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L' Ennui

L' Ennui

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: about this movie L ennui.....
Review: A middle-aged philosophy teacher is having sex with a horde(whom later also have 'relationship' with another two men) where he could get give up the woman as he is too obsessed by her. This movie will be recommened to those whom like multiple sex scene and the rating I give to the scene are 4 star. The story of this movie is only a three star rating. The story end up with an accident where the philosophy teacher almost had himself killed.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Long and Boring
Review: I guess people wants to see this movie for different reasons, I'll try to analyse this movie according to what I expect viewers are looking for and try to dissuade you from seeing it. There is nothing in this movie where you can't find in another with more bells and whistles and fun.

[1] If you're looking for hot arousing sex scenes, forget about it.

[2] If you're trying to explore / understand the psyche of middle aged men, forget about it too. All you'd see is this divorced Professor of Philosophy in his 40s/50s being obsessed about a girl half his age, ringing the girl at all times, tracing her phone numbers, and being confused why he likes the dull boring girl so much. Interesting, but you might wonder if you really need to spend 2 hours to examine the issues?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Long and Boring
Review: I guess people wants to see this movie for different reasons, I'll try to analyse this movie according to what I expect viewers are looking for and try to dissuade you from seeing it. There is nothing in this movie where you can't find in another with more bells and whistles and fun.

[1] If you're looking for hot arousing sex scenes, forget about it. Because there is so little passion in the female character, my hunch is that you'll get more out of reading sex blogs.

[2] If you're trying to explore / understand the psyche of middle aged men, forget about it too. All you'd see is this divorced Professor of Philosophy in his 40s/50s being obsessed about a girl half his age, ringing the girl at all times, tracing her phone numbers, and being confused why he likes the dull boring girl so much. Interesting, but you might wonder if you really need to spend 2 hours to examine the issues, laid out as follows:

The professor is constantly frisky and lives in a lonely human vacuum. His ex-wife ignores him, prefers her new violent boyfriend to him. His colleagues don't acknowledge his needs (in one scene his upper says: You're divorced recently? You don't need a sabbatical to sort your feelings out, you need counselling). His medical doctor can offer no more medical help and tries to get him to see a counsellor. The professor refused, thinking that he knows how to cure himself as he's a philosopher and life's sore points can all be solved by philosophy. He craves for human interactions, or at least a glimpse of how other people interact (which is why he's so curious about the relationship between this young 17 year old girl and her ex-lover who died at 65 while making love to her). This girl, however, despite how dull the philosopher finds her, is the only human being with whom he interacts daily. She's his final life line to the human world (or so he thinks because she doesn't really care about the human beings around her very much, in one scene her mum says to the professor, "She loves nobody"). The daily meeting for sex made him got used to seeing her, he even started to give her money, worried that she might stop meeting with him.

The philosopher is obsessed because the girl is dull and distant. As she's the only one he interacts with daily, he seeks to make a mental / emotional connection with her. But she's like a stone wall. She answers his questions with one word answers. She never initiates a conversation. He is frustrated because he wants to turn her into something that she isn't and the frustration turns into obsession.

Lastly it's because the girl is unobtainable. Many people like not necessarily nice things that are hard to get, not just men. However I don't think this is the most important message of this movie. The main point is that he's lonely and frisky (he said to his doctor and he can't stand being alone and there were several scenes where he cruise around checking out the kerb crawlers in his battered BMW).

[3] It's unlikely that you'd want to watch this movie for the following reason but I suggest it anyway - may be you want to explore the power of words in relating people to one another. The professor in the movie finds the girl dull mainly because she's very bad in describing things. The girl has very limited feelings for people surrounding her and even fewer words (vocabulary) to describe her feelings. Her unable to feel things shows through in a scene where her face remains almost immobile when the professor scowls at her at close range, saying "You're a whore!" The philosopher has all the words and a massive vocabulary (being a professor he talks a lot) but he's a complete failure in describing his feelings and relating to people (most of the time he's talking to person A about person B, never addressing person A). One scene that I particularly like is that the professor was enraged by how the girl describes other people. She describes that person they were discussing as "nice", and he got annoyed saying that she can describe everybody as "nice" and then it means nothing. I think the same about men as they always say "nice" when asked for opinion about other women (like friend's wives, girlfriends, girlfriend's girlfriends).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ABSOLUTE AWAKENING
Review: I think you miss the whole point of this movie if you are expecting a typical Hollywood "brainwashing" movie. This movie is French. The whole point of the movie is precisely that the woman is not slim and gorgeous like a model (as Hollywood would make you want to believe all woman should be to be desirable to men). The fact that she is chubby makes the point precisely. She is not beautiful in his eyes, she is plain and chubby but he is crazy about her, why? because he cannot posses her. (Apart from physical pleasure there is nothing he can give her to make her interested in him.) And the farther away she is emotionally the more he wants her, and the more obsessed he gets with her. It has nothing to do with the outer physical beauty --she has managed to possess him in every way, without the "beauty" attributes that Hollywood movies would want to instill in the audiences. Her character has weaknesses as to the emotional and that is what drives him crazy about her. This movie is a great awakening into the deeper psyche of men.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gutwrenching
Review: I watched this movie having seen a trailer on another DVD. My stomach was in knots for most of the movie. I really felt all the emotions the main character Martin was feeling. I went through a divorce and a relationship right after which was much like his relationship with Cecelia. She even looked like Cecelia, who to be honest I thought was attractive. Not built like a 12 year old boy like most Hollywood actresses. To each his own. But I could totally see why Martin was obsessing over her and there were so many times I yelled at the TV to STOP, IT'S GOING TO KILL YOU. And it almost did.

I have felt exactly like Martin and it was painful then and was painful to watch. I give this 5 stars, because for once a movie evoked strong emotion. I NEVER want to see this movie again but it was gutwrenching.

Hollywood produces really terrible movies compared to the French. Unfortunately, the French believe love has to be painful.


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "If only I were cold and perverse."
Review: In the French film "L'Ennui" 40-something Philosophy professor, Martin (Charles Berling) has a brief, chance meeting with an artist named Meyer. A few weeks later, Martin goes to Meyer's house and discovers that Meyer is dead. This leads Martin to Meyer's mistress and model, the 17 year-old, bovinesque Cecilia (Sophie Guillemin). Martin is fascinated by the notion that Cecilia is somehow responsible for Meyer's death--to put it delicately, Meyer died in her arms. And this rather morbid fascination leads Martin to a relationship with Cecilia. At first, he can't understand what Meyer saw in her--she's dull, dumpy, and so placid, you wonder if she's been lobotomized. Martin correctly--if somewhat cruelly--tells Cecilia "you seem very ordinary." However--Martin's relationship with Cecilia isn't about conversation--and this is just as well--it's about savage eroticism--every day, several times a day, in all sorts of different positions. Cecilia offers herself quite willingly, and yet at the same time, she remains oddly distant. For her, erotic encounters are somewhat like eating meals--it's no biggie, and you do it several times a day.

Their established routine rapidly becomes a habit--with Martin as the obsessive addict, but then one day, Cecilia wants to change the rules, and at this point, Martin loses control of the relationship--and of himself--and the situation quickly spirals out-of-control.

Both Martin and Cecilia are fascinating characters. Martin is used to intellectual female companionship, and his previous girlfriend Sophie definitely has a tendency towards self-indulgent analyzing of her own bizarre behaviour. But Cecilia constantly eludes Martin's analysis, and this drives him crazy. She alternates lies with blunt truths, and she is fundamentally a tough, impenetrable creature. Martin's savage pounding--which he chooses to call "lovemaking" becomes the method with which he attempts to possess her, and yet she's ultimately left untouched. She seems to be an amazingly stubborn, vacuous vessel. Her facial expressions rarely change--although her face occasionally lights up--just slightly with a fleeting smile. Is she operating with a thick protective layer or is she simply suffering from boredom "L'Ennui"?

There are a few too many erotic encounters in the film--this is not a morality complaint, but after one or two erotic scenes, I got the point, and after a while decided that the two main characters were "at it" once again. I much preferred the scenes when Martin tries to engage Cecilia in some sort of argument about right and wrong, and the scenes that showed the couple in a social setting were particularly enjoyable. The ending seemed a little forced, and this was unfortunate. As I watched the final credits, I had the feeling that the script had written itself into a corner. Flawed though it may be, "L'Ennui" covers some thought-provoking material, and delivers some fine performances--displacedhuman

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ABSOLUTE AWAKENING
Review: In the French film "L'Ennui" 40-something Philosophy professor, Martin (Charles Berling) has a brief, chance meeting with an artist named Meyer. A few weeks later, Martin goes to Meyer's house and discovers that Meyer is dead. This leads Martin to Meyer's mistress and model, the 17 year-old, bovinesque Cecilia (Sophie Guillemin). Martin is fascinated by the notion that Cecilia is somehow responsible for Meyer's death--to put it delicately, Meyer died in her arms. And this rather morbid fascination leads Martin to a relationship with Cecilia. At first, he can't understand what Meyer saw in her--she's dull, dumpy, and so placid, you wonder if she's been lobotomized. Martin correctly--if somewhat cruelly--tells Cecilia "you seem very ordinary." However--Martin's relationship with Cecilia isn't about conversation--and this is just as well--it's about savage eroticism--every day, several times a day, in all sorts of different positions. Cecilia offers herself quite willingly, and yet at the same time, she remains oddly distant. For her, erotic encounters are somewhat like eating meals--it's no biggie, and you do it several times a day.

Their established routine rapidly becomes a habit--with Martin as the obsessive addict, but then one day, Cecilia wants to change the rules, and at this point, Martin loses control of the relationship--and of himself--and the situation quickly spirals out-of-control.

Both Martin and Cecilia are fascinating characters. Martin is used to intellectual female companionship, and his previous girlfriend Sophie definitely has a tendency towards self-indulgent analyzing of her own bizarre behaviour. But Cecilia constantly eludes Martin's analysis, and this drives him crazy. She alternates lies with blunt truths, and she is fundamentally a tough, impenetrable creature. Martin's savage pounding--which he chooses to call "lovemaking" becomes the method with which he attempts to possess her, and yet she's ultimately left untouched. She seems to be an amazingly stubborn, vacuous vessel. Her facial expressions rarely change--although her face occasionally lights up--just slightly with a fleeting smile. Is she operating with a thick protective layer or is she simply suffering from boredom "L'Ennui"?

There are a few too many erotic encounters in the film--this is not a morality complaint, but after one or two erotic scenes, I got the point, and after a while decided that the two main characters were "at it" once again. I much preferred the scenes when Martin tries to engage Cecilia in some sort of argument about right and wrong, and the scenes that showed the couple in a social setting were particularly enjoyable. The ending seemed a little forced, and this was unfortunate. As I watched the final credits, I had the feeling that the script had written itself into a corner. Flawed though it may be, "L'Ennui" covers some thought-provoking material, and delivers some fine performances--displacedhuman

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Clever Idea
Review: L'Ennui is driven by a very clever idea and a curious understanding of the perverse quirks of human nature (and male sexuality.) It's classic male fantasy turned nightmare: an older man falls for a younger girl who is beautiful, naive, sexually voracious, and utterly pliant. It's a pornographic dream that gradually becomes more and more hellish to the middle-aged protaganist, who is disillusioned with life (the French call it "ennui"), and groping for some kind of meaning. For, ironically, the utterly sexually available girl cannot be possessed; she is utterly opaque, and because he cannot inhabit her mind, cannot make her feel intensely for him, he becomes neurotically obsessed by her, which, of course, leads to all kinds of abjection and abasement for him. In this, the film explores the tension between the male dream of feminine passivity, and the male nightmare of feminine impassivity.
L'Ennui falters quite a lot; it's turgid, and probably forty minutes too long, hammering the point home long after the emotional terrain of the film has been traversed. Still, it's an intriguing film, often blackly funny, insightful, and, erotic in the way only French films dare to be, all jiggling flesh and too much reality for audiences reared on the smoothed over nothingness of Hollywood.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful. Sophie Guillemin is so Hot.
Review: masterpiece.
rent it.
so much passion.
the scenes are sexy, and hot.
Sophie Guillemin is attractive.
A professor gone mad in love
over a young girl. a young girl
who is in love with 2 men.
the ending is interesting.
recommended to american viewers.
if you speak spanish recommended
sub-titled.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Better than many, but doesn't match the hype
Review: On the most fundamental level, i.e.,a sexual/semi-erotic level, L'Ennui most definitely has its moments. As a total film, however, it stutters more than a few times. Technically, the subtitles occasionally flash too fast or are offered with no contrast so they become almost unreadable. The camerawork is quite good, however, with a definite European style. The story itself is also intriguing, but once the point is made,it has nowhere to go. The problems begin with the actors and plot. Not that the actors were bad; they were actually very good. But you understand from minute one that Martin isn't wrapped too tightly (his treatment of a fan, for example, early on), so his bizarre behavior once he meets Cecelia isn't surprising in the least. More simply, the guy evinces no sympathy in the least from the viewer; none. He's a complete ass. He comes off as needy, selfish and egomaniacial, one of those boors who are so deeply personally insecure they become outwardly obnoxious and nasty to hide it from everyone. You really don't care what ultimately happens to him, and also understand that if he did get what he wanted in the film, he would immediately reject it once he did, just to be hurtful. Cecilia, the more you get to know her, is just as bad in another way. She doesn't come off as stupid (as someone else said)or obtuse, but as almost totally uncaring and unfeeling, not to mention far more immature than her few years. She simply does whatever she wants whenever she can without a lot of regard of how it can hurt or affect people. She understands how they can feel things, but unless it touches her directly and negatively, doesn't really care. Look at how she regarded her father. All in all, it's hard to feel sympathy for her as well. She's not opaque but almost completely transparent. And to say the film's point was hammered home way too long or that the ending was ridiculously abrupt is putting it mildly.


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