There are few things in life as devastating and traumatic as having to watch your child confront a life-threatening illness. I assume so anyway. My own kids were booted out of the house at the age of seven in the hopes that they would go make something of themselves, so they may have already kicked the bucket for all I know. But from what I understand a deathly ill child is an all around terrible experience. Romeo and Juliette learn this first hand after they meet, make sweet love, give birth to their son Adam nine months later, and soon begin to take serious notice of his behavior. He’s vomiting more than would be considered normal, his head has a constant tilt, and one side of his face seems slightly swollen. Upon their first meeting they joked incredulously about their names commenting that they’re most likely doomed to a terrible fate, but...
- 2/17/2012
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Chicago – Few semi-autobiographical explorations of high-stakes drama have ever been as playfully exuberant as Valérie Donzelli’s “Declaration of War.” Like Jonathan Levine and Will Reiser’s equally sublime “50/50,” this film is based directly on the real-life experiences of people who faced a cancer diagnosis and lived to tell the tale. Both pictures resist mawkish sentiment while delving into the rich textures and eccentricities of life.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Whereas Reiser’s script was reminiscent of Judd Apatow’s signature brand of humanistic and improvisational comedy, Donzelli’s script (which she wrote with her co-star and real-life lover, Jérémie Elkaïm) appears to have been inspired largely by the experimental whimsy of François Truffaut. Initially, the dramatic tonal shifts are somewhat jarring, and there are moments when the film veers into distractingly twee territory. Yet for the most part, Donzelli strikes a remarkable balance between seriousness and irreverence, with occasional doses of unexpected surrealism.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Whereas Reiser’s script was reminiscent of Judd Apatow’s signature brand of humanistic and improvisational comedy, Donzelli’s script (which she wrote with her co-star and real-life lover, Jérémie Elkaïm) appears to have been inspired largely by the experimental whimsy of François Truffaut. Initially, the dramatic tonal shifts are somewhat jarring, and there are moments when the film veers into distractingly twee territory. Yet for the most part, Donzelli strikes a remarkable balance between seriousness and irreverence, with occasional doses of unexpected surrealism.
- 2/17/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
It premiered at Cannes (Critics' Week; see Marie-Pierre Duhamel's review), it's screened at Sundance, it was France's horse in the Oscar race (though it didn't make the final round), it's just been nominated for six Césars (Best Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, Sound and Editing), and we begin this roundup with Karina Longworth in the Voice: "The gorgeously scruffy Juliette (director/co-writer Valérie Donzelli) and Roméo (co-writer Jérémie Elkaïm) — yes, the improbability is noted — move from dive-bar love-at-first-sight to proud parents of a newborn boy in the first few minutes of Declaration of War. Then their 18-month-old son, Adam, is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Shot in the actual hospital where Donzelli and Elkaïm's actual son was treated for cancer, Declaration of War turns autobiography into thrilling expressionist art."
The diagnosis "is the point at which most films would start scrupulously wringing every emotional moment for maximum cancersploitation," writes...
The diagnosis "is the point at which most films would start scrupulously wringing every emotional moment for maximum cancersploitation," writes...
- 1/27/2012
- MUBI
When the young couple whose relationship is the fond focus of Declaration Of War first meet in a punk club, they discover to their amusement that they are Romeo (Jérémie Elkaïm) and Juliette (Valérie Donzelli). “So we’re doomed to a terrible fate?” Elkaïm asks before planting a kiss on Donzelli. As it turns out, they are, though not one involving feuding families and faked deaths. They fall in love, move in together, and have a son, who isn’t yet 2 years old when he’s diagnosed with a brain tumor. The film is ...
- 1/26/2012
- avclub.com
With so many foreign films launching at Cannes, more than a few are bound to get lost in the shuffle. One of those, absent on my personal radar, was the French film Declaration of War, directed by Valérie Donzelli. It looks like it made it through the pack, as France declared (!) it their entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. IFC also picked it up for distribution, and ahead of their late January release, we have the first trailer. With 50/50, cancer and comedy seems to be tied together this year and for this foreign film, it looks to be a well-told story with some beautiful visuals, worthy of its praise so far. Check it out below via Apple for the film also starring Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm.
Synopsis:
The opening night film at this year’s Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival and France’s Official Entry for Best...
Synopsis:
The opening night film at this year’s Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival and France’s Official Entry for Best...
- 12/5/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Today, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc), which will take place between October 12 to 23. Here's the complete line-up of feature films according to the press release we received.
Opening and closing
The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.
Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.
Opening and closing
The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.
Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.
- 9/27/2011
- by noreply@blogger.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
I will soon post a list of films I have already seen that I highly recommend as well as a list of my most anticipated films screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema. For now here is the press release from the festival. Make sure you read carefully because there are a ton of great films to check out.
Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...
Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...
- 9/27/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Jérémie Elkaïm, Valérie Donzelli, Declaration of War La Guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War is France's submission for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The second feature film directed by actress-turned-filmmaker Valérie Donzelli (Who Killed Bambi?, The Untouchable), who also co-wrote it with her former real-life companion Jérémie Elkaïm (perhaps best known in the Us for the 2000 gay drama Come Undone), Declaration of War is a tear-jerking family drama inspired by events in their own lives. In the film, Donzelli and Elkaïm play a young couple, Roméo and Juliette, whose baby (at the age of 8 played by the couple's real-life son, Gabriel Elkaïm) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Roméo and Juliette then proceed to declare war against death while struggling to save their own relationship as well. (The French-language title sounds like a pun on the title of Alain Resnais' 1966 classic La guerre est finie / The War Is Over.
- 9/17/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Declarations of War (La guerre est déclarée), which opened Cannes Critics' Week, has gone to Sundance Selects for U.S. distribution. Valérie Donzelli wrote, directed and stars in the film alongside Jérémie Elkaïm (who also co-wrote). Based on their own true love story, the movie follows Romeo and Juliette, a couple battling against their child's illness. Sundance Selects has now acquired five films out of the Cannes selection, including Maiwenn's jury-prize winning policier Poliss, Julia Leigh's provocative Sleeping Beauty, the Dardenne brothers' Grand Prix-sharing The Kid with a Bike and Bertrand Bonello's competition entry House of Tolerance; IFC Midnight picked up Aussie serial killer thriller Snowtown. The trailer is below: The film "won us over with their completely heartfelt, life affirming film that announces them as ...
- 5/25/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
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