Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

HallmarkMovieBuff Professor's pet André Morney (Thibault Vinçon), an apparent apostle of Bohemian satirist Karl Kraus, kicks off this film by professing his contempt for writers and writing. This idea may hold interest for students and for adults who never left academia, but for many of us who left such questioning behind after graduation, in favor of more practical and relational pursuits, it merely bores. But hold on, it gets more interesting as the relationships between Morney and his disciples emerge.Morney continues his pose throughout the film. Yet, as we learn later, when it comes to his own thesis, he can manage barely more than a first draft. Indeed, when his faculty adviser (Jacques Bonnaffé) threatens to drop him as an advisee, Morney resorts to mild violence to secure his diploma.Meanwhile, Morney's diatribes against writing are so convincing that they prompt his friends and fellow students, Eloi (Malik Zidi) to toss away his manuscript for a novel, and Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger) to abandon writing altogether in favor of acting.This all comes to a head after Eloi's mother, Florence Duhaut (Dominique Blanc), a successful writer herself, rescues Eloi's novel from the trash and submits it for publication without his knowledge. Upon discovering this, Eloi is ready to sue his mother, but eventually all is forgiven, and upon publication, Alexandre is the reader at Eloi's book signing.But where is Morney? Off for a year at U. C. Berkeley, as supposed? Or not? And will he show up for the reading? As in a good college text book, one leaves the answers to these and other questions to the viewer.All actors are good looking and perform well, but Natacha Régnier, in particular, spikes male interest as the beautiful librarian, Marguerite.

charlytully Imagine that the next episode of THE MOLE plopped a gaggle of cerebral contestants not in the confines of American suburbia, but smack dab in the middle of a Parisian university community. The mole's objective, of course, would be to sabotage any progress toward authentic art or human communication on the part of his\her student peers. This episode comes with a unique twist: none of the other contestants realize the possibility of the mole's existence.Seeing a verbose Iago trying to snuff out any sniff at success on the part of classmates while expecting to receive laureate status via acclamation in LES AMITIES MALEFIQUES is one of the better film portrayals of self-delusion since NOTES ON A SCANDAL.If this sounds interesting, don't bother waiting for an American remake. There is no cute kid part like MOSTLY MARTHA, no explosions as in LA FEMME NIKITA, and not as much creepiness as THE VANISHING. This one's likely to remain a Gallic exclusive.

Armand Delicate film about illusions and truth. About trust and self-introspection, about fiction, desires and social masks. About literature as spider web and structure of an age.Nostalgic pledge for discover of reality's nuances, search of intellectual traps, definition of master and errors, appearances and compassion. The other like perfect prey of our mediocrity. Questions without answers and forms of refuge.It is not a spectacular movie and the ethic circle is one of signs for French vision about social realities but the message, the acting, the lights and the shadows, atmosphere and the subtle end, ambiguous beginning and images of idol-victim, measure of gestures and skin of dialogs, tension and waiting, the carpet of lies and the fight between ambition and its instruments, obsessions and some words of books, self-legitimation and split dreams, taste of Dostoevsky's "The Possessed" makes a special occasion to look an ordinary world in a new light:small sins and vanities ashes.

chatbada I saw this movie yesterday and all I can say is that it is really intelligent, well performed, and the filming is also surprising because of a "Brechtian" way of reminding you that what you are seeing is a movie,not the reality...as if, the director wanted to tell you that he wouldn't deceive you. This picture is not only brilliantly written, with strong dialogs, and an intelligent story, it also has a Hitchcockien touch. But, be warned that it is not a film done in a way that one is used to. Finally, it moved me a lot from the beginning to its end. One of the best and original french movie of this year. Definitely a brilliant and authentic artistic work.