Cesar Winners: "Les Misérables" is tops... but now we're curious about "La Belle Epoque"

Yes yes, we were supposed to be taking the weekend off. But we forgot about the Césars held yeseterday in France. So...

Cast & Crew of "Les Miserables" at the Cesars

While Roman Polanski's "J'Accuse!" led the César nominations in the end it lost "Best Film" to France's Oscar nominated Les Misérables. Both films won multiple prizes. Curiously considering two prizes for Polanski himself, two films which center on the sexual abuse of kids (By the Grace of God and "M") also won Césars. The dramedy La Belle Epoque, starring longtime gallic icons Daniel Auteuil and Fanny Ardant, also made a strong showing with 3 wins. A complete list of winners, some stats, and the trailer to La Belle Epoque are after the jump...

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Beauty Sleep

After wrapping up the film year and February ending TFE needs some beauty sleep but we'll back on Sunday night or Monday morning, refreshed. Have fun this weekend! See lots of movies. 

COMING IN MARCH
Celebrations of Toshiro Mifune for his centennial and Rachel Weisz for her 50th + the new Smackdown schedule + trips to the movie theater for Wendy, Saint Frances, The Hunt, A Quiet Place Part 2, Emma. And you know how we love anniversaries so we'll look back at The Picture of Dorian Gray, Tristana, and Muriel's Wedding for their 75th, 50th, 25th respectively. All that plus whatever you assign us on streaming since that Voyage experience went well. 

February. It's a Wrap

Here are some highlights you might have missed from the month that was. (Yes, there's one day left but we're taking a weekend) 

Voyage of the Damned (1976) you assigned us this topic. We'll do another reader's choice soon
Carol 2 ??? No, it's just a set photo from Nightmare Alley.
10 Unforgettable Oscar Moments - what were your favourites?
And Then We Danced don't miss this lovely drama about gay dancers in homophobic Georgia
Birds of Prey hasn't been superhero-sized hit but Chris liked it
Sundance Sum Up - Murtada tells us how it was in snowy Park City
The French Dispatch - are you excited for Wes Anderson's latest? 
Interview: Rodrigo Prieto the great cinematographer looks back at his career and why he's an auteur favourite
Nathaniel's top 10 of 2019 Woman at War, Marriage Story, The Farewell etc
2019 Film Coverage is a Wrap a guide to all our coverage of the year that was

Review: The Invisible Man

by Chris Feil

What was once meant for the microwaved territory of the would-be Dark Universe has found new, timely, and sometimes ingenious life as a one-off. Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man morphs its source material with a shift in perspective, making its mad scientist a complete phantom figure to the audience.

However, he is a monster all too intimately familiar to the protagonist, Elisabeth Moss’s fraught survivor Cecilia. The film aims to place itself alongside the greats of our current age of horror by placing us thrillingly in her escape from abuse, and in turn offers something fresher to its namesake than previously imagined. If not always a complete success in its genre elements, on a conceptual basis, The Invisible Man is valuable and invigorating as a portrait of the fallout from enduring domestic abuse.

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The Emmas of Yore: ITV's "Emma"

by Cláudio Alves

The character of Emma Woodhouse is a tricky one to play. At least, if the actress is trying to reproduce the personality Jane Austen wrote in her famous novel. She's a daughter of privilege who has grown to believe she's much cleverer than what is true. A matchmaker by vocation, Emma is a busybody who's always interfering in other people's lives, presumptuous and terminally judgmental of all that surrounds her. She can also be a bit of a mean girl when indulged. Still, these character flaws are nothing but the folly of youth and the consequence of a provincial upbringing. Emma Woodhouse is naïve to a fault and desperately romantic. More importantly, she's not intentionally cruel or callous, just foolish.

This mix of a meddler's instinct and a daydreamer's heart is a difficult one to represent without skewing the balance of the characterization. In that regard, Kate Beckinsale might be the best Emma of them all…

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