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Reviews
Michiel de Ruyter (2015)
Some inaccuracies
***Contains some spoilers**** I like the movie for the action, the settings, the cloths, the ships, etc. although for sure there will be errors made there. A movie like this will always have some historical inaccuracies. European history is complicated and Dutch history is no exception. That being said, there is a line between inaccuracies and plain distortion of the facts. I am Dutch and not a royalist at all, on the contrary. But I wonder if the producers and directors had some anti-Orange agenda. First of all the insinuation of homosexuality with William the 3rd. It was too much. At the time -when he became king of England, Scotland and Ireland- there were rumors. But he married. His wife had a miscarriage and could not conceive afterwards. They apparently loved each other very much, although he also had a mistress. Bentinck (his insinuated lover) had a bunch of children.
Next thing, his implication in the assassination of de DeWitt brothers. There is no historical proof of that although it cannot be excluded. Who was part of that conspiracy was Tromp and Kievit of course. Then the scene that William forced de Ruyter to a 'suicide' mission, threatening the safety of his family if he wouldn't go. Again, no proof of that.
The struggle between the Statists and the Organgist was hard, often brutal but let's not taint this history with invented stories to spice up the movie. That period in Dutch history was indeed epic and defined a nation. De Ruyter saved the Republic on more than one occasion. He was a brilliant sailor and commander.
Le corbeau (1943)
Excellent classic French thriller
*****CONTAINS SPOILERS*****
Having seen Les Diaboliques before this thriller from Clouzot I expected that Le Corbeau could not match Les Diaboliques. And it didn't but it was not far off. But remember that Le Corbeau was the second movie directed by Clouzot and made 12 years before Les Diaboliques. So he had some time to perfect his skills.
The movie manages to hide the identity of the writer of the poison-pen letters to the very end although there are hints during the movie and these are even mentioned by the perpetrator himself. One uneasy fact of the story is the quite amicable relation the writer of the letters has with the main character of the movie (Remy) who happens to have a more than friendly relation with the wife of the writer. Creating the illusion that he doesn't mind this because of the age difference between him and his wife, he sets out to destroy Remy (Remy in the meanwhile also becomes the lover of another woman). While doing this he is responsible for the death of a patient, nearly destroys his ex-fiancée who happens to be the sister of his wife but also his supplier of Morphine and spills the beans on a lot of people in the village. Indeed quite a devious but still amicable person. But he finds his end at the hands of a grieving mother and that is how the movie ends leaving the viewer to wonder what Remy would do: report her or not?
What is interesting about this movie that it was made during WWII when France was occupied by the Germans. The movie was made for a German film company and it landed Clouzot a ban on making movies for a few years after WWII. The movie was denounced by the French resistance and the German occupiers did not endorse it. My interpretation is that Clouzot managed to make a thriller with a hidden message: that in times of trouble (war) no one is to be trusted and that the one who is to be distrusted the most is the one you least expect it of. I think it was a message to people to be very careful because no secret remains hidden and informers are everywhere. And to be careful for scapegoating. Anyway, that is my interpretation.
Les diaboliques (1955)
Spookiest opening tune ever
I watched this excellent classic movie for the first time when I was twelve, home alone....I did not sleep well that night. Watching 35 years later again the movie does not scare me anymore but it still hits a nerve. It is a classic French thriller. Slow at times but that is all part of the buildup. If you like B&W French movies with suspense then you will love this one. The acting is great, the setting is fantastic and the story is truly diabolical.
The movie has the spookiest opening tune of a movie ever and I love it. I think I will turn it into a ring tone to identify when my mother in law calls me.
36 quai des orfèvres (2004)
Meeeehhhh
******Spoiler alert*****
Meeeehhh. It all starts very promising, one cop pitched against another fighting over the same promotion and apparently there is a connection between them via loved one. The cop portrayed by Depardieu blows a major operation but still gets the promotion because the 'good' cop screwed up when he covers for an informant who kills three people while himself being present there. The thing is, the evidence against the god cop is based on the declaration of a hooker (witness to the killing) threatened with deportation. The good cop only had to deny the charges because no one would believe the hooker. But I guess the movie would then stop there: good cop gets promotion and bad cop not. After this the good cop loses everything: freedom, reputation, his wife. Everything except his daughter and the kitchen sink. That all btw, goes very sloooooowly and serves as way to somehow create the image of a great injustice being done to the good cop.
After being released he seeks up the bad cop and presents him a gun so he can take his own life (because the bad cop was responsible for the death of the good cop's wife -the love connection-). Why would a ruthless career cop do that at that point if he hadn't considered it before (having in mind he also shot the wife after she was already dead; sounds pretty ruthless to me)?
The end where the bad cop gets killed because of some other event in the movie was soooo predictable. I was disappointed by the movie. Lot's of potential and despite the acting of the main characters, it didn't deliver. It couldn't quite portray the rivalry between the two main characters. Too bad because I really like these rough French movies (but without the unnecessary and unbelievable fight scenes which this movie thankfully did not have too many of).
3 Billion and Counting (2010)
Dead wrong
DDT is a dangerous chemical that ends up and biomagnifies in the environment. DDT and its cousin DDE are not acutely toxic to humans but they are passed from human to human via mother's milk and they are stored in fatty tissue in babies. It is foolish to assume that a ban on DDT is responsible for the death of 3 billion people due to malaria. DDT was not banned in many places Africa and Asia and it is continued to be used but with less effect because mosquitoes have acquired immunity to DDT. The eradication of malaria in the US and Europe was due to improved standards of living, better protection, removal of habitat sources for mosquitoes and better medical treatment. In the US, malaria was in many places eradicated before DDT arrived on the scene. The eradication of malaria is tied to economic conditions and improvement of living standards and not to the spraying of DDT.