At first glance, you might wrongly assume this beautiful French girl will sing a folksy Carla Bruni-esque lullaby or a pop ballad, but you’d be completely wrong. Instead, Rachel La Voix D’Homme decided to sing DEATH METAL to audition for France’s Got Talent.
The 24-year-old shocked all the judges, proving you should never judge someone based on how they look.
Watch it here
Heartbeats, Xavier Dolan’s second feature film, is a realistic glance into the lives of wandering twenty-somethings. The twenty-one-year-old Quebec born actor turned filmmaker entered the scene in 2009 with the French language feature I killed My Mother. Heartbeats, also French language, falls short of his first film however, the technical aspects of his filmmaking have greatly improved.
Heartbeats chronicles the seemingly complex bisexual love triangle between three friends, Marie (Monia Chokri), Francis (Xavier Dolan), and Nicolas (Niels Schneider who looks almost exactly like French actor, Louis Garrel). While at a party, Marie and Frankie (Francis) notice Nicolas, a youthful traveler who is a dead ringer for a Greek Adonis. Marie and Frankie soon develop a suggestive relationship with Nicolas which threatens their own friendship as each of them become completely infatuated with him. The three of them share a bed together, but Marie and Frankie’s sexual desire for Nicolas is never satisfied. The film delves deeply into the notions of jealousy and centers on the cliche, “three is a crowd”.
The actors have a natural chemistry that reads well through the screen. Marie is beautiful and dresses akin to Anna Karina and other New Wave women (a possible homage to Godard). Frankie’s outward presentation is bold but he is shy and introverted. Nicolas is tan and beautiful. His demeanor is warm and yet he seems completely ignorant of the fact that he is the central object of desire for the other two characters. It is uncertain whether his coyness is intentional or simply a part of the dynamic of his friendship with Marie and Frankie. This leads to sexual ambiguity of his character which lies at the core of the narrative and if nothing else is its strength.
One of the unfortunate pitfalls that plagues electronic music enthusiasts is the false perception that they’re druggies or “e-tards.” Although, many reinforce this stigma when outsiders frequent a bar to see 5000 people drinking only water. What is it about electronic music that lends itself so well to uppers and narcotics? We investigated the topic with the french electro duo, Make The Girl Dance!
At the end of the day, “Coco Avant Chanel” doesn’t do justice to one of the world’s most iconic fashion figures. It leaves you wanting to see more of the avant (before) and the après (after) of Chanel’s rise to fame.
As suggested by the title, the film focuses on Coco’s early years, before she hit it big in the global fashion scene. We first meet her as an orphaned girl, with no sight of the glamour and celebrity endorsements that are associated with today’s Chanel brand. The movie then fast-forwards to a twenty-something Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (played by “Amelie’s” Audrey Tautou) who’s involved in a French cabaret act with her sister (Marie Gillain). She dreams of becoming the next theatre starlet of Paris, but that dream slowly slips from her hands.
One older, wealthy man (Etienne Balsan played by Benoît Poelvoorde), promises to try and get her an audition and while she doesn’t make the cut, Gabrielle continues a brief fling with him. She comes off as opportunistic when she arrives at Etienne’s mansion unannounced and stays there as she decides what to do with her life.
