu’Antonio Banderas est dans mon top 5 des voix les plus sexy d’acteurs, voir même premier.

Pendant ce temps, soyez heureux, chers français, vous avez la voix de Virginie Efira !

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Puss in Boots, c’est donc un bon film d’animation où on passe du rire au larme, en restant surtout dans le rire.

On apprécie les nouveaux personnages et on apprécie surtout le fait qu’ils aient su créer une histoire originale qui tient bien la route pour un personnage tiré d’un film dans lequel il était déjà tiré d’une autre histoire. Chapeau !

Son seul moyen de le trouver : S’emparer de l’Oracle et la forcer à révéler l’emplacement de l’arc.

Mais l’Oracle sait que ce sera un jeune tailleur de pierre, Thésée, qui trouvera l’arc, et que les Dieux sont de son côté.

Au même moment, le village de Thésée est attaqué par les armée d’Hypérion et détruit. Le roi égorge lui-même la mère du jeune homme, qui restera empli d’un désir de vengeance incontrôlable.

Thésée, fait prisonnier par Hypérion, croise la route de l’Oracle qui l’aide à s’échapper. Ils fuiront ensemble, sur les routes, accompagnés de quelques brigands, cherchant à retrouver Hypérion et se rendant, sans le savoir, vers l’Arc.

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Tout d’abord, pour comprendre ce qui m’a poussé á aller voir Immortals, il faut remettre les choses dans leur contexte.

J’y suis allée avec une amie, toutes deux en état d’abstinence depuis 3 mois (saloperies de petits copains européens), avec l’envie de voir des beaux mecs presque à poil.

Par conséquent, le fait que le film soit décrit comme étant dans la veine de 300 nous a donc directement attirées, le jour même de la sortie du film, dans les salles obscures.

Pour les beaux mecs « photoshopés », on a été servies.

Par contre, l’intérêt cinématographique semblait avoir fuit la salle à partit du moment où  les pubs pour chauffages électriques et restaurants italiens qui n’ont d’italiens que le nom ont commencé.

Déjà, rien que le début du film nous a laissé dubitatives. Qu’est-ce que c’est que ces bonshommes dans une cage ? Ce sont des Titans, ÇA ? C’est p’tits mecs avec du make-up à la con et au physique peu engageant ? Pas vraiment l’idée du Titan effroyable que le réalisateur tentera d’instaurer tout au long du film. (D’ailleurs, la minuscule armée sensée protéger le mont Tartare ne nous donne pas vraiment l’impression que des gros vilains pas beaux sont enfermés dedans).

Ensuite, on se retrouve dans une chambre avec l’Oracle et ses trois suivantes en robes sexy, dans le même lit (si ça c’est pas du Fan Service…). On y apprend des éléments bateaux et conventionnels, du style le but d’Hypérion ou bien le fait que l’Oracle est vierge. Grâce à cette introduction précipitée, on devine toute l’intrigue en moins de 10 minutes (non, trop gentille, disons 4). Je vous mâche donc le travail qui vous prendrez normalement quatre précieuses minutes du film : Le héros béni des Dieux va devoir tout résoudre tout seul, mais va foirer et les Dieux vont être dans une belle merde, le gentil va poursuivre le méchant comme un neuneu assoiffé de vengeance alors que c’est justement ce que veut le méchant, et le gentil va forcément culbuter l’Oracle. Aucun canon ne peut rester vierge quand il y a un beau gosse en face. Simple logique Hollywoodienne.

Bref, l’histoire est creuse au possible, les seuls rebondissements sont les actes de cruauté gratuite d’Hypérion, qui m’ont perturbée tout le long du film. Les scénaristes sont quand même vachement dérangés, pour trouver des idées de tortures aussi tordues !

Conseil de ma part : Bannissez toute nourriture les 6h précédent la projection si vous avez un estomac fragile.

Malheureusement pour nous, en plus de l’histoire creuse, nous avons la chance de nous trimbaler des personnages sans profondeur, le jeu de la plupart de quelques acteurs corrects n’arrivant pas à remonter la barre. On se fiche complètement de ce qui peut arriver aux personnages.

Tous les acteurs sont plutôt plats. Mickey Rourke et Freida Pinto sont pas mal mais les autres ne cassent pas des briques. Henry Cavill et Luke Evans sont même assez mauvais, mais ce sont des beaux gosses, donc ils remplissent plus ou moins leur tâche.

Il y a tout spécialement un personnage qui m’a impressionné par son inutilité.

Voir Athéna, déesse de la Guerre et de la Sagesse, regarder et laisser les frangins se mettre dans la mouise, arriver à la fin du schmilblick, chialer comme un bébé devant son méchant papounet, et être une guerrière minable, ça déçoit pas mal. Et pendant ce temps, ses frères s’en prennent plein la tronche, et elle est la seule secourue par Daddy. Pathétique.

De façon plus globale, même si c’est censé être inspiré par la mythologie grecque, mis à part les noms, il n’y a pas grand rapport. On a juste l’impression qu’ils ont ouvert La Mythologie Grecque Racontée Aux Enfants et se sont dit que ça ferait un chouette scénario. Et puis amusons nous donc à créer des petites armes sympas, du style un arc super balèze ! Et si on tuait des Dieux majeurs comme si c’était parfaitement normal ?

De toute façon, ce ne sont que des légendes pour mioches, qu’importe de les respecter un minimum !

Et qu’est-ce que c’est que ces Dieux ? Ils ne sont que cinq sur l’Olympe ? Alors pourquoi ils y en a des milliers juste à la toute fin ? Ils se planquaient sûrement pendant que Zeus et les enfants partaient en balade se faire dépouiller par une bande de Titans saltimbanques !

Et puis l’apparition des Dieux est juste ridicule. Exactement entre les apparitions d‘Alex Mack, aka la fille qui se transformait en flaque de métal (0:16 de la vidéo) et celles de Daler Mehndi dans Tunak Tunak Tun (0:26 ; 0:33 ; 0:36 ; 0:40). Mixez le tout, et vous obtenez les Dieux de Immortals.

On pourrait penser qu’il y aurait au moins les combats pour compenser la platitude du tout. Que né-ni ! Quelques uns par-ci par-là, où les acteurs se balancent du jus de tomates ou bien éclatent des têtes à grands coups de masse comme si ils les mettaient dans des mixeurs.

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Plus clairement, exceptés les beaux mecs, le seul moment réjouissant de la soirée fut la virée en ville, fenêtres de la voiture baissées, Backstreet Boys à fond et deux gonzesses ayant perdus soudainement 10 ans et hurlant des paroles guimauves à pleins poumons.

Messieurs, retournez à Gladiator.

Mesdames, retournez sur YouPorn.

(narrative analysis)

Kiss me deadly is an adaptation of a Mickey Spillane’s novel, and an investigation by the famous private eye character Mike Hammer. It is a controversial film noir from 1955, build on the Cold War and H-Bomb fear background. This film explores a corrupted, violent and nasty world, where the atomic preoccupation and fascination are everywhere, and where the only rule is “the end justifies the means”, as we will see.

The story takes place in Los Angeles. The young Christina Bailey and some friends discovered an awful secret. The knowledge of this secret will conduct all of them to death. Christina, who became mad after discovering the famous secret, was put in an asylum where she escapes. She stops a car on the road, Mike Hammer’s car. She tells him “Remember me”, before being attack by a mysterious group. Hammer assists at Christina’s murder. After these men tried to make them disappear, Hammer wakes up at hospital, decided to learn why Christina died, what she meant by “Remember me”, and what is the big plot behind that case. For this, and with the help of his mistress/secretary Velda, he will interrogate (more exactly bully) witnesses or friends, and protect Carver, Christina’s roommate, who is actually a spy send by the mysterious group. She takes the so sought secret, a box, and takes it back to her boss, Dr. Soberin, who refuses to share, so she kills him, shoots Hammer and open a box full of atomic components, which kill her. Hammer, injured, escapes with Velda’s help, but they still are under the atomic danger.

Kiss me Deadly respects a linear order, we discover in the same time as Mike the plot, discoveries and revelations, and so the horror and the menace above their heads. Even with this linear order, some moments of suspense are created, most of them by the accumulation of tensions and the realization by the characters of the presence of a huge menace. The most important of them is created by the discovering of the box. We know something strange and nasty is in it. When Carver steals it, and then kills Dr. Soberin, we ask to ourselves if she will open it, what it contains, if Mike will arrive in time… We are in the expectation of something awful will happen, but the truth is much awful that what we can imagine. Other suspense is created by the apparition of the pure evil of the movie, the big villain, Dr. Soberin, represented by his shoes. When we see these shoes, we know sometimes terrible will happen, in scenes like Nick’s killing, a character who doesn’t know what these shoes mean, completely disarmed. We perfectly know what will happen, we just look how.

But at the same time, Kiss me Deadly is full of surprise, people who return their vest suddenly, like when we discover Carver was a spy, or when this apparently fragile girl is a cold-blood killer. There is a lot of brutal violence intrusion too, like when the car blocks the road at the beginning, meaning the violence enter in the plot. These moments of surprise and suspense are always here to symbolize a new emphasis of violence in this already pessimist and corrupted world, destroying all the characters who can give us some faith on humanity : Christina who trying to protect the world of the horror of the box, and Nick who was the only optimistic and funny character.

Most of the events gravitate around death, murders and destruction. First, Christina’s (and almost Mike’s) murder after the desperate hitchhiking, include the torture scene, is indicative of extreme cruelty acts. Then, satellites events like the attack on the street, the autopsy room or the Hollywood Athletic Club scene reveal a main character, who has to be a hero, completely the opposite of the principles of heroes, taking pleasure to violence. He takes part of this cruel and nasty world he has normally to fight. No characters escape of this world of violence, and being victims, and so died, or being performers, and so be shoot by nastiest performers that them.

When you watch the major characters, no one as good sides, all of them are manipulators, making everything if that can help them to attempt to their goals. Mike has to be, normally, on the side of the law, but use every times violence to obtain the information he desires. His depraved life and his trend to abuse of everybody, especially weak people (quite all the men he visits to obtain information about Christina, and especially the old man at the Hollywood Athletic Club office) clearly not give us the impression to see a hero. (Schingle) Carver, the femme fatale, is ready for everything, she is cupid, greedy of power, and a wonderful liar. Dr. Soberin is inhabited by a gigantic cruelty, and not ounce of pity, and like the others, a cold-blood killer, but who is catch at his own game to have believe, like Mike, the liars of Carver.

The minor characters are the victims, or the characters manipulated by major characters. Like say above, Nick and Christina were the only lightning of good in this cruel and dark world, both were assassinated.

You have other minor characters who are just the performers of the major characters’ desires. Velda is also a victim, in her case of Mike’s influence and wants, but she is not pure too. She uses her body to collect information or potential witnesses for Mike. She is a sort of femme fatale for these men she influences. Sugar Smallhouse and Charlie Max are just here to execute Dr. Soberin orders, that means doing the dirty job, torturing and killing people.

The point of view is majority Mike’s point of view, emphasis by the use of leitmotiv like the shoes, and trying to find Dr. Soberin by recognizing his shoes, or with some subjective point of view shots, like when he wakes up at the hospital and sees Velda’s face, or with some indirect subjective point of view shots, like all the shots on Dr. Soberin shoes. We see his abuse of corruption in every spheres, his love for violence clearly much important than his love for law, but also his effort to discover the truth, finding the guilty guys and making justice by himself. But there is some exceptions for some sequences. For example, in the first sequence, before meeting Mike and designating him has the main character, the beginning of the film is seen by Christina’s point of view, lost, alone in the dark, assaulted by car lights and speed, close to the camera and reverberant her fears through it. Even in the very beginning we already undergo violent attacks through Christina’s perception. Then, we have Nick’s death shows by Nick’s point of view, with the very strong indirect subjective point of view shot which symbolizes the car crushing him. Nick was the only character who never suspect violence, that is why he finishes literally crushed by this violent world. In the scene in Velda’s flat during the night, we follow Velda and her realization that Mike who doesn’t care about her and the effort she makes to help him. She is, at her turn, victim of this world where you don’t have any place for attention or pamper. Then, the last sequence is, for the first part, viewed by Carver/Gabrielle’s point of view, which finally reveals to us her true nature as the worst character in this world of ruthless anti-heroes, and well punished by her own cupidity, but who have maybe condemned the rest of the world to an apocalyptic situation, as it is supposed in many reviews and analysis (ex : Westcombe).

Even if the story is extended on a complete month, because of the hospital stay, the plot is really short, less than one week, with every day some acceleration, a faster fall into this atrocious and cruel hole to arrive at the discovering of the box who shake everything which was established, and push us to this apocalyptic and hopeless ending.

Some elements come back to a certain frequency. The shoes as the prove of the presence of the villain, Dr. Soberin, as already say above, or the two last words of Christina “Remember me” as a reminder of the big plot the characters have to resolve. “Don’t forget you look for something”.

In this background of Cold War, doubt, fear of communism and paranoia, and with the use of Los Angeles Area, Vice City, we are posed directly in an uncomfortable position in the setting, undergoing all the tensions, exploring all the possibility of betrayal and of conspiracy. Between all of this paranoiac and manipulative background elements, you have the perfect frontage, exponent luxury taste and style. The group of thugs possesses at least a huge house with a big swimming pool and the big house on a Californian beach. Velda as a great and well furnished flat for a simple secretory. And Mike uses all the external elements of the playboy : cabriolets, a soft and modern flat, bright costumes…

As explain above, even if the story duration is a bit long, the plot is really short and precipitate. The setting just stay in a quite short area, Los Angeles and around, exploring principally some places like Mike’s flat, Velda’s flat, Dr. Soberin’s beach house, Nick’s garage, but add multiple little places, the first furnished with some indications of location, but when the investigation starts to take some speed, we can’t situate them clearly, they are too numerous and without any indication of where they can be, like the morgue, the museum… This world spirals on itself, preparing its near destruction. The multiple perspectives, even if you have one major, allow us to take some advantages on the main character by knowing before him key elements or spoilers; advantages we will never have with the major perspective, because it is Mike’s perspective, he cannot be spoil by himself. So we know before him Nick’s death, and we see clearly (as much as the censorship allowed it) his murder, but finally, we know something Mike doesn’t care. His impulsiveness pushes him to not pay attention to events, but on the why and, primary, on the desire of vengeance… And of violence. We know before him for Gabrielle/Carver double-betraying, first against Mike by manipulating him, and second with Dr. Soberin, and her fascination for Power who pushes her to commit everything, including the worst, to access to the end.

From all these elements emerge a sensation of instability behind a perfect surface, of a world corrupted and rotten by inside, where nobody is good, or eliminated if he has a part of good on him. All this nasty and already condemned world bathes into murders, violence against weak people and innocents, with intrusion on their peaceful part of world, which is automatically corrupted at its turn, and conduct these characters most of the time to rude confession, and sometimes death. All this world is build on the idea of doing everything if it can be justify by the end. This world of free and unjustified violence is due to a psychotic background of the fear of atomic power, which is achieved at the end, with the discovering of the contain of the box, and so which was the great fascination of the characters during all the movie, even if they didn’t know yet.

Aldrich offers us a psychotic a destroyed world, reflecting of all the fears of his actual society, a society of denouncement, violence and atomic power corroded by inside and which is struggling between this dark and decayed underworld and a facade of stability. Kiss me Deadly is a pessimistic film, which offers no possibility of redemption or escape, whatever if you are good or bad.

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Bibliography :

• Bryan Schingle. Kiss me Deadly review. Web. Thrillingdetective.com. May 2004.

• Roger Westcombe. Kiss me Deadly review. Web. Bighousefilm.com.

• J. Hoberman. The Thriller of Tomorrow. Kiss me deadly’s DVD supplement booklet. Criterion Films, 2011.

• Robert Aldrich. You can’t hang up the meat hook. Kiss me deadly’s DVD supplement booklet. Criterion Films, 2011. (Article of 1955)

Comme promis, voici un rapide tour du campus de University of Idaho.

Welcome in the USA !

Je n’ai quasiment aucun temps pour moi et je croule littéralement sous une montagne de devoirs. Je dors plus que mal, je suis la plupart du temps grincheuse et la seule chose, l’unique petite chose que je demande, c’est une petite sieste, par pitié, mon Dieu !

Mais c’est probablement trop demander…

J’ai donc décidé d’écrire mon désir (devoir) de sommeil dans un un essai que j’avais à écrire pour mon cours de Nonfiction Writing. Les consignes : prendre une photo (ou plusieurs) de notre choix et écrire ce qu’elle(s) nous rappelle(nt).

[Ceci est la traduction d'un essai en anglais que vous pouvez trouver ici]

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LES GÉNÉRATIONS SIESTE

Un chouette jardin avec une pelouse impeccable. Un inattendu beau temps. Le bruit des insectes se mêlent aux éclats de voix enjoués. La délicieuse et tenace odeur de barbecue, d’épices et de Camembert braisé flotte dans l’air vous empli les narines et vous rappelle que c’est l’été.

Le doux et chaud vent caractéristique de fin Août et les estomacs bien remplis sont quelques parfaites conditions pour faire la sieste. Et certains n’ont pas attendu.

Dans un coin du jardin, trois chaises longues sont installées à l’ombre d’un abri de jardin. Étendus dessus, assoupis, trois corps. Trois générations, côte à côte, accomplissant le même rituel, comme une tradition ancestrale.

Dans la famille de ma mère, faire la sieste est presque une institution. Peut-être est-ce génétique, si le gène du sommeil en pleine journée existe. Peut-être avons-nous des racines dans Sud de la France,  experts dans le noble art de la sieste contre un arbre. Peut-être avons-nous juste une drôle d’horloge interne, qui nous pousse dans un profond sommeil après manger et nous réveille au milieu de la nuit, juste à temps pour les rediffs tardives des Feux de l’amour.

En tout cas, chaque dîner de famille est une opportunité pour une grand sieste inter-générationnelle.

A gauche, ma Mamy, Jacqueline, 89 ans, pour qui la sieste n’est pas une découverte récente. A mon avis, elle est l’instigatrice de cette rebellion des heures de sommeil. Je ne me souviens pas d’un jour en sa compagnie où elle n’aurait pas respecté son rituel d’assoupissement. Lorsqu’elle a beaucoup de temps devant elle, son roupillon peut durer plusieurs heures, mais elle sait facilement adapter son rythme à toutes les situations. A la terrasse d’un café, pendant un concert ou même pendant des journées shopping. Partout, elle trouvera toujours un banc ou un rebord de fontaine, à l’ombre, pour un petit dodo, son dos appuyé contre la pierre d’une maison inconnue.

Elle est du nord de la France, mais elle habite désormais dans un très calme, peut-être bien trop calme, petit village dans le sud, perdu dans les montagnes, un endroit parfait pour une retraite paisible, et où la seule activité (hormis courir après un troupeau de moutons effrayés) est  faire la sieste.

Au milieu, ma maman, Chantal, 58 ans, applique les principes instillés par sa mère. Mais au contraire de celle-ci, ce n’est pas un simple petit repos n’importe où, mais de réelles tranches de sommeil, dans un canapé, et se prolongeant sur plusieurs heures. Et ne faites pas le moindre bruit dans la pièce où elle dort si vous ne voulez pas réveiller le dragon. Rien ne la met plus de mauvaise humeur que d’être interrompu dans son rituel presque quotidien.

Si vous avez quelque chose à faire avec elle durant l’après-midi et qu’elle vous dis « Attends ! Je fais une petite sieste avant ! », opposez-vous, rebellez-vous ! Faites du café bien serré, mettez-la dans la voiture et allumer la radio sur une station diffusant du heavy métal, si vous ne voulez pas avoir à revenir demain… pour finalement revenir le jour d’après, puis le jour suivant le jour d’après, toujours à cause de ce perpétuel cérémonial.

A droite, ma petite soeur, Gabrielle, 16 ans, continue d’honorer notre tradition familiale et vous montre notre fameux art nommé « la sieste bouche ouverte ». Cette technique, utilisée régulièrement par Mamy et maman, consiste à dormir la bouche ouverte sans produire le moindre son, ce qui a le don de provoquer l’hilarité générale, puis une certaine anxiété quand quelqu’un demande « Vous pensez qu’elle est morte ? »

Gabrielle est actuellement lycéenne, ce qui signifie donc que la sieste durant la semaine est actuellement une activité prohibée pour elle, bien qu’il soit toujours tentant de piquer un petit somme durant un cours de philosophie à 14h.

Mais n’allez pas penser que c’est uniquement une mode chez les femmes. Une autre photo peut le prouver, prise dans la maison familiale après un repas d’anniversaire. Sur la droite du grand canapé rouge, tête penchée, je dors paisiblement, ne pouvant échapper à la destiné d’adepte de la sieste qui coule dans mes veines.

Mais sur la gauche, exactement dans la même position, inversée, mon frère, Yann, 32 ans, dort profondément, comme si rien au monde ne pouvait le déranger, Un autre genre, une autre génération à ajouter à notre liste, comme l’évidence d’une constante plutôt gênante certains jours, mais tellement significative d’autres fois.

I don’t have ANY little time for me and I have an impressive moutain of homework. I sleep very badly, I am most of the time upset and grumpy and the only thing I want is a little nap, please, My God !

But it is probably a too big request…

So I decided to write my desire of napping in an essay I had to write for my Nonfiction Writing Class. For this essay, we had to take a photography (or more) of our choice and wrote what it remembered us.

So there is my first finish and polish English essay, I hope we will enjoy

(for the French translation, please, wait, I need to sleep before….)

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NAP TIME GENERATIONS

A nice garden with an impeccable grass. An unexpected beautiful weather. Insects noise is melting with some playful shouts. A delicious and tenacious smell of barbecue, spices and braised Camembert in the air that filled your nostrils and reminds you it is summer.

The fresh and hot wind characteristic of the end of August and the full stomachs are perfect conditions for napping. And some have not waited for you to start.

In one of the garden’s corner, three white deckchairs put in the shade of a garden shed. Lying down on them, asleep, three bodies. Three generations, side by side, performing the same ritual, as an ancestral tradition.

In my mother’s family, napping is almost an institution. Maybe it is genetic, if the afternoon sleeping gene exists. Maybe we have South French roots, experts in the noble Art of napping under a tree. Maybe we have just a funny internal clock, which puts us to sleep after lunch and wakes us up in the middle of the night, just in time for The Young and the Restless reruns.

Anyway, each family dinner is an opportunity for a great inter-generational nap.

On the left, my “Mamy”, Jacqueline, 89 years old, for who the nap is not a recent discovery. In my opinion, she is the instigator of this rebellion of sleeping hours. I have no memories of a day in her company where she didn’t do her nap ritual. When she has plenty of time, napping during several hours, but she can easily adapt her rhythm to any situation. At a cafe terrace, during a free concert or even during shopping days. Everywhere, she will always find a bench or the ledge of a fountain, in the shade, for a quick sleep, her back leaning over the stone of an unknown house.

She is from the north of France, but she lives now in a very quiet, maybe too much quiet, tiny village in the south, lost in the mountains, a perfect place for a peaceful retirement, and where the only activity (except running after a scared sheep flock) is napping.

The middle, my mother, Chantal, 58 years old, applies the principles instilled by her mother. But unlike her, it is not a small resting anywhere, but real slices of sleep on a sofa during several hours. And do not make any noise in the same room where she sleeps if you do not want to wake the dragon. Nothing puts her in a bad mood more than being interrupted in her almost-daily ritual.

If you have something to do with her during afternoon and she says “Wait ! I’ll take a little nap before !”, oppose yourself, rebel yourself ! Make strong coffee, put her in the car and turn on the radio to a station broadcasting heavy metal, if you do not want to come back tomorrow… For finally come back the day after tomorrow and the day after the day after tomorrow, always because of this perpetual ceremonial.

Right, my little sister, Gabrielle, 16 years old, continues to honor our family tradition and show you our famous art named “open mouth siesta”. This technique, regularly used by Mamy and my mother, consists on sleeping with your mouth open without producing any sound, in order to create general hilarity, and then a palpable anxiety when someone asks “Do you think she is dead ?”

Gabrielle is currently a high school student, so the rest during the week is a prohibited activity for her, although it is rather tempting to practice it during a philosophy course at 2p.m.

But do not think it is a trend only for women. Another photograph can proved it, took in my parent’s house after a birthday lunch. On the right of the big red sofa, head down, I sleep peacefully, can’t escape to my destiny of nap practitioner who runs in my veins.

But on the left, exactly in the same position, reverse, my brother, Yann, 32 years old, sleeps deeply, like if everything in the world can not disturb him. Another gender, another generation, to add to our list, like the evidence of a constant rather embarrassing some days, but so significant other times.

It is a young country, a big melting pot, who don’t have lots of things just for him, but the think he has are really unique.

It is almost a parallel world where all the most incredible, wonderful or stupid things we have ever dreamed are put together. (Especially the stupid things ^^)

To resume : In the USA, you have all the cultures in the world, but American really cool stuffs are just for Americans.

I have put quickly on videos some of these American really cool stuffs since I am here, with the precious help of my super camera of the killing death (!!!!!!), so the quality is not really good, but it is a beginning…

Of course, you will probably recognize, thank to Hollywood power, the thinks show here. But you will especially note that what we can see in American movies are, well, still often true.

For the people who follow me on Facebook or Twitter (or who have read or just look the French version), you have already seen these videos, but it is not the case for everyone.

The first video I shot concerning… US Football ! More precisely, the University Marching Band, the same who plays music during the omnipresent breaks during the games.

Then, I filmed again the Marching Band during the first football game of this season, but I have not editing my shots from the game yet. Be patients and have a little idea with my video of my first time at the Kibbie Dome, and my discovery of the Vandals Marching Band !

Same night (it was Aug., 19, if I remember well), I had also seen my first game of a very curious American sport : the DodgeBall.

The third video dated from the day after. And it the first thing I see when I think about American stereotypes. I mean, of course, the Eating Contest !

Introducing here by a Cream Pie Eating Contest. There were some for burritos and other crap things too, but I arrived too late to filmed them.

Now, I have to edit my first football games shots as soon as possible !

And see you soon for lots of new American experiences !