I have stumbled upon this film by a complete accident, I must admit. And before watching any kind of foreign movie I’ve never heard of, what I do is to go through the directors/screenwriters filmography to see, whether I am familiar with any of their other work. With Water Lillies (the original French title is Naissance des pieuvres) I have discovered it’s a debut of Céline Sciamma, the woman responsible for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), the movie I’ve heard so many great things about and what I’m planning on watching soon.

Anyway, I gave this movie a shot and I really liked it. Water Lilies is something I like to call “simplistically difficult movie”. What that means is, the story of this movie is straightforward, easy to follow. What becomes harder to wrap your head around are the characters, as you need to think about why they are doing the things they do, where are they coming from, what’s their motivation…?

Movies like Water Lilies don’t usually give you straight answers, so you either get it, or don’t. And I like that. This movie’s story is focusing on 3 very different girls – Marie, who’s growing up slowly realising she might prefer girls, but is (as most teenagers) really shy and awkward, Anne, who’s your typical “next-door neighbour” kind of girl, who in a normal crowd wouldn’t standout as much as she does next to a team of synchronise swimmers, and Floriane, who because of how she looks like, gets hit on all the time, therefore having a “certain” reputation in her swimming team and beyond that.

And this film follows them throughout hardships, where you eventually find out, no matter how you look, you will always have some issues. Also, what was quite well displayed here, is life doesn’t always workout the way you plan it, as there will always be some curve balls thrown your way.

Beware, SPOILERS are coming!

The “chubby” girl (for the record, I wouldn’t describe her like that, but that’s what the movie was going for) is struggling with her body image and for the entirety of the movie, is trying to date this one guy, who’s more interested in Floriane, the “beauty” of this story. But both of them are still virgins, which is a fact that might surprise you, the same way you might be surprised that it’s eventually Anne, who sleeps with the boy first. What she doesn’t know is he’s tried it with Floriane first before coming to her place, who flinched in the last second (based on what she said to Marie).

I really like when a movie can surprise me, where the surprise makes sense and this one unfortunately did. As this is the kind of typical teenager behaviour, where you’d go for a girl, and if she says no, you’d go to your “safe” choice, who was Anne. I also liked how gently they’ve displayed the relationship between Marie and Floriane, where at first, she doesn’t want to have Marie near by, just so she’d get curious enough about her to allow Marie to be part of the group, allowing her to watch them while practising.

As I’ve put into the title, this is a very strong debut by Céline Sciamma, where it didn’t matter to me I didn’t get all the symbolism she’d put into this film, I still overall liked it, as there was something about her style, her pacing, that even though the movie is on the slower side, it never feels boring or stale. And that’s not an easy thing to achieve. After watching Water Lilies, I’m really excited to watch Portrait of a Lady on Fire and I’m hoping, it will live up to everything I’ve heard about it. And I have a feeling I will be pleased with it, but only the time will tell…

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think of it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I need to admit something – I didn’t catch Parasite before watching the Oscars live (yes, almost every single year for the past 11 years, I don’t go to sleep, so I can watch the ceremony live, yes, I’m that weird, yes since I live in Scotland, that means it’s from 2 AM to roughly 6 AM) but I’ve heard a fair bit about this movie, so (as almost everybody) I was expecting for this movie to win something. What I didn’t expect is what followed…

Let me just write this right now – after the historical night at the Oscars, I’ve seen it (twice now) and even with those high expectations, I was still blown away. Parasite is is almost a miracle of a movie. What I mean by that is – everything was kind of stacked up against it.

It’s a foreign language movie, so reading is required (which for me is not a chore, as that’s how I learned English, reading plenty of movie/TV show subtitles, plus I love foreign movies) so that will immediately annoy/deter some people. It’s also a movie about social issues, so it’d easy to fall into a trap of being “too preachy” or “not preachy enough”, it doesn’t have a clear genre (I mean seriously, what is it? Is it drama? Is it thriller? Is it a comedy? Is it all of the above, a bit?) and yet, somehow, everything blended together exquisitely under precise direction of Bong Joon Ho, who’s made history, as his movie was the first film EVER to win Oscars for both Best Foreign Movie AND Best Movie, that’s something I’m not quite sure whether anybody can pull off again (but I hope they do).

And he deserved it so much. Parasite is such a clever, nail biting movie, where it honestly doesn’t matter how many movies you’ve seen prior, whether you’re a movie buff, or you see 5 movies/year, you don’t know what happens next. I think that’s one of the main reasons why Parasite was celebrated that much. To make a movie, where there is a clear narrative story, where the structure is given, and yet you, as a viewer, can’t predict pretty much anything that’s coming, but for what’s coming to make sense afterwards… That’s a pure brilliance.

Beware, the SPOILERS are coming!

The other reason I believe Parasite scored largely with audiences and critics was the social commentary, where we follow a family of… well frankly, the lowest of the low, as Ewan McGregor’s character from Trainspotting (1996) would’ve described them. They hunt for a Wi-Fi from restaurant next door, barely making some money, scrapping from day to day, until their son gets the chance to tutor a daughter from a rich family. That’s where the movie seems kind of a like a comedy, where one by one, they find a way to replace all the “servants” in the rich family and employ themselves. And suddenly, they are living well, not just surviving. And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling… former housekeepers…?

I don’t want to spoil too much, but what happens in the second half of this movie, I’ve not anticipated. That’s where the movie shifts to drama and at the end even bit of a thriller territory. I need to talk about two characters that I feel like deserve the most recognition (even though all actors are amazing) – Kang-ho Song (the “poor” dad) and So-dam Park (his “poor” daughter). Why these two?

The poor dad is the heart of this movie, where he’s trying so hard to belong to this rich world, he wishes nothing else but for his children to belong there too, but no matter what he does, he doesn’t belong. As the “rich dad” says to his wife at one point: “I like him. He always seems he’s about to cross the line, but he never does” – that to me establishes perfectly his character – he’s trapped in between these two worlds, where he is balancing on the edge of both, wanting to belong to the “richer” one, but something always pulls him back, maybe “the smell”. That scene, where the “rich dad” is talking to his wife about his “poor smell”, while the “poor” family is hidden in the same room, is truly heartbreaking, and you can tell how the rage is only bubbling up inside of him from that point.

The poor daughter for me is the soul of this movie, as she’s really smart, confident and she doesn’t let herself be stopped by anything, if she’s in doubt, she will google it and fake her way around it. Her character to me only highlights the gap between those two families, where one can’t help but to wonder, what would she be like if she were born in the “rich” family? Her options would be pretty much limitless, and yet, she didn’t let the fact of being born “poor” stop her and managed to do (or fake) so many things. Not going lie, I was rooting for her the entire movie, and what happens to her character at the end (again, don’t want to spoil this too much) just underlines how unfair life can be.

The another thing about this movie is, even after finishing it, you can have hours long discussion with your friends about one thing – who actually WAS the Parasite in this movie? Without going too much into anything, you could make an argument for several people in this movie, really easily. That’s yet another layer of brilliance that amazes me about this movie – you think you’ve found everything about it, then you re-watch it and find yet another layer that you can peel off and “examine”.

I do hope that this movie broke barriers, where it was needed, so this (non-English film winning the Best Picture award) won’t be just a single occurrence, but will inspire filmmakers from all over the world, and sends them a clear message – it doesn’t matter where you’re from, only thing that matters is the movie you’ve made and how good it is. I really hope we will see more of different movies/filmmakers from foreign countries put into a spotlight on Hollywood’s biggest night.

That’s all for this one? Did you see Parasite yet? What did you think? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I usually don’t include the plot, as I don’t really see the point in reviews to give you a plot of movie you either have seen or are considering seeing (therefore reading this, hopefully) but given the fact this will be an under-seen movie not matter what, I’ll make an exception:

When slaughterhouse workers Endre and Mária discover they share the same dreams – where they meet in a forest as deer and fall in love – they decide to make their dreams come true but it’s difficult in real life.

This Hungarian movie (nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at 2018 Oscars) is really worth it, even if you consider subtitles to be just really annoying part of a weird, usually different movie you’re not used to. See for yourself, the trailer below:

I know. I’ve done it. I’ve just hit a jackpot where all the keywords like “Endre”, “Maria”, “Hungarian” and “subtitles” will make sure most of you reading this until now click away, washing their eyes in terror and hoping that somebody better invent the goddamn time machine quick, so you can travel back in time a minute before reading this review and stop your past self from reading this.

But that’d be dumb not that wise. This movie is different, and yes, it might be bit on the “artsy” side (yet another keyword, yey! This is going well…) but it’s not self-indulgent. This is just a simple story told slightly differently with killer performances, that are nuanced and feel honest.

On Body and Soul is unique look at relationships, and how easy or difficult they can be, especially if you are not sure how to communicate your feelings, if you’re socially awkward, or if you don’t have anyone else to go to for an advice. It is relatable on a very basic level where (almost) everybody just wants to find somebody to share their happiness, pain, life, you know, the entire package with.

It’s also visually stunning movie, combining some harsh images (people who struggle with blood should maybe consider skipping this one) with poetic images of pure, untainted nature.

I’m not going to lie, I’ve only seen this movie once, over 2 years ago, but it stayed with me until today. Because to me, this is the perfect blend of a movie being “artsy” without having to bore you to death, or where you’d have to ask yourself every 10 minutes “what the fuck am I watching?” The story isn’t complicated at all, it’s told beautifully and only asks you to suspend your disbelief for a tiny bit, after all, why couldn’t 2 people meet within one dream?

I’m going to leave you with this – if you going to watch just ONE Hungarian movie in your entire life, this might a choice you (hopefully) shouldn’t regret.

And I’ll leave you with this song from the movie that perfectly encapsulates the feel of it (the video with it will make more sense once you’ve seen the movie, trust me on that :-))

Hope you’ve enjoyed this review, let me know what you think!

Until next time,

Luke