IN A WORLD...
Cast: Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Demetri Martin, Alexandra Holden, Michaela Watkins, Nick Offerman, Tig Notaro
Director: Lake Bell
Running time: 93 mins
Lake Bell’s height, expressive face and offbeat, unpredictable performance style is such that it makes perfect sense for her to take the leading role by playing an aspiring voiceover artist in her own directorial debut, "In A World…"Following many years on the ‘supporting actress’ section of the credits, "In A World…" also gives Bell a chance to take some well-aimed pokes at what is still largely a male-dominated industry—here, an almost exclusively male subsection of the film world. She plays Carol, a struggling voice coach, still living at home with her father Sam (Fred Melamed), a near-legendary voiceover artist whose work on film trailers isn’t so much an inspiration to her – but more of a constant reminder of her limitations.
After he (Dad) invites his much younger girlfriend (Alexandra Holden) to move in thus forcing his daughter out, Carol convinces her sister Dani (Michaela Watkins) and her brother-in-law Moe (Rob Corddry) to let her stay in their cramped flat, but she’s going from one domestic crisis to another. Carol lands a professional break, however, when a major studio decides to bring back “In a world…,” the trailer lead-in phrase popularised by the late, much-heard Don LaFontaine, and she has the opportunity to submit an audition recording. Her competition includes an extravagantly egotistical rival (Ken Marino) and, naturally, her father.
Demetri Martin, Nick Offerman, and Tig Notaro round out the cast as a motley crew of engineers and sound recordists, and they add warmth and colour (and in Martin’s case, a love interest) to a film that is genuinely funny and hugely engaging.
THE ARTIST AND THE MODEL
Cast: Jean Rochefort, Aida Folch, Claudia Cardinale.
Director: Fernando Trueba.
Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.
"The
Artist and the Model" is a beautifully poised, paced and photographed
piece from director Fernando Trueba.
Set in France as World War 2 nears its end, and shot in a timeless monochrome with an aura of bygone sensibilities, the film’s tender embrace of artistic life-model nudity and the vicissitudes of the artist methodology is a delight for cinemagoers tired of mindless blockbuster idiocy.
This slice of quiet resonance is lent further grace by a wonderful performance from veteran French screen legend Jean Rochefort. He portrays the elderly sculptor, with reserve and dignity, resigned to acceptance that his earlier epoch of inspiration has concluded, only to be met with a beautiful young Spanish refugee (Aida Folch), whom his wife and her friend find asleep and homeless on a village doorstep. His muse has returned as she offers the artist inspiration for one last masterpiece.
Touching and understated characterisations from an impeccable cast offer us pleasure, as they discuss literature, art and life, with a final erotic frisson emerging near the end of the titular pair's time together. This is a delightful, insightful and hugely rewarding experience.
Set in France as World War 2 nears its end, and shot in a timeless monochrome with an aura of bygone sensibilities, the film’s tender embrace of artistic life-model nudity and the vicissitudes of the artist methodology is a delight for cinemagoers tired of mindless blockbuster idiocy.
This slice of quiet resonance is lent further grace by a wonderful performance from veteran French screen legend Jean Rochefort. He portrays the elderly sculptor, with reserve and dignity, resigned to acceptance that his earlier epoch of inspiration has concluded, only to be met with a beautiful young Spanish refugee (Aida Folch), whom his wife and her friend find asleep and homeless on a village doorstep. His muse has returned as she offers the artist inspiration for one last masterpiece.
Touching and understated characterisations from an impeccable cast offer us pleasure, as they discuss literature, art and life, with a final erotic frisson emerging near the end of the titular pair's time together. This is a delightful, insightful and hugely rewarding experience.
