Sazzle Says

Film Review: ‘Goodbye, First Love’ (Un Amour de Jeunesse)

I popped down the Cinema to see this film last Sunday. It’s fair to say that on a Sunday you are often feeling a touch fragile and the thought of snuggling down into a nicely upholstered seat in the dark and enjoying a lovely little ditty of a film seems like a good idea. When I saw the poster for this French film - ‘Un Amour de Juenesse’ (Goodbye First Love), I thought - ah lovely. Some French adolescents frolicking around, eating cheese and smoking a lot. Bon Bon. 

After seeing this film I was convinced that the Director had some weird infatuation with the lead - Lola Créton. I lost count of the number of boob shots, an opening scene with full frontal nudity (when she is supposedly only 15 no less!) and the girl never wore a bra once. Not that I’m advocating that women always wear bra’s (let your boobies fly free!), but sometimes the see-through nature of clothes make it necessary. It was all seeming obsessively creepy. It was only afterwards that I discovered that the film was Directed by a woman - Mia Hansen-Løve (more fool me!) and it is autobiographical. This through me into somewhat of a spin. 

Hansen-Løve paints a picture of young love torn apart that borders on obsession and is also 100% bloody depressing.  I get it though - young love can be super-dramatic. It can make you hysterical. Make you lose your appetite, cause you to throw up and many other horrible things to your stomach.

So the plot goes - Girl ‘Camille’, (Lola Créton) and boy ‘Sullivan’ (Sebastian Urzendowsky) fall in love. Girl is way more into boy and suffocates him with her over-zealous behaviour. Boy wants to experience life and sew his seeds across South America. Boy leaves girl. Girl goes into an intense period of mourning which results in a seemingly never ending sequence of scene’s of her looking sad, forlorn, melancholy, sorrowful, troubled, tormented, desperate and eventually suicidal (my thesaurus ran out there). Girl carries on being a miserable git for years whilst becoming a successful architect and managing to snag a Norwegian bloke who loves her (despite her constant and unwavering state of suffering). Boy returns from South America and wants to girl back. Now girl must decide. 

Sounds pretty enjoyable right? Well it would have been if it was about 30 minutes shorter. By the time you reach the 84th scene of Camille looking sad and longing for Sullivan, you are actually hoping she might just do us all a favour and throw herself off a bridge. Hansen-Løve does make light of the matter though in scene whereby Camille and Sullivan go to see a film together, following his return from South America. Sullivan hates it and Camille likes it. ‘I know. It’s too long and too French for you. You just don’t understand it’s sensitivity and melancholy’, she jokes to him. ‘Well you have the monopoly on sensitivity and melancholy’ he jokes back. 

Pro’s:

• The French countryside looks stunning and inspiring
• You get to see a lot of boob if you like that type of thing

Con’s

• It’s a little long and self-indulgent 
• Camille is a bloody drag (although I suppose that’s the point)

Watch the trailer here to get in the mooooood - Goodbye First Love

Over and Out!

Au Revoir!

Saz xxx

Saz’s Film Review: Headhunters

When my friend Keely asked me to see this film with her, I was like - ‘what!? A film about recruitment consultants?’ That sounds shit. What next, a film about used car salesmen!? Oh, I just Googled that and found this - The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard - A Film about used car salesmen with Jeremy Piven which looks like something I might watch. Anyway, YOU GET MY POINT.

So, I knew nothing about the film, which I decided is the best way. Headhunters - What is it all about? It’s about A LOT! A BLOODY LOT! Not just some guy trying to find the right candidate for the right role and then taking a cut of the commission. Quite frankly that would be a shit story-line.

Firstly, it’s a Norwegian film, adapted from Jo Nesbø’s book (original name Hodejegerne) and it is all in subtitles. My advice is don’t drink wine before going to a subtitled film. After loitering in the bar at the Hackney Picturehouse for longer than was necessary we scurried belatedly into the cinema and squeezed our bums into the nearest seats available so as not to disturb other cinema goers. As a result We ended up massively close to the screen. It was therefore quite hard to watch the characters and read the subtitles at the bottom quite hard. Up. down. up down. I got the hang of it after a while. 

So basically this short Norwegian dude - Roger Brown (I know, not a very Norwegian name) is a big-shot Headhunter. He’s the kind of person you love to hate. Obsessed with money, 5.6”, chest puffed out and a little greasy

Roger has a tall, fit blonde wife - Diana (pron Deeee-aaannaaa) who he lives with in a stylishly designed Scandinavian house. Diana is an aspiring art gallery owner and also the owner of a very pert bottom. Roger is clearly punching above his weight here and makes up for his lack of ‘stature’ and ‘roguish looks’ with gifts. Lots of gifts. Diana wants kids but Roger is dead against it. Not that we know why. We assume it’s just because he’s a selfish career driven arsehole. 

Roger is an operator. A seasoned headhunter working on only the biggest jobs in the most important companies. He is trading on ‘reputation’. Sounds pretty boring right. Well YOU ARE WRONG! Roger is different. He is running a little side business involving the theft of priceless pieces of art from his candidates while they are out interviewing. Smart fucker. Perfect scam right!? NOT QUITE.

A handsome, charasmatic viking-looking Dude ‘Clas’ comes on the scene. Clas is an ex-military man and tracking expert who is between jobs. Roger wants Clas for a super high-profile role with one of his clients - Pathfinder, who produce GPS systems. More accurately he wants to steal a piece of art that belonged to Clas’s grandmother.

That’s when shit gets heavy. The job goes wrong. Things spiral out of control. Ulterior motives are at play and the plot thickens.Roger is on the run and he goes through some shit - LITERALLY. Just when you think things can’t get any worse - THEY DO! Who is working for who? Who is on who’s side? Why is he involved in an unfortunate tractor / dog related incident?Why is Roger 6ft deep in human shit and breathing through a toilet roll?  Yes, this actually happens. 

It a seriously exhilarating ride which made us cringe, squeal, and laugh! The film manages to be stylish, thrilling and humorous all at the same time. Apparently an American company has bought the rights to make an American version. I can’t imagine it could be anywhere near as awesome as this one!

So, my verdict?

GO SEE THE BLOODY FILM!

Watch the Trailer HERE

Tell me if you like it

Love Saz x