interested_observer

Blow-Back for Overprotective Families, July 1 2004

"Close to Leo" ("Tout contre Leo") shows the destructive impact on a 12-year old of the decisions made by older family members to hide personal information and feelings.

Marcel (played by Yannis Lespert) is the 12-year old. He has three older brothers, Leo (Pierre Mignard), Tristan (Rodolphe Pauly), and Pierrot (Jeremie Lippmann), all around 20 years old. After some introductory scenes, the movie really starts with Marcel going off to bed but coming back to hear the father of the family (Dominic Gould) ask the others not to tell Marcel that Leo is HIV-positive, because Marcel is "too young."

Marcel is soon acting a bit strangely and asking indirect questions. The mother (Marie Bunel)… Read more

Three Short Art Films, May 17 2004

"Black Sheep Boy" is the first of three short films by Michael Wallin on this Water Bearer Films DVD. All three films present images with voiceovers. There are no extras.

"Black Sheep Boy" (37 minutes, color) presents a number of attractive young men briefly (some more than once) in various states of dress both outdoors and indoors and also presents scenes of two or three modern dancers acting out relationship issues. The voiceover moves generally from observations on boys toward a director's perspective of wanting to limit the behavior of actors and models to keep them mysterious and undemanding. There are lots of jump cuts, nudity, posturings, bare feet, and interesting… Read more

Four Films with Ten Ideas, May 16 2004

"The Collected Shorts of Francois Ozon: X 2000" bundles together four early, short films by the famed director. The DVD comes with no extras and with no chapter titles. When the fourth film is over, the first film starts over.

The first film is "Truth or Dare" ["Action Verite"], which shows two teen-age boys and two teen-age girls playing truth or dare. They target sex questions and dares involving kissing and touching. Then one dare produces a big surprise. (4 minutes) 3+ stars.

The second film is the best. "Little Death" [a poor translation of "La Petite Mort"; maybe "Post-Orgasm" is closer] stars Francois Delaive as Paul, a gay photographer estranged from his father and living… Read more