La CérémonieI miss the days of Filmspotter discussion, something that used to be constant around here, usually covering multiple films. Occasionally there's something in the Spoiler thread, like Last Jedi or Arrival. I like the unexpected group discussions, like the Shocktober where everyone decided to watch Pontypool. This is a film that would be ripe for such group therapy to help everyone sort out their feelings. I'm not even sure which avenue this post should take.
- an expansion of my previous comment about the mundane style and the ultimate substance
- explaining how the story is like Mike Leigh making a thriller, meaning it's short on actual thrills but rich with class satire
Being the first post, I don't want to spoil but the Spoiler is where everything snaps into focus. The first review I read afterwards
was by Roger Ebert who wrote about it for his Great Movies column. His opening remark sums up my thoughts pretty well.
"There is a relentless feeling to it, as if the characters are engaged in a performance that can have only one outcome. It comes as a surprise to all of them, and to us. But given these people in this situation, can we really say in hindsight that we're surprised?"
Then I pulled up
Ebert's original review, where he only gives the film 3 stars. This made total sense to me. Being raised with American style and American ideas about what a film should do and how it should do it, I often find some boredom in French thrillers - and I could make a long list from Purple Noon to The Trouble With Harry, and most of Claude Chabrol's other films - because they're mostly about unassuming characters who create small amounts of friction for two hours, but contain a death or two along the way so they're labeled thrillers, even though slow-burn doesn't accurately describe the style of the storytelling. It gives as wrong an impression as calling the film "Hitchcockian". You might as well say "it's actually a comedy," which is both correct and completely misleading.
Yet on that score, La Cérémonie does it so well (mostly because of the performances and effortless watchability of Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire) I wonder if this will lift my opinion of the entire long list of French thrillers that work in a similar palette.