Seen & heard: July

Seen...

1. 2. & 3. The Before... trilogy (BEWARE - SPOILERS AHEAD!)

At the start of July, I wrote about watching the first two films in the trilogy, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, here.  And a couple of weeks ago I went to see the final film, Before Midnight.

I desperately wanted to love it like I love the first two films, but I actually kind of hated it.  Here's why...

The film finds the Jesse and Celine on holiday in Greece, nine years after meeting in Paris (a meeting from which Jesse, we gather, never returned home to his then-wife and son).  It is clear much has changed for them in nine years: they now have twin daughters, Celine is having something of a career crisis, Jesse is struggling with being apart from his now-teenage son.  But the first section of the film - a two-hander between Jesse and Celine, in classic Before... style, which takes place in the car while their daughters sleep in the back - is light and funny while also acknowledging these difficulties.  If the film had maintained this tone, all would have been well.

The other scene I loved, a long single-shot walk through the picturesque fields and villages as they make their way to a hotel, was again classic Before..., with lots of conversational diversions and musings on love and ageing: in short, exactly what I had expected from the film.

It's when they get to the hotel that everything goes wrong and they begin to argue.  The extremely long (almost a quarter of the whole film's running time) and traumatic fight culminates in Celine telling Jesse she doesn't love him anymore and walking out.  And *smash*, that's the sound of millions of Before... fans having their hearts broken.

It's not the end of the film, but it may as well have been.  The last ten minutes barely paper over the cracks of the argument.  Yes, I get it: every couple argues.  No couple, regardless of the fairy-tale story of their meeting, is perfect.  But the fight - inarguably authentically acted - never felt authentic to their characters.  We do not expect to see Jesse repeatedly tell Celine she is "crazy", nor see Celine bitch and whine in a way that leaves you with little sympathy for her. 

Before Midnight systematically and completely destroys the romance of the other films. I felt betrayed, as a viewer who has followed Jesse and Celine's romance from twenty-somethings in Vienna to thirty-somethings reconnecting in Paris, to be faced with this cynical and depressing view of adult relationships. I get that Linklater, Delpy and Hawke probably wanted to comment on the way children, mortgages, ex-wives, jobs... all the accoutrements of modern life impact on a relationship, but I found it badly handled and jarring. 

This just wasn't the right film for brutal reality: the first two films are such lovely, hopeful, romantic fables, and to end on this note felt false.  Or maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic who can't handle the truth of real relationships?  I'd love to know what you thought of Before Midnight, if you've seen it.

4. Monsters University was another let-down I'm afraid.  I love Monsters Inc and it's an end-of-term staple at school, so I've seen it more times than I'd like to count, but this prequel lacked something, namely comedy.

5. We went to see Byzantium in Nijmegen, on a search for air-conditioning in 32c heat.  The Boy LOVED it, whereas I was a bit more 'meh'.  Saoirse Ronan and Sam Riley put in amazing performances, but the whole thing was a bit too B-Movie and schlocky for me.  If that's your bag, though, you'll love it.

6. The Paperboy was easily the most disturbing thing I've seen in a long time.  Incredible performances by the whole cast, but especially David Oyelowo, providing a bit of welcome comic relief in his role as a journalist, who together with his writing partner (Matthew McConaughey) is researching a possible miscarriage of justice, and John Cusack's terrifying redneck who has been convicted of the murder they are looking into.  Fantastically shot and compulsive viewing, but horrifying in so many ways.

Heard...

Arctic Monkeys' Do I Wanna Know? is my new jam.  I am so into their new, grungier sound (also heard on last year's single R U Mine?) and am very much looking forward to the new album, out in the UK on September 9th.