Review: Saint Omer

-


Rama (Kayije Kagame) is a novelist who travels from Paris to Saint-Omer to cover the trial of Laurence Coy (Guslagie Malanda) a woman accused of murdering her infant daughter. Rama then realizes they have a stunning amount in common.

This is France's submission for Best International Film at the Oscars and it's an interesting choice. The bulk of the film takes place in one location, and the majority of the dialogue is in the form of court testimony. That's where it's at its most compelling. Malanda and Valérie Dréville set the cadence for these scenes and they're very sell done. I'm glad they chose to unfold Laurence's story this way. It's one of those rare instances where tell works over show.

Unfortunately the scenes outside of the courtroom don't work as well. Kagame is still wonderful in her role, and you can tell she wants to say so much, but obviously cannot. I think at times it's a little too ambiguous for its own good. I don't need a filmmaker to spoon-feed me, but there were a few transitions that threw me off a bit.

Overall, while not perfect this is a very compelling film from Alice Diop and I look forward to seeing what's next from her.

Grade: B-


Comments

  1. thevoid99December 13, 2022 at 5:07 PM

    I do want to see this as I've seen a short by Alice Diop months ago and plan on watching another short before the end of the year and maybe Atlantics before the year ends to finish off the 52 Films by Women pledge as I'm now 6 films away from completing that goal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamDecember 14, 2022 at 8:04 AM

      I'm also 6 away! I'll have to check out more of Alice Diop's shorts. I was really impressed with what she did here. Atlantics was okay. I didn't love it as much as I wanted but it was still worth the watch.

      Delete
  2. ruthDecember 19, 2022 at 3:41 PM

    I really want to see this! Is it streaming somewhere? I'm not familiar w/ Alice Diop but I'm curious to see this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamDecember 20, 2022 at 9:50 AM

      Not yet that I'm aware, I received it as a screener.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But
Read more