Red Lights based on the novel by Georges Simenon http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/red-lights-based-on-novel-by-georges.html - 10 out of 10

 

Red Lights based on the novel by Georges Simenon http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/red-lights-based-on-novel-by-georges.html

10 out of 10

 

 

This is such a fabulous movie that I have watched and enjoyed it twice, the note is about the film and Not the novel and I need to emphasize this from the start, so that I avoid an angry comment on that, for it has happened before, being told off and having to hear ‘how dare you’ or words to that effect, when this happens because I am modest and do not anticipate a large audience, if any, and therefore do not see anybody bothered.

 

Just in case, I will put down more words on the subject, so that nobody could say they did not realize – in the previous notes I mentioned, which were on the motion picture and not the material they were based on, I have mentioned that I am not talking about the book, but somehow the complainants had missed that, so now we have a whole quarter of the ‘review’ made up so that they must realize something is amiss – and then this would also be ab indication that you have to stop reading here…if you have not done it before.

According to The Thin Slicing Theory explained in the quintessential Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by luminary Malcolm Gladwell http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html we are alone here by now, for we have an idea, form an opinion in the first few seconds of seeing someone, assessing a situation, let us just mention the situation where participants in the test have been shown some seconds with a professor (in one case, they even had the video muted) and then asked to evaluate, and when they asked those who have attended the course for a whole semester, they saw that the opinions were the same, in other words, we are often (or is it almost always) able to make the same analysis in seconds or in months, but this is not without flaws.

 

The same in this situation, those who have abandoned the text, because of the ramblings, will have missed on a very deep, clever, insightful look at a phenomenal film, Feux Rouges aka Red Lights http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/note-on-red-lights-based-on-novel-by.html this is the third interpretation, the link just listed is a video talk, made in the garden with the team, the two macaws, Balzac and Puccini, my eternal companions, who are in this office right now, only you could not see them, unless I will insert their picture in the document…but then you could use the link just to watch them…

Antoine is the main character of this story, however much this could be pushed back, a feminist perspective would reject this affirmation, asking why is Helene not just as or more important, but then we could look at the screen time (granted, that would be flawed, Dame Judy Dench has won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2017/07/note-on-shakespeare-in-love-written-by.html where she was on the big screen for very few minutes, only what a grand performance and what a stature that lady has)

 

That is indeed arbitrary, and I would also mention the case of Tar https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2023/01/one-of-best-in-2022-and-golden-globe.html for which Cate Blanchet has just won a Golden Globe and she is probably favorite to win another Oscar in the coming weeks, actually there will be about  a couple of months until the ceremony, but I would vote differently

No doubt, the performance of the winner of two Academy Awards -both for motion pictures that I did not particularly found exhilarating, and the acting of the leading actress less than overwhelming, Carol and Blue Jasmine http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/blue-jasmine-written-and-directed-by.html - is impressive and even I can see that there is much there to recommend some of the most prestigious awards.

 

Nonetheless, I would give the Oscar and all other acting prizes to Kerry Condon aka Siobhan, for her major contribution to what is by far the best film of 2022 and one of the top five movies of this century, The Banshees of Inisherin http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-banshees-of-inisherin.html

returning for a while to the subject, Antoine is driving with his wife, Helene, to take their children from the holiday camp, at the end of summer, back home, the trouble is that this is the busiest time of the year, the end of summer, and the protagonist is annoyed, then angered by the long time it takes to move, he is already inebriated and the tension is rising in the car, with every reckless maneuver he takes.

 

Furthermore, he stops to drink ever more, while his wife is waiting in the car, and she had already protested and told the souse that he is getting to be too much, when she warns him that if he enters this new bar, she would leave on her own and take the train…indeed, when he comes out, Helene is gone and though the alcoholic tries to use top speed, it will be a wild ride, that is clear, he cannot find his wife at the station.

Antoine is chasing now after the train, driving like mad and drunk on top of it, to arrive at the next stop before his spouse, and this is when things get even more complicated, for we have heard already on the news that a dangerous convict had escaped and using the Chekhov Gun Law http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/vanya-on-42nd-street-based-on-uncle.html if we show a gun in the first act, we must use it in the second or third act, so we have to meet the running criminal, together with our ‘hero’

 

The main character is kidnapped in a way, just as he had held his wife hostage, prisoner in a car more or less out of control, and there is a confrontation between the inebriated driver and his passenger, with a climax wherein we see that one of them is likely to get out of the picture, with more chances for the stronger fellow, younger, sober, experienced in inflicting pain and infuriated to the point where Antoine may have become not just useless, but an obstacle, one who may pay for his addiction, the pain he caused others

http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world?