Allen, Gondry and... social-politic films?
The themes of each movie are completly different in a first viewing. The north-american director tells the story about a woman who suffer a breakdown after a divorce with a corrupt business man. Jasmine (Cate Blanchet) tries to come back to her past with her sister in San Francisco. But she can't come back to a normal life after enjoy all the pleasures, parties, and privileges of the rich world.
On another hand Gondry seems to come back to his origins. A completly fantasy low-budget world, made of simple things and effects to explain a sad love story between Colin and Chloe. The live the "foam of days" as a couple in their own fantastic world but soon the real life is gonna invade everything.
The american director introduces in first term the situation that lots of families are suffering, they lived really well in the past and now they have to come back to the hard times and sometimes, as Jasmine, they can't. Is Woody Allen making fun of them? Not really, he doesn't judge them, he even show us that this situation could be provoked for selfish and corrupt business men who played with the hope of people.
The jazz player and author comes back to New York and travel to San Francisco, he come back as well to the comedy with drama on it not only to tell us about love also about a reflection of life. He's not doing better than in the past but maybe the audience can appreciate this movement and approuchment to the life in crisis.
The french director seems to do the same, after his (failed) adventures in USA, he returns to France with two iconic actors, Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou, in a fantastic world where people doesn't really needs to work, come out from the TV, the rats are like people and help them, where the flowers helps people,... all this kind of things that we've seen before in his early films and his music videos. It's difficult to come inside this extravagant world, it's even more extreme than La science des rêves (The science of sleep), we could even think he's going too far in a world where everything is fantastic and happy. But suddenly one of the characters talk about money, the money he's losing to follow his ideals of a kind of master (kind of populist politician). Nothing seems to affect Colin and Chloe, the main characters, until she feel sick. At the beginning Chloe tries to make fun of it with her friends but the situation becomes worst. The house is falling down in pieces, the treatment costs money, the friends start to fight and even Colin has to work when he never need it before and he only find disgusting and hard works where he is not enough paid.Again, as happen in Woody Allen's new film, suddenly the real life invade the fantasy, the comedy, the happy flower life of this young people. We never saw so sadness in Gondry's world, some base of real characters, in Be kind, rewind and The we and the I we saw some thoughts about what is happening in the movies and with young people, but always with hope. Not in L'écume des jours when even the fantastic world becomes dark, like the flowers of this naive world where they live.
As happen with the north-american director, the new film of the french cinematographer maybe is not one of the best ones, but even with this overfantastic-overfantasy world he changed. But with Gondry someone can think he's closer to find his own way to talk about real problems without losing his own world. More sad or more happy, more crazy or real the french director is growing up and we can feel it.Two different movies, two different directors, two different ways to talk about the world in crisis from two of the most important comedy and fantastic authors.
Trailer Blue Jasmine:
Trailer L'écume des jours:
English subtitles
Spanish subtitles:
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