Netflix And Chill: Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (2022)

You can spend all the time you like working through lists of the greatest movies ever made. You can, and should, check out the worthwhile filmographies of people like Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Danny Boyle, Lynne Ramsay, and many others. You can even spend as much of your free time as possible exploring your favourite genres and sub-genres, whether they are rom-coms, serial killer movies, or low-budget zombie flicks. It's also important to make time for films like Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris though, another film based on the novel by Paul Gallico. This won't necessarily be named as anyone's favourite film from the year it was released, and it didn't seem to gain any momentum throughout the awards season, but it is a genuine delight from start to finish. I was grinning a LOT, there were times when I laughed aloud, and some moments had me turning my face away slightly so that my partner didn't see the tears creeping out of the corners of my eyes. There are many films vying for your time, and many that will have made a bigger impact on the cinematic landscape, but I doubt there are too many from the recent release schedule that will warm your cockles like this one.

Lesley Manville plays Ada Harris, a cleaning lady in the 1950s who eventually finds out that her husband has been officially declared to have been killed during his military service. Having fallen in love with a Christian Dior dress that she sees in the home of one of her regular clients, Mrs. Harris becomes determined to head over to Paris and treat herself to one. She needs £500. Yes, that should do it. As the title suggests, Mrs. Harris makes her trip, but not without a few setbacks on the way, but she then has to figure out how to deal with the snobbery of those who believe a Dior dress should remain exclusive to the rich (although, as the film notes on a number of occasions, the rich often appear rich while deciding on what bills they can keep defering until a later date). Claudine Colbert (Isabelle Huppert) is one person working at Dior who believes in that principle of exclusivity, but Mrs. Harris finds herself some useful allies in the shame of the Marquid de Chassange (Lambert Wilson), an accountant named André Fauvel (Lucas Bravo), and a lovely model named Natasha (Alba Baptista). And there's also her own forceful and winning personality to help her achieve her goal, which becomes something that a lot of people around her end up rooting for.

With four people working to adapt this from page to screen, including director Anthony Fabian, this could have easily ended up as either a bit of a mess or something a bit too episodic and disjointed to be truly effective. Although I am not familiar with anything else from Fabian, I would say that I've had mixed reactions to other films featuring writing from Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, or Olivia Hetreed. Thankfully, everyone seems to be pulling in the right direction here, almost as if the onscreen struggle to push Mrs. Harris to victory was replicated by those behind the camera (and I mean that compliment for everyone, but must also mention the wonderful, and arguably more vital than ever, costume design by Jenny Beavan).

While Fabian and co. do great work, the cast really do everything they can to put the icing on the cake. Those already mentioned are varying degrees of wonderful, whether being cast as a temporary villain (Huppert) or a welcome helping hand (Bravo), or even someone who seems very pleasant and well-meaning, but ends up causing a great deal of hurt with one ill-considered "compliment" (Wilson). There are also great turns from the cast members who stay in old Blighty while Mrs. Harris flies over to France. Ellen Thomas plays a very good friend, Jason Isaacs is a twinkle-eyed rogue who might be missing a beautiful chance at happiness right under his nose, and both Anna Chancellor and Rose Williams are clients who are both quite horrifying and selfish in different ways. And as for Manville, I truly believe that this is the kind of performance that should have been showered with all kinds of praise and accolades. Equally believable while making herself small or allowing herself to blossom into a new full bloom, her acting here is a masterclass in how you deliver an unforgettable movie character without relying on a bag-full of tricks and quirks. Manville carries herself throughout every scene with a likeability and an honesty, seemingly playing a character that she cares for as much as she wants us to.

Although I was a bit wary as soon as the film started, I soon warmed to it, and I started to fall in love with it very quickly, mainly thanks to Manville's performance. I think it only has one main flaw, and that is the predictability. Even the seemingly unpredictable moments eventually wind around and head back to intersect where you think things were heading, but that just adds to the warmth and comfort of the whole thing.

Everyone should watch this, especially while the world around us feels so stressful and dangerous, to put it mildly. This is a real balm for your soul, it's a cinematic delight, and it should be available to everyone on prescription. If you have any sense of decency and fairness, if you have ever worked hard for something that others have had gifted to them, and if you believe in good things happening to good people, there's a little bit of Mrs. Harris in you already. That's a good thing, and it also means that you should reward yourself with a viewing of this film.

10/10

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Mubi Monday: Benedetta (2021)

It's been a while since I've actually watched a new Paul Verhoeven movie, despite the fact that I own both Black Book and Elle, two films that had very good reviews when released. Benedetta was just impossible to resist though, being the story of a nun who develops a reputation for her religious visions, as well as an erotic relationship with another woman.

Based on a book by Judith C. Brown that surely drew Verhoeven to it like a moth to a lightbulb, titled "Immodest Acts: The Life Of A Lesbian Nun In Renaissance Italy", Benedetta may have the lurid plot synopsis and plot elements that seem designed to surely titillate viewers, but it allows for Verhoeven to work in his typically subversive style, confidently and maturely exploring ideas of love, faith, and power in the hands of those who seek to manipulate a situation to best suit their own needs.

Virginie Efira plays Benedetta, a woman who has given her life to god since she was a small child. Occasionally butting heads with her Abbess (Charlotte Rampling), Benedetta finds herself confused and succumbing to a healthy does of pleasures of the flesh when she convinces the convent to take in a young woman named Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia). Then there's a case of stigmata, which leads to a change in structure at the convent, as well as divided opinion of just how holy Benedetta might be.

Written by Verhoeven and David Birke (who worked with the director on Elle), Benedetta is a film you can take a number of different ways. There are times when it just feels like nunsploitation, that's true, but a lot of the film points out religious hypocrisy, and questioning why love and lust are such a great sin, especially when the person battling such "sin" is also apparently responsible for a lot of good. And there's an interesting look at just what constitutes a miracle or an act of god, considering how god is supposed to move through people. This is brought to the fore when Benedetta is questioned about the cause of her stigmata.

Of course, being a Verhoeven film, there's also more to dig into. The way those who purport to do good can be complicit in evil deeds by simply remaining silent is another important point, but there's also the double-standards that become more obvious when learning about the behaviour of those who place themselves as morally superior to all others.

Efira is excellent in the main role, a perfect mixture of innocence and possible deceit. I have been a fan of her since seeing In Bed With Victoria and Sybil (both recommended), and I went into this knowing that there would be at least one great performance. Rampling, someone who I think can be hit or miss, depending on the writing, also does great work. Her character is justifiably cynical, yet also tries often to do things as they should be done (in terms of the religious hierarchy). Patakia is a little bit weaker than the two more experienced actresses that she ends up working with, but she does well in conveying someone with a wild streak who has found the convent as a salvation, more than a calling. The other very important character in the whole story is played by Lambert Wilson, who is excellent at acting superior to everyone around him, looking to maintain control of people even as his grasp on the situation seems to become untenable.

Surprisingly tasteful throughout, and I realise I am saying this about a film in which a character uses a piece of religious iconography to craft a wooden dildo, Benedetta is a very well-made film that will only shock those who are more easily affected by nudity and any exploration of human sexuality. Sex isn't evil, it's not a sin, and the way it is used by those who want to take power away from Benedetta is typical of attitudes still disappointingly prevalent in modern society. 

9/10

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Babylon A. D. (2008)

Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, who also helped to co-write the shambolic screenplay, Babylon A. D. is a movie that I sincerely hoped to enjoy. I'd heard/read a number of bad reviews when it opened back in 2008 but there are many times when I feel that critics forget to consider the comfort value of some mindless entertainment. Unfortunately, everyone who warned viewers away from this film did so with good reason. It's a mess, it borders on being completely incompetent in a number of places and it is, worst of all, dull as ditchwater.

Vin Diesel plays Toorop, an experienced mercenary who takes on the job of delivering a package from Eastern Europe to America. That package is a young girl, Aurora (Melanie Thierry), accompanied by a religious guardian named Sister Rebekah (Michelle Yeoh). Toorop is determined to get the job done, something he will manage by trusting nobody around him, but he starts to think more and more about the consequences of his actions as various parties try to get a hold of the girl. Is she some kind of saviour? Is she a weapon? She may be neither, but Toorop vows to decide her fate if he discovers that others can use her to cause some major death and destruction.

Based on the novel Babylon Babies, by Maurice G. Dantec, Babylon A. D.  is a messy bag of cliches and bad decisions, unhelped by the fact that none of the main characters are all that likeable. Vin Diesel tries hard in a lead role fairly similiar to many of his other lead roles, but Michelle Yeoh is stuck with embarrassingly bad material to work with and Melanie Thierry is shockingly bad from her first moment to the last. Gerard Depardieu is fun, but not in the movie for long enough to make a big enough difference, Mark Strong is as good as ever and Charlotte Rampling doesn't do her C.V. any favours. The appearance of Lambert Wilson simply serves to remind viewers that he was in two of The Matrix movies, sci-fi action films that hold up as the exact opposite of this trash.

Fans of the movie will insist that there's a vision amidst the mess worth struggling to recognise. Mathieu Kassovitz, by all accounts, certainly didn't have an easy, pleasant experience getting this made. But I can't help thinking that the film is SO bad, riddled with so many errors and poor choices, that nothing could be salvaged from it. Action scenes are badly edited and painfully boring, the dialogue is often either cringe-inducing or completely laughable and all of the flaws are made worse by the fact that the film takes itself so seriously and seems to think that it's full of clever, thought-provoking stuff.

It's not.

2/10

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