Synopsis
An overstressed American businessman and a French chambermaid make a connection at an airport hotel in Paris.
2014 Directed by Pascale Ferran
An overstressed American businessman and a French chambermaid make a connection at an airport hotel in Paris.
Josh Charles Anaïs Demoustier Roschdy Zem Taklyt Vongdara Geoffrey Cantor Camélia Jordana Radha Mitchell Hippolyte Girardot Akéla Sari Anne Azoulay Habib Kadi Bertrand Constant Grégoire Taulère Catherine Ferran Nicole Dogué Gessica Généus Marie-Philomène Nga Mohand Saci Ali Ben Amar Coralie Majouga Sonia Bouquet Aurore Soudieux Khalil Yahya Michel Sabeh-Aïon Rojda Mohamed-Guedouar Chloé Penda Romain Njoh-Doualla Capucine Duruy Eléonore Condamin Show All…
寂寞飛行, 鸟瞰人生, Άνθρωποι Πουλιά, Kuş İnsanlar, Ptáci a lidé, 버드 피플, Люди и птицы, Madarak és emberek
TIFF 2014 Film #7
Reason for pick : hit at Cannes
Throughout this TIFF I’ve been trying to log and declare my rating immediately after seeing a film. Bird People was an exception. If I was to have put my feelings to page immediately following, I’m pretty sure I would have pronounced it an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful cinematic experiment. Now, with the passage of time, it has stayed with me in a way that only those special films do.
There is so little to Pascale Ferran’s story that to say anything would be to reveal all, and part of the charm is working your mind around its simple premise. As far as interpretation, there is plenty of room, and…
have fun selling people on this without ruining it in the process.
amongst other things, this is exhibit A in the argument that the *best* special FX ≠ the *most* special FX. magical stuff.
not sure Cannes was the right launching pad for this... the bifurcated structure may have been something of a mistake, and i think Ferran overplays the tedium of the first half in an effort to accentuate the second, but this is ultimately a simple, wondrous bit of storytelling. comings and goings... the quest for freedom in a world where everywhere is nowhere. dig it. and beware spoilers.
58
Huh. This was a strange one. While I definitely liked this turbulent portrait of alienation, with its startling structure and variation in tone, perspective, and thematic contrast, it failed to fully capitalize on its stronger ideas in pursuit of a more idiosyncratic range of concepts and moments. I think it works in spite of itself - clearly the design of a film that could've been stronger with a different approach but it would've resulted in something not nearly as interesting. Still, I found richness in its land of random tones and magical realism, and the two central performances are exceptional - deliberately finding a pocket in which to explore what the other doesn't have, and how the void in…
Apparently, Birdman wasn’t the only avian-themed narrative film of 2014. Directed by Pascale Ferran, best known in these parts for Lady Chatterley (2006), Bird People is an alternately mundane and magical tale of isolation and longing that ultimately wins out due to its sheer conceptual audacity; I don’t remember the last time I saw a “major” European art film so unafraid of falling flat on its face (pun intended).
Set almost entirely at a hotel adjacent to Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport, the movie's odd bifurcated structure first introduces us to a well-traveled American business (Josh Charles) who experiences a mid-life crisis during his stay before moving on to a wistful French hotel maid (Anaïs Demoustier) who similarly wants…
80/100
A.V. Club review. Identical reaction on second viewing: Adore the prologue; love 'Gary' (including/especially the epic Skype call); love 'Audrey' (apart from the big cringe during "Space Oddity"); absolutely detest the last 30 seconds. Not a dealbreaker, but close.
Pascale Ferran faz questão de partir dos mais impessoais dos ambientes para localizar toda uma riqueza perceptiva muito minuciosa, situa muito bem esse movimento do impessoal que evidencia o pessoal, desde a especificidade muito clara de quase todos os personagens e passantes que surgem na tela ao mote libertador de seus protagonistas, esse entorno coletivo que nunca é genérico, mas guarda em si um mar de impressões. O filme se permite algumas liberdades realmente inspiradoras em toda essa abordagem.
What does freedom mean? A cinematic treat making great use of Ferran’s sensorial eye both in the drab first section and the more whimsical second part. It builds a cinematic world so well filled and full of possibilities and allow it to grow in as many directions as possible. Ferran needs to make more films.
Really loved this strange, surreal movie that splits time between two people: an American businessman visiting France and deciding to quit his job and abandon his wife and kids in order to find himself, and a hotel maid who similarly abandons her responsibilities and finds freedom via a different method when she spontaneously becomes a sparrow. There's a heavy dose of WTF magical realism here, and it doesn't entirely integrate the two stories. But both segments are well-realized, and Audrey's story is so charming and thrilling—and in retrospect, such a rebuke of Gary's choices—that it won me over pretty completely. A heavy dose of CGI had to be used to make sparrow-Audrey operate believably, but it's so seamless that it…
We are all birds. As children, we often dream about flying and seeing the world from above, wondering about what each person is doing and thinking, about which places to go, about which secrets to discover. We dream of a different perspective, a different pair of eyes, a different set of rules. There is an anapestic, lyrical dynamic at work in our imaginations, and that is exactly what transpires into Bird People. It’s a film about dreams, about following who you are at the core, whatever the circumstances; and as such, it is very much a work of its time.
Director Pascale Ferran inserts a meditative pace into the rather turbulent lives of the two protagonists, Gary – an American…