Customer Reviews

Marie Baie Des Anges (Marie From the Bay of Angels) [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie was so raw and dark. The character Marie is the only reason I like watching the movie. Like most French films, if you aren't French, they tend to be somewhat confusing and you don't always know what is happening. When I watched it I didn't find a lot of it too interesting, until the dance sequence. There is this scene where they are trying to steal a boat and Marie begins to dance to distract the fisherman. The scene blew me away it was perfect the sun was bright and shined onto the sea and the music was so passionate and Marie just oozed sex into the camera, it is by far one of the most erotic things I have seen, and is probably the only part of the movie I replayed so I could watch it again. It is a good movie for those one aren't always in the mood for the average mega hit.

Reminiscent of Trauffaut's "The 400 Blows," "Marie Bais des Anges" depicts the harsh world of juvenile outcasts residing near France's SharkAngel Bay. The youths' hardened attitudes and desperate lives contast sharply with the beautiful scenery of the resort. "Marie..." centers around a free-spirited, 14 year-old prostitute and a hopeless, out-of-control thief, both impressively acted by Vahina Giocante and Frederic Malgras. The two exiles come together when everything else around their world falls apart. Their brief idyll as castaways brings to mind Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock;" behind the sunny facade of the getaway, tragedy lurks discreetly yet ominously. When the boy finally gets hold of a cherished revolver, the foreshadowed conclusion comes to an abrupt and mysterious conclusion. "Marie..." is very stylishly directed and while it depicts enduring themes of adolescent alienation well-documented throughout classic French cinema, its unsentimental and unsparing vision, which portrays the youths'circumstances as being inevitable, is authentic and refreshing.

The movie did not have a bad plot. It was probably rushed from the screenplay into the actual production. If you asked me, it could have been refined to be made into a great coming of age movie.

Sorry to say the diretion was terrible. I liked the the flashbacks, but unfortuantely Manuel Pradal( the director) did a bad job in keeping up with the audience. All it is, is a bunch of scenes, with very little dialogue. That made it hard to know what was going on. When Marie(the girl in the story) meets Orso(the boy in the story) there is a need for more talking between the two to actually feel the love they share.

In any case, the story is of a boy and girl who fell in love and went off to live in a nearby island. It is not a Blue Lagoon remake, the ending is very shoking.

The way the movie was made, I believe it deserves 3 stars. However, one element made me change my mind. That element is Vahina Giocante. Oh, what a beautiful girl. She has a very good body for a girl of 16. And no, she is not naked in this film, eventhough the movie does include a little bit of nudity, but that is a requesite for any French movie. If you are going to watch this film, watch it for her, otherwise, wait until someone else rewrites it and directs it.

This film is getting two stars on cable television, which I think is too little. I have read some of the professional reviews and think that they are sometimes hung up on the wrong things as well. I watched the beginning again tonight and was well surprised. I especially like the European feel of the movie. It moves along and events unfold as they would realistically in this environment. This film has been compared to Francois Truffault's 400 Blows and that is a pretty mighty comparison. Young girls know they must have charm and be pretty; boys are tough. This is not new. It may be a stark view in a luxurious part of the world - the Mediterranean - but adult figures are scarce. What would also add to the starkness of the film though would be adults who are paid to supervise the kids. Maybe nothing would be different even if so. People meet in a regard and maybe something comes of it and maybe it does not. The ballerina sequence to me was one of the really good surprises in this film.

one of the two best movies i saw last year. very beautiful. makes me wish i were a homeless gypsy pickpocket somewhere in the south of france. i've seen it three times. twice in the theater and once on video (i happened to go to the video store the day it came out. yesterday). on the third viewing i began to realize how there is a subtext about french cinema and american cinema. this would be my only criticism agaist it. the subtext means nothing next to the world the movie creates. more beautiful than neverneverland. loui depaul.

The critics, as far as I have read, did not give any far reaching acclaim to Marie. In my opinion, though, it contains perhaps the most exquisetly orchestrated cinematics and direction I'v come across in the last five years. I am not familiar with the director's previous works, but it seems to me that the perfection in imagery and the true rendered sense of the poetic is the product of an insightful, astute, and masterful hand.

Pradal's prententious and boring portrayal of a petty thief and a pretty girl who hook up, escape from the bad bad adult world, live for awhile on an idyllic secluded island, commit murder, and end tragically. The scenery is gorgeous and the girl's got a very pretty Gallican pout especially when she hanging out with some dopey American sailors (who all look like they just walked off the set of "Anchors Aweigh") and the guy lets us know that he's a suffering misunderstood soul. I don't object to Pradal's recycling of "Breathless" or "The 400 Blows" - the guy acts like Jean-Pierre Leaud pretending that he's Jean-Paul Belmondo - nor to his dippy and ultimately redundant plot as much as his arrogant tendency to jumble up the time sequence of the story in order to show us that something important (in his mind at least) is going on here. He wants us to keep chewing and chewing and chewing long after we've already swallowed the little morsel of a story he's given us. Pradal should seriously consider shooting commercials or signing up to co-direct any of Michael Bay's (Armageddon, The Rock) upcoming features. At least, he might provide Bay with some pretty images.

i enjoyed this movie very much. it was one of the best i have ever see

The writer did a good job of giving the viewer the story of the dolphins of the bay and then make Marie and the boy(I forgot his name) become like those killer dolphins. I watched this movie three times in one day.

this was the centerpiece of my summer last year. it completely engulfed me; any and all comparisons to other films are forgotten.. it stands alone