Grande Ecole
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Movie Reviews of Grande Ecole
Movie Review: Well acted but slow
Summary: 3 Stars
The film is very well directed & acted. I gave it 3 stars because the plot moves so slow- it's boring and hard to stay with. Also it would have been more believable if the lead character, whom everyone else is attracted to, were attractive. There are some nice full frontal nude scenes of other actors to compensate.Movie Review: About the Grande Ecole
Summary: 3 Stars
It Is a good movie but it would be better if it was in english. The reason is you can't really watch the movie while you are reading the subtitles.Movie Review: The cover is the best thing about it.
Summary: 2 Stars
Grande Ecole (Robert Salis, 2004)
Salis (Living Naked)'s first non-documentary feature is an adaptation of a Jean-Marie Besset play which, I confess, I have neither read nor seen. So take this review with a grain of salt; most of the aspersions I'm going to cast here may have less to do with Salis than with Besset.
The plot: Paul (Gregori Baquet) and Agnes (Alice Taglioni) are dating. Agnes wants to move in together; Paul would prefer to live on campus with roommates. It quickly becomes obvious that Paul would, specifically, rather live with Louis-Arnault (Jocelyn Quivrin, recently of Syriana). Despite Louis-Arnault having a girlfriend himself, Agnes makes Paul a bet-- whichever of the two seduces Louis-Arnault first can have him. To add onto the complexity, Paul also finds himself drawn to a university worker, Mecir (Selim Kechiouche), who's more open about returning Paul's affections than is Louis-Arnault.
There's a whole lot going on here, and Salis wants to pack it all into this film. That's all well and good; the many subtexts here are well worth exploring. Unfortunately, what suffers is the main story itself; what could well have been a sumptuous erotic buffet ends up neither sumptuous nor erotic. The obvious crux of the whole thing is Paul's confusion, but there's never a point where Paul (or Baquet; hard to tell whether the fault is with character or actor) seems at all confused. Which might be excusable if we had any indication that he was manipulating everyone else-- but, of course, we don't get that, either. We've really no idea what Paul is doing here, other than wandering through the movie, barely reacting to the events around him. The rest of the characters are scarcely better; Agnes manages to work up a head of steam every once in a while, but seems to be suffering from sleeping sickness most of the time. Louis-Arnault's hapless girlfriend Emeline has an excuse, at least, as everyone involved is keeping her in the dark, and Louis-Arnault himself manages to show some emotion now and again. Louis-Arnault, in fact, quickly becomes the movie's most intriguing character; one can never be sure whether he's oblivious or leading Paul on, and unlike the rest of the cast, Quivrin pulls the role off with flair. Unfortunately, the longer the movie goes on, the less important Louis-Arnault is to it.
I wanted to like this movie. I really did. The best of intentions, however, sometimes can't produce results. So it was with both Grande Ecole and my reaction to it. **
Movie Review: Rehash of known subject matter
Summary: 2 Stars
Grande Ecole would like us to think that it is grand - but it's really material that has been covered before in a more entertaining way.
The concept is this: three male students at a prestigous engineering university become roommates. One is from a very well placed family, the other two from more moderate backgrounds. Two of the men have girlfriends. One of these men has a terrible crush on the well placed roommate though he has his own girlfriend with whom he regularly has relations. Further, he begins an affair with an Arab maintenance staffer from his university. His girlfriend figures this all out and issues arise.
This is not too different from the American film "Threesome" from the mid 1990's. In fact, some of the situations could be said to be almost peeled directly from it.
It's also not too different from the Merchant Ivory film "Maurice" - in a modern rendering of that film.
Grande Ecole is a film that wants us to engage with our characters, but it seems to only give us bits and pieces of the information in a staccato method so that we aren't really able to connect with anyone.
It's a blase treatment of subject matter that could be handled a bit better. The reason is that where Threesome and Maurice involve unrequited homosexual love between a heterosexual and a homosexual, Grande Ecole espouses to show that such clear cut definitions are not necessary. In fact, one of the characters actually knows that his roommate has sexual feelings for him. While he never allows it to come to fruition, he does provide his roommate with enough peeks at his privates and friendly hugs, etc. to stoke the fires of the bisexual roommate. The fellow leading him on, would probably be amenable to an eventual liaison but for the bisexual fellow's fling with the Arab. This is just not done in polite society - the Arab is beneath them.
The director seems to (and I believe rightly so) show that the one man's sexual relationship with a man of a lower class is the real reason for the missed chance between the men of the higher classes. Often that is enough to shatter any relationship regardless of the country or the sexual mores.
Unfortunately, the film requires the viewer to fill in the blanks more often than not and the fine acting leaves the viewer cold and distanced from the action.
Movie Review: Proof that nudity can't prevent boredom
Summary: 2 Stars
I am uncertain why I kept watching this film to its conclusion. It's slow and fake artsy and fake intellectual and positively brimming with unlikeable and shallow (and occasionally naked) characters who all seem to have the hots for each other.
The cover art for this film might be it's greatest strength. That and the generous nudity and lengthy group shower scenes. There is decent music and great scenery and sets, decent dialog and twists and turns, but unfortunately it all begins and ends in nothing. And that is what I felt at the end. Nothing.
So, steer clear of this dud unless you have a thing for mindless but obviously well-financed messes which keep you speed reading the subtitles for basically no reason. (I don't think I would have missed much if I turned them off and just watched. It's not really that complicated.)