Screened
Chicago International Film Festival
CHICAGO -- In Paris, "Arab" means, "Open from 8 to midnight". That's the sly definition that Muslim store owner (Omar Sharif) uses to describe his low-caste situation in this '60s-set scope on Paris. Sixties might be the operative word for this engaging film: "Monsieur Ibrahim" played to an enthusiastic audience here at the Chicago International Film Festival that clearly was of an age to have remembered Sharif from his titular role in "Doctor Zhivago".
In this bracing entertainment, Pierre Boulanger stars as Momo, just turned 16 and eager to lose his virginity, which is sparked considerably by the fact that he lives in the Place Pigalle. Momo is eager to learn and embrace the ways of the world, even if it means breaking into his piggy bank to pay his favorite hooker. While his adolescent yearnings are satisfied by the decidedly bemused women of the walkway, Momo is not of a one-track mind. He is also inquisitive about deeper pangs, philosophical and religious. That receptiveness is noticed by Monsieur Ibrahim (Sharif), the stolid storekeeper who sells Momo his daily bread, which he dutifully fetches for his unemployed and cold-hearted father.
Told with an affectionate and romantic eye, "Monsieur Ibrahim" is suffused with an optimism and an innocence, a world where Parisien hookers seem as alluring and wholesome as an "Irma, La Douce" reunion. It imparts generous philosophical/religious lessons without being preachy, in large part because of Sharif's layered performance, clueing us to the vitality of a man who seems merely a worn-down shopkeep and immigrant. Boulanger's portrayal of Momo is nimble and nuanced, juiced with the boy's eager yearnings but nicely coupled with a strain of his emerging maturity.
Although filmmaker Francois Dupeyron's story line wobbles with philosophical roadkill in the denouement -- the elderly sage and the impressionable boy take a trek in a red sports car through the Mideast -- "Monsieur Ibrahim" is both an appealing coming-of-age yarn and, as Monsieur Ibrahim embraces his own mortality, a heartfelt coming-of-aging saga.
Monsieur Ibrahim
Sony Pictures Classics
ARP Selection
Credits: Producers: Michele Petin, Laurent Petin
Screenwriter-director: Francois Dupeyron
Based on the novel by: Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Director of photography: Remy Chevrin
Editor: Dominique Faysse
Casting director: Brigitte Moidon
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Costume designer: Catherine Bouchard
Sound mixer: Francois Maurel
Cast:
Monsieur Ibrahim: Omar Sharif
Momo: Pierre Boulanger
Momo's father: Gilbert Melki
Momo's mother: Isabelle Renauld
Miriam: Lola Naymark
The Movie Star: Isabelle Adjani
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Chicago International Film Festival
CHICAGO -- In Paris, "Arab" means, "Open from 8 to midnight". That's the sly definition that Muslim store owner (Omar Sharif) uses to describe his low-caste situation in this '60s-set scope on Paris. Sixties might be the operative word for this engaging film: "Monsieur Ibrahim" played to an enthusiastic audience here at the Chicago International Film Festival that clearly was of an age to have remembered Sharif from his titular role in "Doctor Zhivago".
In this bracing entertainment, Pierre Boulanger stars as Momo, just turned 16 and eager to lose his virginity, which is sparked considerably by the fact that he lives in the Place Pigalle. Momo is eager to learn and embrace the ways of the world, even if it means breaking into his piggy bank to pay his favorite hooker. While his adolescent yearnings are satisfied by the decidedly bemused women of the walkway, Momo is not of a one-track mind. He is also inquisitive about deeper pangs, philosophical and religious. That receptiveness is noticed by Monsieur Ibrahim (Sharif), the stolid storekeeper who sells Momo his daily bread, which he dutifully fetches for his unemployed and cold-hearted father.
Told with an affectionate and romantic eye, "Monsieur Ibrahim" is suffused with an optimism and an innocence, a world where Parisien hookers seem as alluring and wholesome as an "Irma, La Douce" reunion. It imparts generous philosophical/religious lessons without being preachy, in large part because of Sharif's layered performance, clueing us to the vitality of a man who seems merely a worn-down shopkeep and immigrant. Boulanger's portrayal of Momo is nimble and nuanced, juiced with the boy's eager yearnings but nicely coupled with a strain of his emerging maturity.
Although filmmaker Francois Dupeyron's story line wobbles with philosophical roadkill in the denouement -- the elderly sage and the impressionable boy take a trek in a red sports car through the Mideast -- "Monsieur Ibrahim" is both an appealing coming-of-age yarn and, as Monsieur Ibrahim embraces his own mortality, a heartfelt coming-of-aging saga.
Monsieur Ibrahim
Sony Pictures Classics
ARP Selection
Credits: Producers: Michele Petin, Laurent Petin
Screenwriter-director: Francois Dupeyron
Based on the novel by: Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Director of photography: Remy Chevrin
Editor: Dominique Faysse
Casting director: Brigitte Moidon
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Costume designer: Catherine Bouchard
Sound mixer: Francois Maurel
Cast:
Monsieur Ibrahim: Omar Sharif
Momo: Pierre Boulanger
Momo's father: Gilbert Melki
Momo's mother: Isabelle Renauld
Miriam: Lola Naymark
The Movie Star: Isabelle Adjani
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/25/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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