Mubi Monday: Demonlover (2002)

On the one hand, Demonlover is a superficially-dull film about corporate espionage that takes a turn for the dark and twisted in the second half (although there is one crime committed very early on that should clue viewers in to where this particular journey is going). On the other hand, Demonlover is intriguingly transgressive and focused on the main thesis from writer-director Olivier Assayas.

Connie Nielsen plays Diane, a woman who arranges to take over from her superior, Karen (Dominique Reymond), as the company she works for prepares to acquire rights  from a Japanese anime company that will given them ownership of a hell of a lot of hentai. And when they have the product, they need to sort out distribution. Which leads them to delve deeper into the murky depths of the internet.

Whether you like his films or not, and I often like them (with the exception of Boarding Gate), Assayas is a director who always seems to take on projects that allow him to explore something he feels genuinely invested in. That may be the blurred lines between fiction and non-fiction, the power of grief, a turbulent part of history, or the difficulty of ageing within a movie industry that almost always values youth and image above everything else. This time around, his focus is on how we consume media, and how easy it is to feel free to do anything while enjoying anonymity.

What could have so easily been a “do you know where your kids are?” scare piece about the perils of the internet, and we have a number of those already (some of which remain mind-bogglingly highly praised), instead becomes a look at how things can be amplified, online and on screens, for people who have already been acclimatized to more extreme content, resulting in an unending, and unsatisfying, search for the next thing that can seize the attention of consumers. Although less feverish, this feels like an interesting step along from Videodrome, the two covering some similar ground, albeit with different formats at the heart of things.

Nielsen is very good in her role, surprisingly effective at being thoroughly nasty and easy to dislike. There’s also a strong supporting turn from Chloë Sevigny, and Gina Gershon steals a couple of scenes when she appears about a third of the way into the runtime. Charles Berling is the least known (to me) of the main players, but he does a good job in the role of Hervé, the boss who doesn’t realise the real agendas of a number of people working for him.

There’s an excellent soundtrack to help things along, particularly in the first half when things seem happier and less grimy, and a third act that skirts very close to outright horror. Overall, this is a pretty great film that only suffers from the fact that Assayas didn’t dive fully into genre. But, then again, Assayas has rarely let himself be confined by typical genre parameters.

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Mubi Monday: Boarding Gate (2007)

I tend to, overall, enjoy the films of Olivier Assayas, but I know that he creates interesting and challenging art. If I dislike something that he makes then I may end up REALLY disliking it. Boarding Gate is one of his films that I really disliked, yet there's still enough here to have made me feel it was worthwhile. It's just a shame that he made such a major mistake in casting the central figure here. Asia Argento, probably not through any fault of her own, is generally not a very good actress. She can be fine in the right roles, but I think that being praised for years by her father, who would often place her in a variety of twisted and disturbing scenarios, has given her a false impression of her own level of talent, which is sadly very low.

Argento plays a woman named Sandra here, and Sandra has spent years helping out various people by using her sexuality to gain information, confidence, and time. Her main "employer" was a man named Miles Rennberg (Michael Madsen), but she now seems to be focused on developing relationships with Lester (Carl Ng) and Sue Wang (Kelly Lin). What unfolds is a tale of treachery, attempted shady business deals, and Sandra moving further and further into dangerous waters.

Although it's sometimes an interesting study of people using one another in different ways, and Assayas also uses the main premise to show business conducted by people who are happy to see others literally fucked over, Boarding Gate just doesn't make anything interesting enough in the scenes that fall in between moments of Argento being sexy (for those who find her sexy . . . I'm not in that group, unfortunately). The low-key approach to the material keeps the characters, and the potential divide between their words and actions, in front of anything else, which would be fine if those characters were as interesting as Assayas seems to think they are.

Aside from the weak Argento in the main role, you also get disappointment from Madsen, apparent disinterest from Ng, and nobody else to watch with interest. Almost nobody. Thankfully, Lin is excellent in her role, and it's a shame that her character wasn't developed to figure much more prominently in the way that events play out. She gets more to do in the second half, but I would have preferred the movie to be about her life, what information she has and what she chooses to do with it, rather than all about Argento's character.

Look, if you like Argento (and I know many people do) then you may enjoy this film a fair bit more than I did. You might also enjoy the performance from Madsen more than I did. So you should give this a watch, especially if you're a fan of other Assayas movies. I find it to be one of his worst, and I'd warn most people to stay far away from it.

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Mubi Monday: Clouds Of Sils Maria (2014)

I haven't actually seen that many films from writer-director Olivier Assayas, but what I HAVE seen from him has impressed me. He's a very talented director, eliciting superb performances from his cast and crafting scenes of sedate thoughtfulness that never feel just dull. Clouds Of Sils Maria is exactly in line with the other Assayas films I have knowledge of.

Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, an elderly actress with a rather unique problem/opportunity. She has been offered the chance to play the older character in a play that helped to set her on her way to stardom when, decades earlier, she has portrayed the younger character. Discussing the work with her assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart), Maria has to also adjust to acting opposite a new up-and-coming actress, Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz), and ends up using her time in preparation for the role as time spent also considering her own approach to her career, her life, and her relationships with some other key people, including Valentine.

At a shade over two hours in length, Assayas is in no hurry here, which is as it should be. The central character is herself delaying things, plagued with doubt and insecurity as she considers a big step that will draw a lot of attention to where she is in her career. There's also more weight to the decision because of the death of the director, Wilhelm, who helped her get that big break. In fact, Maria was on her way to accept an award on his behalf when she learns of his death. There's musings on mortality, a thought or two about certain immortality (certainly in terms of powerful performances that create a reputation to ripple through the decades), and the constant struggle of battling against the ravages of time, particularly in a business that often values youth and beauty above so many other qualities.

Binoche is at her best in the main role, as fierce and strong as ever, with moments of vulnerability that take place either fleetingly, or very much hidden away from those she fears seeing her in a state of weakness. Stewart works great alongside her (and Assayas would have faith in her again, giving her a fantastic role in the quietly effective Personal Shopper), the relationship between the two an interesting and complex one, muddied by the scenes in which they work through the play together. Moretz is . . . well, she's okay, but the weakest of the three central females. I like Moretz a lot, but she seems to have struggled in the transition from talented child star in the right roles to an actress with a fully-rounded skillset.

Easy to dismiss as languid and pretentious, Clouds Of Sils Maria is certainly one that will be appreciated best by those who are closer in age to Binoche than Moretz. It's a character study, superficially, but it's also a meditation on some things we all experience as we wander through life, and that could include grief (not just for the loss of loved ones, but for the loss of past glories, the loss of time, the loss of moments that we didn't know enough about to fully appreciate at the time, and more) as well as the unhalting march of the minutes, hours, days, and years.

8/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews