cricketscorer said:
"Jeanette and M. Ebrard chat happily about their former attempt to cheat each other". And in the Caroline monologue when she talks about her concentration camp experiences (too racy for religious fundementalists?) it claims there is a "newsreel style".
Yeah I disagree with that too. Happily? At all? I think in Extract 4 it was a pretty one-sided conversation. Jeannette says "Vous avez menti?" then M. Ebrard rebutts with giving her back the dud cheque - nothing is said further between them! Is
that a conversation about it? And if at all, would it have been happy?
I don't know about how racy Caroline gets... I don't think any of them get really racy except when Justin is drunk... the worse thing Caroline says about any race is in that speech "On avait la chance de pas être juif en plus..." - I don't think that's really racist, because the sentiment as it seemed to me was that it was 'We were lucky to be them/Thank goodness, because they had it a lot worse off than us commies.'
But a newsreel? Huh?
???
Re: La colle - Yeah I think the teacher once explained it in a lesson day but I didn't get it, or I meant to question what she said because I didn't understand or something else, but didn't. Stupid joke!
Re: Sexual innuendo - yeah, that scene too... mm.. but let's remember that Jeannette is Catholic! Perchance a pillar of reason for the 'conservative schools'
?. And of course the underwear selling/Jeannette going "Maintenant que j'ai le costume, me reste plus qu'a` trouver le client', Magali in the underwear looking 'pouffiasse' and having just to 'go out on the street [like this] and falling pregnant'... damn, there goes my case against such innuendo in the film hehe.
cricketscorer said:
I don't really like M+J as a film, mainly because I think Guediguan lets his political agenda get in the way of where the film should go.
Interesting thought... I never actually thought about liking it as a film because from the outset it was meant to be torn apart and written about, not just sat back and be appreciated! Though I think that through the characters, while he does expose his views and convictions, in quite long lengthy expositions lol, the sort of 'over-indulgence' in political commentary is important to such characters like Caroline and Justin, in making us understand them as their characters. In that respect they're not just making shallow comments of things, but reinforcing it, (though as you say at the expense of letting political agenda play a major role in the film), and in turn creating characters, who are quite intense and involved. Also the big heavy political thing with Caroline in Extract 4 in the cimenterie, when she goes on at length about the beers, goes right through Dédé, so Dédé's ignorance is highlighted
by such intense political discussion, because he has no idea about what Caroline is talking.
So in short (!!!) it's just part of character development, I think...