Abdellatif Kechiche, genius? dirty old bollocks? both? neither?

[greenman]

Watched the first part of Mektoub, My Love a couple of months ago and yesterday Black Venus. The latter did in some ways live up to the reasons I hadn't watched it earlier thinking it was going to be pretty grim. The opening especially as far in that direction as I'v watched recently and a near constant sense of the lead characters exploitation by pretty much everyone she comes into contact with. Certainly carried a strong impact on that central message which now seems a bit ironic given criticism he's since faced. I was a bit disappointed that he didn't ever really seem to develop that much character herself relative to his other female leads, Torres gives a good performance selling drama with very little direct dialog but is almost entirely reactive to her ordeal.

I spose you could argue it maybe helps to explain the direction he took afterwards, after the harshness of Venus towards lush visuals and almost the reverse use of sex in his following films. Mektoub felt like those aspects of Blue is the Warmest Colour shifted away from the more overt politics and stronger drama. Again very good looking film full of sun kissed natural or pseudo natural lighting and if not actually showing as much sex as its predecessor arguably more concerned with it with most characters oogling each other. If you enjoyed the extended flirty conservations in Blue and wondered what 3 hours of them would look like then this might be the
film for you.

Secret of the Grain before Venus is more you could argue a spectrum of all of those aspects, maybe not as artful visually but by turns harsh and warmer.

[peanutbutter]

I think he's an undoubtedly talented dickhead who unfortunately came around at close to the worst possible time he could have.

Blue is the Warmest Color always seemed far more concerned about relationship dynamics between different classes than it anything to do with homosexuality. He was too arrogant to consult anyone on how to do _that_one_scene_ but it wasn't remotely sexual to me and more about forcing the film into the next act which required dwelling on it, but beyond that and some shitty on the nose dialogue I can't really fault the end results... whatever level of abusiveness he showed towards the cast, it absolutely reaped dividends from their performances (and iirc there was nothing Last Tango in Paris levels). Find it beyond ridiculous that people will heap praise on the performances and think it's remotely possible to separate that from the means that got them.


What I've heard about Mektoub makes it sound like he might be deliberately doubling down on a lot of his more divisive habits. Haven't seen it and not sure if I can be arsed, but I'd be stunned if there isn't something of merit in there.

[mjwilson]

Enjoyed this review: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/05/mektoub-my-love-intermezzo-review-cannes-1202144325/

[Funcrusher]

I liked Couscous a fair bit, but found BITWC overrated, overblown and a bit fetishising of the central relationship. Mekhtoub looks like kind of rambling nonsense to me so I probably won't bother. He's a capable enough director but not great.

[McChesney Duntz]

What I've heard about Mektoub makes it sound like he might be deliberately doubling down on a lot of his more divisive habits. Haven't seen it and not sure if I can be arsed, but I'd be stunned if there isn't something of merit in there.

Clearly not a problem the director has...

[checkoutgirl]

Watched the first part of Mektoub, My Love a couple of months ago and yesterday Black Venus. The latter did in some ways live up to the reasons I hadn't watched it earlier thinking it was going to be pretty grim. The opening especially as far in that direction as I'v watched recently and a near constant sense of the lead characters exploitation by pretty much everyone she comes into contact with. Certainly carried a strong impact on that central message which now seems a bit ironic given criticism he's since faced. I was a bit disappointed that he didn't ever really seem to develop that much character herself relative to his other female leads, Torres gives a good performance selling drama with very little direct dialog but is almost entirely reactive to her ordeal.

I spose you could argue it maybe helps to explain the direction he took afterwards, after the harshness of Venus towards lush visuals and almost the reverse use of sex in his following films. Mektoub felt like those aspects of Blue is the Warmest Colour shifted away from the more overt politics and stronger drama. Again very good looking film full of sun kissed natural or pseudo natural lighting and if not actually showing as much sex as its predecessor arguably more concerned with it with most characters oogling each other. If you enjoyed the extended flirty conservations in Blue and wondered what 3 hours of them would look like then this might be the
film for you.

Secret of the Grain before Venus is more you could argue a spectrum of all of those aspects, maybe not as artful visually but by turns harsh and warmer.

Your grammar is quite poor. It seems to be deteriorating.

[greenman]

I think he's an undoubtedly talented dickhead who unfortunately came around at close to the worst possible time he could have.

Blue is the Warmest Color always seemed far more concerned about relationship dynamics between different classes than it anything to do with homosexuality. He was too arrogant to consult anyone on how to do _that_one_scene_ but it wasn't remotely sexual to me and more about forcing the film into the next act which required dwelling on it, but beyond that and some shitty on the nose dialogue I can't really fault the end results... whatever level of abusiveness he showed towards the cast, it absolutely reaped dividends from their performances (and iirc there was nothing Last Tango in Paris levels). Find it beyond ridiculous that people will heap praise on the performances and think it's remotely possible to separate that from the means that got them.

What I've heard about Mektoub makes it sound like he might be deliberately doubling down on a lot of his more divisive habits. Haven't seen it and not sure if I can be arsed, but I'd be stunned if there isn't something of merit in there.

I think you could argue the time between the two Mektoub films is where the response really seems to have changed although maybe the second film itself has as well? seems to be pushing things to extremes going from the reviews.

Even the original did I'd agree feel like a bit of a "fuck you", not really in terms of showing more sex but in terms of making it an even more central subject for the film and making it more than a little autobiographical. I didn't really see anything that offensive in it though, more so a case of where three hours of flirting by the seaside and some vague talk about relationships and a more artistic career is worth dealing with. Just as an exercise in style I thought it was worth it personally and perhaps his easiest film to watch given the relative lack of weight.

I actually liked that Blue was a bit "on the nose" at points, so much of this kind of cinema in recent years takes a sidelong approach, building up tension but never really confronting it head on. Not an easy task to do that and still stay realistic although people in that situation are unlikely to speak in especially eloquent fashions either. Going from watching his work to say watching the Before Sunrise/Sunset/etc films does suddenly make the latter feel very scripted.

I think you could argue that Blue also feels like it was a bit ahead of its time looking at the divide between PC politics and class issues that has obviously come to the far strongly since then politically. I did wonder whether a lot of the backlash it got was partly down to that, the media most likely to comment on it realising it was taking aim at them somewhat.

I liked Couscous a fair bit, but found BITWC overrated, overblown and a bit fetishising of the central relationship. Mekhtoub looks like kind of rambling nonsense to me so I probably won't bother. He's a capable enough director but not great.

Seemed like a lot of the point to me, looking to mix the realism of his previous work like Couscous with a more romantic approach, much more focus on looking to sell the drama by visuals with a high level cinematographer turned loose as well as by performance. Having scene Venus the difference is actually quite striking, the production design on that film is generally good but the cinematography seems almost deliberately harsh, characters faces lit via bright clear modern lighting.