Nothing new

With only four episodes left, I'm almost done with my BSG revival.

What I love the most about the show is that it loved its characters and respected them. They all had a great exit, shocking for some of them, but great nonetheless.

Of course we were supposed to side with the lead characters (or at least one of them ) and root for them, but there were no real "villains" per se, no caricatures. At some point you could always understand the characters, even when they made mistakes or did "bad things"; we could see where they came from. Even for D'Anna, Admiral Cain, Boomer, Tom Zarek or Cavil.

Season 4 has been bashed by many viewers but watching it again in a row, I think it's actually excellent*. The mid-season finale, "Sometimes AGreat Notion" is still powerful, and the following episode, "A Disquiet Follows My Soul" was perfect in its gloomy way. Not many tv shows dared to explore human despair the way BSG did then.


*and Jamie Bamber sported the best hairstyle Lee ever had on the show!

Also, speaking of rewatch, Sherlock was on the French cable yesterday evening – and I could watch it in its orginal language! – and seeing "A Study In Pink" was again a real pleasure. The way the two characters "clicked" was perfect.

And tonight the three last episodes of Justified S1 are on...

A film that the Oscars people will never nominate...

On Friday, before the Césars evening, I went to the movies and saw a low-budget Russian film, Twilight Portrait,  Portret v sumerkakh , directed (and co-written) by Angelina Nikonova. It's the kind of films that probably very few people will see (it was showed in only 4 theatres in Paris) either here or in Russia, although it received several awards in various festivals, and it's a shame because it's very good.

It isn't an easy film, it's even rather disturbing, as it explores the most violent and unpleasant sides of modern day Russia, but it has more subtletly and generosity than darkness. The lead is a posh woman from the upper middle-class, unhappily married to a businessman, who starts the film being unable to connect to people around her but goes on  a journey after a traumatizing event, but the film also shows how corrupted the police is, how two worlds meet and clash, how the lumpen people live...and how love might save people, even those who firstly looked like feelingless monsters. It's the story of a woman who could have sought revenge but instead bring a man back to humanity, saving herself in doing so.

It's very Russian and yet it made me think of films directed by other women: Courtney Hunt's Frozen River, Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank , Keily Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff, or Debra Grabik's Winter's Bones.

Those women don't rely on formula and dare to go where male filmamkers don't seem to go anymore.

Maybe the future of cinema lies in the women's eye.

PS: No Oscars post from me, too many films on the list I didn't see, and some of them I heard were terrible (The Help, The War Horse) and as for those I actually saw, I didn't find them that good, except for The Artist – and I am not saying that because it's a French film. Many critics commented on the mediocrity of the Oscars batch this year and I think they are right...Yet there were some good films (American or not) this year but the Oscars people left them out.