3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Final Cut

2022, Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) -- download

Or Coupez!

When I was writing the post about The Animal Kingdom, I noticed that Duris, the star, was in the French remake of One Cut of the Dead, and also a survival movie I had meant to download, called A Breath Away.

Nothing like benefiting from a terrible memory, in that I had the same reaction to the opening of this movie as I did to the original, i.e. is it supposed to be this bad? Was that intentional? What the fuck are they going on about? Is this ... an art film zombie movie?

And then the movie ends, and then the movie really begins.

I have done work as an extra in the distant past. Its fun to see behind the scenes, but Big Hollywood Productions are massive, so your peek is very minimal. I have also more recently done a few scenes in a few shorts, where the BTS (not the Korean Boy Band, as I always first think) is much more tangible. With lower budgets, you see they often have to just make-do, live with results, and pivot a lot, given unforeseen circumstances.

This is the crux of the core of the heart this movie (in for a penny, in for a pound). The lead actor and actress are in a car accident on the way to the set, so Rémi (Romain Duris, Eiffel), the director, a man more comfortable with doing "cheap & cheerful" then anything involving producer meddling and "staying faithful to the script", and his wife Nadia (Bérénice Bejo, Under Paris) step into the roles. Another lead, with a drinking problem, accidentally has an expensive bottle of Japanese Whiskey sent to his dressing room. Another actor, who has a long, complicated rider, is really not kidding when he says he can only drink the water he brought with him. The recognizable actor is constantly trying to add gravitas to his role as a zombie. Nadia, who had once been an actor but had to step away because she takes method acting to the n-th level, begins getting far too into her role. Yeah, shit is unexpected, and Rémi is constantly altering the production, on the fly, with whatever and whomever is at hand, in order to just complete the live event.

Suddenly all  the fucking weird shit you see on camera, from the first part of the movie, make more sense.... kind of.  Rémi, is under a lot of pressure from his own usually supportive producer (lots of money on the line) and the Japanese bankroll who have brought this script, which is to be made, explicitly, live, unedited, on the launch of the French version of a Japanese network dedicated to B and Z grade schlock horror, which of course the Japanese excel at. They won't even let him change character names leading to me saying, during the first part of the movie, "Wait, is this movie based word-for-word on the script of the original movie ?!?!" I was ... kind of right? But, oh my, the fun that is to be had as all  the weird camera angles, confusing action, confounding plot & dialogue is all explained away as part of a production that falls apart as we watch it, live.

Without exposure to the original Japanese movie (the real movie, not the one we are watching being made), this would have been an incredible romp. Even so, as a French Remake of something I loved so much, this was pretty good.