chrysalis Tagged Articles at Cinematical
AFI Dallas Announces: DeNiro, Theron, Hunt, and a Bunch of Films
Filed under: Independent », Exhibition », Cinematical Indie », AFI Dallas »
The complete line-up for the second edition of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival has been announced, and beyond the galas and the glitter, the programming team has assembled an intriguing schedule. Robert Wilonsky of Unfair Park was the first to post the news and highlighted several of his recommendations.First, though, the stars: Helen Hunt will appear in support of her directorial debut Then She Found Me, which will serve as the Opening Night Gala on March 27, and Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson will walk the red carpet for the closing night presentation, Battle in Seattle. Sometime in between, Robert De Niro and Barry Levinson will come out hustling for their latest, What Just Happened? Special awards will be given to Hunt, Theron, Jack Lemmon (in care of the late actor's widow, Felicia Farr), Mickey Rooney (?!), and Todd Wagner.
AFI Dallas established itself on the local social calendar last year as a premium civic-boosting event. That's good for the city, but as a film buff, I'm glad to see more international films in the narrative competition, more docs, an expanded and ace-looking section devoted to music docs ("Deep Ellum Sounds"), an entirely recommended six-film "Mavericks" section (featuring the French Chrysalis and the Japanese Vexille), and a ton of shorts. There's a fair share of titles that are dragging around lukewarm notices (see What Just Happaned? above), but I'm glad that local audiences will have a chance to decide for themselves. Cinematical will be covering the festival, which begins on March 27 and runs through April 6.
TIFF Review: Chrysalis
Filed under: Action », Drama », Foreign Language », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Mystery & Suspense », Theatrical Reviews », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
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There's a short scene about halfway through Chrysalis that's so beautifully staged it nearly lifts the whole movie up a few notches from its natural place as marvelously-crafted, but ultimately middle-rung sci-fi/action. In that scene, we get to see a doctor of the not-too-distant-future assisting in the operation of a patient who isn't physically there, through the use of a virtual reality matrix that recreates both the body being operated on and the tools for the operating. Up until that scene, we've known that we're in a not-too-distant-future that has some plausible advancements in technology, including some scary ray-guns, but the film has wisely restrained itself from giving us flashy details just for the sake of showing off its future-world, so when the operating scene hits it somehow comes across as both believable and wondrous. There are other stand-out moments as well that must be mentioned, including several punishing fight scenes that come courtesy of fight choreographer Alain Figlarz, of The Bourne Identity, and a complicated nighttime shot near the end that's so well-produced it leaps out at you.
Albert Dupontel stars as Hoffman, a quiet, no-nonsense police detective who is single-mindedly pursuing a nasty villain named Nicolov (Figlarz) who we only vaguely know to be involved in some kind of nefarious human trafficking scheme. Hoffman learns the dangers of getting in Nicolov's way in the film's opening scene, which is not only its most brutal and also includes one of the best-staged gun battles I've seen in a while. Director Julien Leclercq had me scrambling to my computer after the Chrysalis screening to look up his resume, and I was surprised to see that this is his feature debut -- he already has more impressive action chops than many
See Some Video of Leclercq's 'Chrysalis'
Filed under: Action », Foreign Language », Independent », Fandom », Trailer Trash », Images », Cinematical Indie »
If you're looking for a pretty sexy-looking foreign action film to see, I suggest that you check out Chrysalis. Now, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here, since I don't speak French, but I've been working the Google translate, so I'm going to try to fill in as many blanks as I can. Chrysalis is the first feature film by Julien Leclercq, his last project was a short film in 2004 called Transit. According to a french site, it seems that the film is about a European police lieutenant named David Hoffman, who agrees to a new job at his wife is killed. The new work is hunting down a trafficker who's said to be behind a series of murders. And, because it sounds so terribly great without trying to parse it: "When the truth is placed in the middle remembering it, the memory appears an invaluable good, object of all covetousness."What makes the movie, which will be released in Belgium and France on Halloween, so interesting is it's trailer, which you can see in all sorts of res. It's got that thumping heart beating through the beginning, which switches into drums and then the inevitable, quintessential action movie sound -- the grunt of physical violence. There's also beautiful women, crazy men with guns and some pretty sweet-looking sets. For the French speakers out there, a "making of" video has also been released. Topping off all of these goodies, the website also has a lot of funky pictures and storyboards to boot. But what would be really great if for someone French to speak up about what the full story is.
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