Americano (2011)

The greatest movie ever!

the audience applauded

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

I saw the movie on TV5 and found it a great film. Why? Well, it's exactly the type of movie that I have lately been interested in. Like the movies of Michelangelo Antonioni, who was an inspiration for my latest novel, and like the movies of Sautet or Godard etc. The French movies from the sixties and seventies, in which not too much is happening (my wife always says, what the hell are you watching? Nothing's happening, there's no plot). Americano also reminded me of Paris Texas by Wim Wenders. Like Paris Texas it has this curious quality of a road movie mixed with certain story telling and autobiographical aspects. Anyway, who wants a straight story? I also liked the actors very much. Apart from that, the images are always fascinating. A star cast for a visual spectacle.

this movie should be retitled 'the masochistic frenchman' - what a self destructive character Demy portrays. truly this story (which is very interesting in concept) is just torn to pieces by the main character stealing every scene and turn in this story! i didn't believe in his characterization at all.i understand his feeling of abandonment by his mother and the resentment he expressed in having to deal with her estate. but there is not enough background into his personality to support his deep hatred complication. (example - his tossing away of everything in the apartment without care). and just why would he care so much about Lola? a person he has not had contact with for decades! again - not enough character development to support the obsession and misery he endured on her behalf. it's just wasn't believable. and why would he steal the automobile? the telephone conversation he has with his father in which the father psycho analyses his son is just pointless by the time it shows up in the story.the only shining actor is geraldine chaplin! she is marvelous as the caring but dominating neighbor and not enough of her side of the relationship with the mother is made clear. the writer is too mysterious with his implication that Lola and the mother had something going in their 'friendship'. then the little Mexican boy - what? was that suppose to be Lola's son? not made clear. and the cemetery scene - again - what? sorry this flick is just too full of who, what, when, where, holes; and then he goes back to his lover in France. if you are a person that likes incomplete plot lines - check this movie out!

I saw AMERICANO to the International Film Festival 2012 La Rochelle, France. I had the opportunity to speak directly to the author, the marvelous MATHIEU DEMY. I asked him about the idea to make this film... His answer fascinated me! In fact the film is talking about how a man must go in a different ( and ugly ) country as USA, taking a false route and finishing by understand that memory, the real life, is not but an illusion, like the Cinema... Using old recording with himself and his wonderful and great artist, mother AGNES VARDA!!!, it was really fantastic! I love this film and "c'est tout" ! Mathieu Demy started as a child actor in Agnès Varda's films : One sings, the other doesn't, Documenteur, Murs, murs, then Kung-fu Master. Demy's work as an actor ranges from romantic comedy to drama. His breakthrough came in1998, when he was cast as Olivier, a young man with AIDS, in the musical Jeanne and the perfect guy, directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. In 1999, he started company Les Films de l'Autre to produce his own short films. He produced and directed in 2000 his first film Le Plafond (35'), adapted from a short story by Tonino Benacquista. The film received the audience award at the Angers film festival Festival Premiers Plans and the Uppsala International short film Festival, and additional awards in Pantin, Rennes, Dignes, Mamers. In 2001, Mathieu Demy worked for director Benoît Cohen for the first time, in the film Les Acteurs anonymous. They reunited for Our precious children, in which he plays Martin, a thirty-year-old man who meets his great love again as he's about to become a father. Mathieu Demy received in 2001 the award for best actor at the Festival de Paris, for Quand on sera grand directed by Renaud Cohen. The Festival Européen Cinessone awarded him twice for acting: in 2003 for Mister V. by Émilie Deleuze and in 2004 for Le Silence by Orso Miret. In 2005, Les Films de l'Autre produced Mathieu Demy's second short film, La Bourde (20'), an experimental comedy. Mathieu Demy reprised his role as Martin for the TV adaptation of Nos infants chéris, which aired on Canal+ in 2007 and 2008. He was cast by Pascal Bonitzer for Le Grand Alibi, and worked twice for Philippe Barassat, in films Folle de Rachid en transit sur Mars and Lisa et le pilot d'avion. In 2009, he also starred in André Téchiné's La Fille du RER and in TV drama Mes chères études directed by Emmanuelle Bercot and dealing with a students' prostitution. In 2011, Mathieu Demy appeared in Céline Sciamma's Tomboy, and was cast as the lead in the romantic comedy L'Art de seducer by Guy Mazarguil. The same year, Mathieu Demy wrote, directed and produced his first feature film, Americano. Demy also stars in the film, along with Salma Hayek.

Demy's story is not without charm, and in between the stutter in a simplistic seen it man traveling abroad to recover the body of his parent, and in the process searching and maybe finding himself story, revolving around a bunch of pretty much generic characters, his lead written for himself en-tête, there are some small finds, like Chaplin's play, or Hayek's yet another stripper character. Unfortunately, however, the most outstanding negative feature is not even the direction, which exemplifies how any setting can be displayed from the most unflattering and bleak angle, from Paris to L.A., with the most uninspired framing you could believe possible, or the shaky borderline earthquake documentary camera work, nor the dialog, which is not a stand out, but in the film quality itself. It reminded me of the execrable film grain of the civic education videos they used to project at the cinema before the movie in my home country 25 years ago during the communist era. I guess Demy found a stash somewhere. Slightly worn.Also, on an even more humorous note, it will provide food for thought for those planning on some day spending a long weekend in Tijuana.