No Exit

Today, at 1.15 pm GMT, I realized I was wearing my plaid M&S boxer shorts backwards.

French Kissing the 80s

Le Beau Mariage is a strange movie. There is no soundtrack (unless the characters are in a room where music is played); there are no genre motifs pushing the story and giving you an idea where everything is going; there are no props; the characters share with each other their mundane lives and dreams, then go about their business as if they were not in a film; there is such a lack of signals as to what the story is about that I began to wonder if a horrible twist was about to be thrown my way. Where was the gun? Where was the serial killer? Where was the car accident? Where was the sexual relationship that wrecked someone's life? Nothing happens and yet... it was unsettling, thoughtful, dated, kitschy, nostalgic, romantic, ugly...

Filmed in 1982, it may be one of the films that inspired the Dogme 95 manifesto. Or maybe there are many french films like this one - which do not play up to the viewers expectations - and I'm just not aware of them. I need to watch more french films. I need to start studying french again. I need to buy some croissants tomorrow morning.

The movie came for free with The Independent newspaper this weekend. I brought it home from work today because I've been on a francophone kick: I'm reading a novel by Françoise Sagan, and I watched Jésus de Montréal last night. I've made a promise to myself not to watch any Hollywood movies if I can help it. Film-makers from other countries have different eyes, different tastes, and I seem to enjoy foreign films a lot more these days than your average Anglo movie (my apologies if that sounds pretentious). 2007 is my uphill struggle to avoid the expected, the tried and true (on a tested audience).

Recently, there was an article in The Guardian about the decline of "art" movies in France. To me, knowing that something is being pushed into the foreground, piques my curiosity. Where are these artsy-fartsy movies being kept? Which obscure video store carries them? Give me their address: I'll be their number one costumer. I don't care if it's an hour of hearing an american teenager whisper her blog-thoughts to the black & white images of a destructive transsexual (otherwise known as Container). Give it to me. I want it.