Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 07/14/19

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Cousin Cousine (Jean-Charles Tacchella, 1975)

Victor Lanoux and Marie-Christine Barrault in Cousin Cousine

Cast: Marie-Christine Barrault, Victor Lanoux, Marie-France Pisier, Guy Marchand, Ginette Garcin, Sybil Maas, Popeck, Pierre Plessis, Catherine Verlor. Screenplay: Jean-Charles Tacchella, Danièle Thompson. Cinematography: Eric Faucherre, Georges Lendi, Michel Thiriet. Film editing: Marie-Aimée Debril, Agnès Guillemot, Juliette Welfing. Music: Gérard Anfosso.

A pleasant romantic comedy about the ideal couple, Karine (Marie-Christine Barrault) and Ludovic (Victor Lanoux), who can't seem to get around to coupling, even though their spouses are having it off with each other. A bright international hit that was less brightly remade in 1989 as Cousins by Joel Schumacher with Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini. It seems to need the French touch to bring its events and its off-beat characters to life.