Wednesday 18 May 2011

Cannes 2011: Overused expressions by French critics



French critics are not like other critics. Most of them are still raised with a healthy dose of daily reading  of Cahiers du cinema. When one of them met Hugh Grant as he was getting famous in the wake of Four weeks and funeral, she did not ask him about Hollywood. Or Elizabeth Hurley and THAT dress. She asked him: "What is cinema, Mr Grant?". And having followed their comments during the Cannes film festival, I have come across two expressions that keep coming back, over and over again.


1) Une proposition de cinema (A cinema proposition, see, French is easy!)

A French actress. Being Solar, In a cinema proposition I take it

This seems to be applied to anything that has just that little more artistic ambition than The transporter 3. I suppose this means a director offering his own, innovative vision of cinema. Does it really, really need to be applied to just about any film?


2) Solaire (Solar)


A French actress shines

We all agree French actresses are a breed on their own. They have charm, class, style, elegance, mystery... I could go on. And they shine, on camera, off camera... They are luminous even. Yet it is not enough for French critics who seem to try to outdo (or should it be outshine?) themselves in the luminous stake. So now French actresses, according to French critics, are solar. I am not entirely sure what it is supposed to mean? Is their charisma so incandescent that it reaches nuclear fusion level? And what next, supernovas? Quasars?

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