MUBI brings you a great new film every day.  Start your 7-day free trial today!
Watch a new film every day for $4.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
Learn More
 

Movies Seen in Theaters in 2011

By: Nichola​s Tinsley

 

Wall

Displaying 1 wall posts.
see all
Picture of Nicholas Tinsley

Nicholas Tinsley

21Mar11

A theater near me is doing a small retrospective of some of Catherine Deneuve's films, and so I saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Belle de Jour on the big screen. I hadn't seen Umbrellas for a few years and Belle de Jour since High School. The former, I loved, as always. The latter I liked quite a bit more than I did the first time I saw it. There's a three year difference between the films, and the characters are very different, but it's still striking how much Deneueve grows as an actress between the two films. She's great in Umbrellas, but she's clearly wild and without much craft, just a raw bit of nerve that Demy wisely taps a few times in the film. In Belle de Jour she's playing five different emotions in every scene, and without that performance the film would be completely lost. Some actors come out fully formed and hungry, and some actors are beautiful or interesting people who work their way into it. Deneuve is definitely the latter, and if you've seen any of her more recent with with Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale, Kings and Queen), or Andre Technine, then you'll know what a great, great actor she's become. Still, even in these early performances, she does quite a bit in a very minimal way. She's of a generation that had some exterior formality, but her inner life is clearly very modern. That contradiction is fascinating to see play out on screen.