August 20th 2012 Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

After the death of their mother, two sisters decide to spend a final summer in the house where they grew up. The sisters, Mary and Marie, are very close – almost too close – living a pretty much co-dependent life. Into their life comes Peter, a handyman who’s meant to be working on their house. Despite seeing the two women in bed together, he continues to flirt, and while Marie shows an interest in him, he decides he prefers Mary. But can the women’s bond survive this man’s intrusion into their life?

This first film from co-writer/director/actress Alexandra Roxo looks absolutely gorgeous, and is proof that the rise of digital filmmaking is allowing no-budget films to have a look that 10 years ago would have been impossible. The visuals are languorous and romantic, with lots of shots of nature and dust floating on the wind. [Read more…]

Starring: Juliette Binoche, Anais Demoustier, Joanna Kulig, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
Director: Malgorzata Szumowska
Running Time: 95 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: August 20th 2012

Despite the fact Elles’ director is Polish, this is the French-est of films – with an interest in bourgeois life, prostitutes, sex, nudity and a slightly pretentious tone, despite the fact it doesn’t really have anything that smart to say. And that’s about as French film-y as you can get.

Juliette Binoche is Anne, a middle-class wife, mother and journalist, whose latest assignment takes her into the world of students who pay for their education through prostitution. She interviews two of the women and is surprised that they don’t paint the picture of desperation and degradation she expected. The further she delves into their lives, the more it affects her own, as she gives up being teetotal and begins to rebel against the staid patriarchal aspects of her homelife. [Read more…]

Mary Marie (DVD)

Elles (DVD)