Weekly Film Symposium #3: 1st Response

Rating: 2/5

That was a very well articulated post, unfortunately I am going to be a huge disppointment. Please remember that everything that I say in the post is excluding you. You explained your view's very well and I don't argue with them. So if I generalize, remember, I am not aiming those generalizations at you.

With that being said, this film for me was a complete failure. When people out in the movie world accuse people like us (self-admitted film snobs) of being pretentious this is the kind of movie they use to prove their point. For me, this movie is completely pretentious and it seems like the only reason it was made was for pretentious people to pat each other on the back. Sure the style is very unique and unconventional, I will give it that, but being unconventional doesn't automatically make your film good.

I must say that I was hugely disappointed because the premise and the style are both very intriguing. However, the plot is ridiculously dull and the style becomes very old after staring at nothing for long periods of time. Yes, I realize what the director was trying to accomplish, but for me, he wasn't even close. I do applaud him for being original, because we certainly don't have enough of that these days, but if I wanted to, I could go outside and stare at my neighbors house for two hours and get the same effect.

I also applaud the acting. Juliette Binoche was good like she always is, and Daniel Auteuil was also very solid. I understand that this movie is very technically sharp but that, to me, doesn't make a movie. For me, it's combining great technical work with an engaging and entertaining story. I, like you, watch and view film as art. But at the same time, I can't appreciate art when it's dull and offers me nothing. This film was insanely dull and uneventful for me and I found myself not caring about any of the characters. I understand the ambiguity and that's not where the film loses me. I love ambiguity, it's one of my favorite elements in film and I wish it was more prevelant in film. This film lost me when halfway through I thought to myself, " I don't care." And I didn't. I believe it's the film's job to make me care and it couldn't do that for me.

I don't mean to be insulting toward you at all, and if I have been in any way I sincerely apologize. But that's why I wanted to do this with you, because we are both film snobs (proudly) and we are both mature people with strong view points. And if I were to say any of this on an IMDB board, they would just throw the whole "You just didn't understand it" thing out there. And that bothers me. Because I did understand it, I just didn't like it.