Genres

Visitors Review

caparzo21 2013-06-06 19:25:10

Like being a teenager again.

Usually when I see that there is a short film in front of a mainfeature, this is a coded message for 'have a five minute nap'.What a pleasant surprise. I saw this in front of 'Together' (brilliant)at the G.F.T, and it gave me a real craving for Godard's movies and forthat arrogant, self-conscious charm Belmondo portrays so effortlessly.Kris Marshall was tremendous and did a lot with his small part; oneprime example is how pleased he is with himself as he shaves and smokesa lucky strike at the same time. Very Belmondo.The G.F.T is showing 'Bande a' Part' this month and I recommend that ifyou liked 'Je t'aime...', you catch that to see where, in part, theinspiration for 'Je t'aime John Wayne' came from.

bob the moo 2013-06-06 03:12:40

Funny short that makes fun of it's own pretension

Belmonde lives in 1990's London as a iconic, cool French man modelled on thenew wave cinema of the 1960s. Unfortunately he is actually English andmiddle class – a fact that his family won't let him forget no matter howhard he tries.At the start of this short I thought it was yet another pretentious Frenchshort harking back to the 60's in style and character. However after a fewminutes we find that the ill tempered complex Frenchman Belmonde is reallyan English boy, pretending to be French. At this point the short becomesmore enjoyable, rather than being pretentious it is actually making fun ofthose films and the people who try to be like them. This actually makes itvery funny and I felt free to laugh at this art – without destroying it inmy mind.The `story' doesn't really go anywhere but rather allows a series of sceneswhere Belmonde is made fun of as he tries to be like hisheroes.It's clever and funny and manages to hold the interest easily for the briefrunning time. With no story to speak of, it's never going to brilliant, butwhere many shorts fall into the trap of being artsy and pretentious thisside steps this trap by poking fun at it's main character without actuallymaking fun of the art itself (in this case French new wave).

mad_man_moon 2013-06-04 08:40:21

.....and now it's an advert...

I can't write any of the elegant words the guy before me did, however itseem like far too long since I saw this.It cracked me up when I saw it, and not in the laugh at it because I gotthereferences/jokes etc (a la arty types watching foreign/indyfilms).It's such a shame that it's now an advert, this should be showcasedsomewhere!

deepindercheema-1 2013-06-03 16:04:54

Matinée in from the cold

I am certain that Kriss must have been involved in the writing, is thebloke with the beard sleeping in the cinema credited? write in and tellus cowboy.I have no issues with the film, and see no need to be critical. Ithoroughly enjoyed it.I am surprised that Kriss who is so young has been able to becomeexposed to so much idiomatic french film-making, there is hardly anyshown nowadays on TV. I used to see a lot of Japanese and french film,as well as German TV series (remember derrick?) in the late 70's early80's. It just does not seem to happen at all, with so much cheap TVtime to fill. I even used to see polish and iranian film on thedo#mestic channels.

Mathias Disney 2013-06-02 16:45:00

A little cracker of a spoof

I saw this as a short accompanying another film, and it turned out tobea real treat. Maybe part of the charm was the surprise element (Ihadn'trealised there was a short), but this shows real promise. It'sastylish, 5 minute homage. A romp through the cliches of Frenchcinema,as seen through the eyes of a cocksure London chancer. He's soconvincedhe's Jean-Paul Belmondo in Godard's 1960 classic, A bout deSouffle,that even his mum can't get any sense out of him any more. Sufficetosay he charms, he poses, and he eventually gets the girl - a deadringerfor Jean Seberg. Nicely written and played, with some real laughs.Butit won't make much sense unless you've seen Godard's film.

Popey-6 2013-06-02 08:20:39

French, but not as you know it

An utterly wonderful short film showing a day in the life of a Jean PaulBelmondo wannabe, living his life as if the French New Wave had nevercrashed on the shore of film history. For our hero lives in London, andas such, the whole piece is exquisitely filmed in black and white as atongue in cheek take on French cinema of the 1950s/1960s, even managingto make many of the scenes and even sets appear to correspond toBreathless.But that's not all, the quick editing and sublime attention to detailmakes this a must see for fans of short spoof films and new waversalike. Clever, inventive and, so so British, if it wasn'tso French.

planktonrules 2013-05-08 01:30:40

Mildly interesting unless you are a die-hard Belmondophile--then it's brilliant

Having seen Godard's film BREATHLESS (A BOUT DE Soufflé), JE T'AIMEJOHN WAYNE makes a lot of sense. The main character in BREATHLESS is acool thief and punk played by Jean Paul Belmondo and you should befamiliar with this in order to appreciate JE T'AIME JOHN WAYNE as it'sa homage to this character. The lead is a Brit who is obsessed with thefilm and tries to dress, talk, act and even smoke like Belmondo. Hethinks he's so cool, though many around him laugh at his antics.However, into his world comes the girl of his dreams--a lady who looksand dresses like Belmondo's lady love in BREATHLESS, Jean Seberg.Together, it's destiny and their lives seem perfect together.As I said, if you aren't familiar with BREATHLESS, then all this willbe lost and the film of only minor interest. If, like me you are veryfamiliar with BREATHLESS but didn't love the film (I know this soundslike heresy to many Cinephiles), then it's more interesting. But if youadored the original film, then you'll no doubt adore this film.By the way, this film is part of the CINEMA 16: European Shorts DVD. Onthis DVD are 16 shorts. Most aren't great, though because it containsTHE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD, COPY SHOP, RABBIT and WASP, it's an amazing DVDfor lovers of short films and well worth buying.

alice liddell 2013-05-07 16:13:41

The funniest film you'll see all year - a rare treat for old cinephiles.

This short is a cineaste's delight, a parody so lovingly detailed itbecomesa celebration. 'Je t'aime John Wayne' is a reworking of Godard's classic'About de souffle'. In that film, Jean-paul Belmondo played a petty hoodwhomodelled himself on Humphrey Bogart. In this, Kris Marshall is Belmondo,aka Tristan, a middle class English boy in love with all things French -hespeaks ponderous French all the time, dresses sharply, philosophises,epigramises (sic?), poses.The director of this film, Toby MacDonald, however, succeeds where Godard'failed'. In 'Souffle', we were intended to notice the disparity betweenBelmondo's Frenchness, posturing and insignificance, and Bogart's mythiccool. Unfortunately, Belmondo is so charismatic and cool and funny,filmedin energetic, sunny monochrome against a delicious jazz backing, that hehimself, unwittingly, became a figure of mythic cool. Tristan is not thefirst person to be dazzled by Belmondo's persona - sure, I've done itmyself, snarling 'Te es vraiment deguelasse' at my mirror. France, toforeign eyes, especially in the 50s and 60s, is so romantically cool. SoGodard fails.England, however, is not very cool, especially when it tries to apeEuropeansophistication. So although MacDonald expertly mimics Godard'senthusiasticjump-cut style and breezy music, Tristan is less successful. Everyattemptat cool is hampered by bathos. The name 'Tristan', for a start, ispublic-school naff, and his brilliant answering machine message (with theDuke threatening any caller) is spoiled somewhat by his mother's middleclass concern. A rendezvous we assume to be a romantic account with anunobtainable blonde turns out to be his loud little sister, who brings alittle friend (he punishes them by bringing them to an excruciatinglypretentious art movie). A long exercise in posed cool turns out to be anuncool wait for a very uncool bus. Et cetera.This is all very amusing, but could seem like rather a petty object ofsatire - middle-class pseuds trying to be French. The film transcendsthispettiness in two ways. Firstly, although Tristan is ridiculous, he isnevera contemptible figure of ridicule. this is where the Englishness comesin -the disparity between Tristan's dreams and reality becomes poignant.Ultimately, the film affirms these dreams, the power they give Tristan totranscend his banal reality, even if he is so lost in them, he has no morepurchase on any kind of reality. This is helped by the pastiche stylingsbeing rooted in a very real, documentary London.Even more than this, the film's fun conceals a melancholy elegy forEuropeancinema and its decline. Godard may have made a film about a slavishimitator, but his film, despite its borrowings, was something radicallynew,which contained the possibility for revolutionising the cinema. Twentyyears later, however, it was as if it hadn't been made, cinema settlingintothe rut of offensive banality it's been happy to be stuck in since.UnlikeGodard, MacDonald is as much of an imitator as his hero - we no longerbelieve in the possibility of anything new in cinema: it's sad, butsignificant, that one of the most inventive films around at the momentshould be a pastiche of past glories.