A handful of mini-reviews of movies and series, all connected by the process and problems of creativity.

1.
The Mystery of Henri Pick (Le mystere Henri Pick)
2019, Remi Bezancon

The creation: A novel, called The Last Hours of a Love Story.

The plot: Ambitious editor Daphne Despero (Alice Isaaz) finds a manuscript in the Library of Rejected Manuscripts (reminiscent of Carl Ruiz Zafon's Cemetery of Forgotten Books, but apparently based on a real institution in the United States). Allegedly by Henri Pick, late pizza-maker to the Breton town of Crozon, the novel is a runaway success. The fly in the ointment is that Pick -- who never, to anyone's knowledge, read or wrote anything, and certainly didn't have the historical and linguistic wherewithal to have been able to draw on the sources he did -- represents such an unlikely author that the whole story arouses the suspicions of Jean-Michel Rouche (Fabrice Luchini), a flashy literary critic and TV presenter. His scepticism costs him his job and his marriage, and turns him into a literary sleuth, who finally uncovers the rather sad truth.

Pluses: A blend of comedy, who-done-it (without the murder), and literary satire, it's just a lot of fun to watch. The depiction of Brittany sent waves of nostalgia through our living-room, and Rouche's send-up of the style of Marguerite Duras is just hilarious.

Minuses: None, really. Some are disappointed by the denouement. It works for me.


All the pictures are from Brittany, France, 1990-92

2.
The Last Letter (nihao zhihua, or Dear Zhihua)
2018, Shunji Iwai

The creation: Another novel.

The plot: When her sister Zhinan kills herself, Zhihua (Zhou Xun) follows up an invitation to a school reunion, intending to share the sad news. When she is mistaken for her sister, however, she finds herself going along with the misunderstanding, and in the process reconnects with struggling novelist Yinchuan (Qin Hao). Both she and her sister liked him at school, but it was Zhinan who engaged his affections (and also broke his heart by marrying someone else, who really didn't turn out to be all that good for her). So when Zhihua-as-Zhinan starts corresponding with him (by mail, because Zhihua's husband has broken her cell phone in a fit of jealousy), you know things are going to get a bit messed up. Never mind, though, because by the end Yinchuan has a great new idea for a novel...

Pluses: It's an atmospheric examination of the pretty much insurmountable obstacles to finding the right person in life... And it's a reminder that you should never underestimate your creations. Yinchuan had written a novel about the love of his life -- which she, in all her unhappiness, ended up reading and being sustained by (for a while, anyway).

Minuses: A tad confusing, especially as the actresses playing the two daughters of Zhinan and Zhihua (Deng Enxi and Zhang Zifeng) also play the younger versions of their mothers...



3.
Polina
2016, Valerie Muller and Angelin Prelijocaj

The creation: Dance, both classical and contemporary.

The plot: We follow the exhausting endeavours of Polina (Veronika Zhovnytyska) to make it as a dancer, first in the hallowed Bolshoi Ballet, and then, when she feels this kind of dance is too stifling, in various contemporary contexts in France and Belgium. The road -- not exactly to fame, but rather to the discovery of what it is that you really love doing -- is tough indeed, involving not only hard work, but also the ability to flunk and flail, again and again, yet still be able to come back.

Pluses: The dance scenes, of which there are lots, are absolutely beautiful. And, though it's discreetly presented, you really feel the effort of those who surround creative artists, in this case the mother and the father (who's always a hair's breadth from the tyranny of thugs).

Minuses: You never feel you really get to know Polina as a person. Although the movie is visually striking, you can't help feeling there's a shimmering space at its centre.



4.
Saigon in the Rain
2020, Le Minh Hoang

The creation: Contemporary song.

The plot: Vu (Avin Lu) has moved to Saigon to advance his musical career. He is now a singer/guitarist in a four-person band that plays all kinds of venues, but he is particularly keen to develop his song-writing profile. He falls in love with May (Thu Anh Ho), an eminently pragmatic young woman who becomes Vu's unofficial guide to the city, and injects some self-confidence into him along the way. Again, the road is strewn with obstacles. Vu and the rest of the band fail to get the break they were hoping for from a television audition, and when Vu takes on a job as a host/bartender, and spirals down into permanent intoxication, he ends up driving May away. There's a bit of hope at the end, though...

Pluses: The music is enjoyable, and the photography is absolutely STUNNING. One of those movies where every shot is a masterpiece.

Minuses: The tone is strangely uneven. In fact, we almost gave up watching about 10 minutes in, because it all seemed so slapstick and exaggerated. Glad we stuck with it, though...



5.
Ku'damm x 3 (1956, 1959, and 1963)
2016/2018/2021, Annette Hess/Marc Terjung

The creation: Song and dance, in the context of a world transitioning into the rock-and-roll era.

The plot: Over the course of three series (nine episodes in total), we follow the fortunes of Caterina, the owner of a Berlin dance school (Claudia Michelsen), and her three daughters, Helga (Maria Ehrich), Monika (Sonia Gerhardt), and Eva (Emilia Schule), as they marry, have affairs, have children, and seek to forge careers.

Pluses: In terms of examining social and political issues in the Germany of the late 1950s/early 1960s, the three series pack in a lot. We encounter the lingering remnants of Nazism; residual anti-Semitism and racism; and appalling discrimination against women. We are shown how homosexuality faced almost total social and legal intolerance, and how the mentally ill were dealt with (hard to watch at times). We watch as the gulf widens between the west and the east. The recreation of the Berlin of the era was fascinating (Nigel kept spotting the same cars rolling by -- I, of course, didn't). And the music and dance scenes were great.

Minuses: Some of the storylines were a bit heavy on the melodrama... Suicide (more than one), miscarriage, rape (trivialized, I felt), manslaughter, defection -- it's all here, in spades... A bit more of the social observation and a bit less of the big-ticket life-events would have been welcome.



6.
The Runaway (Fugueuse)
2021, Jerome Cornuau

The creation: Dance and rap.

The plot: A remake of a Canadian series, this tells the story of Lea (Romane Jolly), a bright, popular 16-year-old, with a loving if sometimes clueless family, and a talent for dance, which she longs to pursue as a career. Three factors combine to cause her descent into servitude. Firstly, her mother and father (especially the latter) fail to understand that their daughter is growing up, and needs some space to develop. In rebelling against what she sees as the unfairness of their strictures, she pushes the boundaries again and again. Secondly, one of her dance mentors introduces her to some dodgy rappers (this is a plot flaw, I think, as this woman, who is portrayed as fundamentally kind, knows their dubious past, and yet leads Lea to them). Thirdly, Lea falls head over heels in love with one of the scumbag rappers, and fails to see that he is manipulating her. From there it's a spiral downwards: from escort (to sway the opinion of the guy the rappers want to produce their music), to prostitute (to fund their rapping ambitions), to trafficking victim. She's rescued (somewhat unbelievably, by dad brandishing a hunting rifle), and finds the courage to testify against her abusers. So although a "happy" ending is not really an option after all this scarring, there is at least hope.

Pluses: Most critics would agree with Michael Youn (who plays Lea's father) when he says that "this is a story that needs to be told". It was accompanied on TF1 by a documentary on the prostitution of minors (there were reckoned to be somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 cases in France), and the plot apparently draws on real events. It's confronting television, to be sure, and hard to watch at times. But it largely succeeds in "tackling the subject head on, while not giving way to the salacious".

Minuses: It doesn't entirely escape the realm of cliche. The whole scenario seems designed to feed all the worst nightmares of parents; Lea's mum and dad at times seem to have read the "what not to do with your teenager" manual; and while I'm by no means a rap fan, it seems hard to believe that the milieu is exclusively composed of sex, drugs, and the pursuit of money...



7.
True Colours
2022, Erica Glynn and Warren H. Williams

The creation: Australian Indigenous art.

The plot: A series of violent acts and dubious cover-ups affecting the Arrernte community of Perda Theendar turns out to be connected with the illicit coopting and downright faking of Australian Aboriginal art. In the spotlight are "the international market for Aboriginal art and the way brokers and art dealers insert themselves between traditional practitioners and their audience". Police detective Toni Alma (Rarriwuy Hick), herself originally from Perda Theendar, is sent back there to find out what's going on, and of course she finds herself caught between her white superiors in the city and the expectations of the locals, including her uncle, Samuel (Warren H. Williams) who serves as the community police officer.

Pluses: It's really good to have part of the dialogue in Arrernte. (Hick herself, a Yolngu Matha speaker, had to learn the language before filming began.) There are interesting cultural insights throughout, many of which have a bearing on the interface between Indigenous customs and standard policing. And the depiction of the art itself is fascinating, with more than 200 works by artists from around the Central Australian region made visible in the series.

Minuses: As the above reviews point out, the crime story is somewhat less effective than its cultural underpinnings, and stretches credulity at times. We kept wondering about stereotyping in the portrayal of the Perda Theendar community, but since the creators are themselves Indigenous, I'm sure they can be credited with having a good handle on all that.