French Cinema at its Finest: "Little White Lies" and "Intimate Enemies"

Hi everyone!

So as most of you who follow my blog know, I'm a bit of a Francophile. My trip to Paris this past spring just further solidified this. If it's French, it's got to be good, right? (Well, maybe not always -- I've never really gotten Johnny Halliday -- but close enough.) Food, wine, fashion, music, film...the French have got it covered.

I treated myself to a French film double-feature this weekend, thanks to Netflix's streaming service, whose selection of French and other foreign language films continues to impress me:
Guillaume Canet's 2010 ensemble comedy-drama "Little White Lies" (Les Petits Mouchoirs) and Florent Emilio's Siri's riveting 2007 Algerian war drama "Intimate Enemies" (L'ennemi Intime).

"Little White Lies" features an all-star cast (Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard, Benoit Magimel, Francois Cluzet, Gilles Lellouche, Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin, and others) in a drama that many have dubbed the French "Big Chill". There's some truth to that. A group of friends gather at the seaside vacation house of one of their gang for two weeks of boating, sun, drinking, and lying to each other. Despite their collective veneer of frivolity, no one is particularly happy either with themselves, their significant others, or those whom they wish were their significant others. Hanging like a specter over all of them is the fate of their friend Ludo (effectively played by "The Artist"'s Jean Dujardin) who suffers a horrific accident that opens the film and is confined to his bed in an intensive care unit in Paris while everyone else is soaking up the sun -- and the Bordeaux -- in the South of France.

It's a long film -- clocking in at just over 2 1/2 hours -- but the performances are so effortless, so deeply affecting, and so genuinely real that the time just flies by. Be prepared to laugh, to squirm in discomfort, and to cry...and then go back and watch it all over again. (Which I did actually, the next day.)

There's not a single bad or uneven performance, but there are some definite stand-outs worthy of brief mention: After two viewings, Gilles Lellouche as Eric, Ludo's best friend, steals the show. He's the life of the party who has to deal with the guilt of being the last person to see Ludo before the accident. Eric is a mess but somehow he always manages to maintain a sunny disposition...until he can't anymore. Veteran actor Francois Cluzet as Max, the owner of the house and the boat to which they all gather, is by turns hilarious and very real. Early in the film, his best friend Vincent (a quietly effective Benoit Magimel) drops an emotional bomb on him that threatens to destroy their friendship and the group's dynamic. Cluzet's facial expressions alone are worth the price of admission. And finally, the luminous Marion Cotillard proves once again that she's a formidable presence in any film she's in even when the material requires her to blend into an ensemble.

"Little White Lies" has something for everyone -- and a terrific soundtrack. It's a film to savor and return to again and again.

"Intimate Enemies" couldn't be any more different from "Little White Lies" and yet in its own visceral but understated way, it packs an equally resonant punch.  In many ways, this is the Heart of Darkness or "Apocalypse Now" set in Algeria during the French-Algerian War in 1959. A young seemingly idealistic officer (played by "Little White Lies"'s Benoit Magimel) is brought in to command a platoon of French soldiers in the mountains of Algeria. Their mission, simply put, is to track down and kill soldiers of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). Not surprisingly, the idealism of the young officer is gradually replaced by disillusionment, brutality, and madness.

The cinematography is striking. The violence is shocking and sporadic. And like the very best of war films, "Intimate Enemies" questions the notion and value of war. There are no winners or losers. There's just atrocity. And in the face of man's brutality to man, even the most hopeful of souls finds himself committing acts that he may never have believed possible just a short time before.

"Intimate Enemies" belongs in the same category of such great war films as "Platoon", "The Hurt Locker", "Apocalypse Now" and "Breaker Morant".

Bon soir!