by Cookie N Screen
There are some directors out there who have become this adjective in cinema. There are thrillers out there under the tagline of Hitchcockian, where the use of visuals, imagery and tension build up are alluded to the Psycho director. Cronenberg is another one whose body horror escapades are paralleled when someone extrapolates the human spirit with bucket loads of blood and special effects.
Then whenever you have a sniff of a quirky romantic comedy that has some black vein within it, you are almost always going to be associated with Woody Allen.
It’s a terrible comment to aim for, too, and almost always, you can tell that’s the bar they were setting themselves. Which, unfortunately, is the case for Vincent Lannoo’s Les Ames De Papier, otherwise known as Paper Souls.
There are some directors out there who have become this adjective in cinema. There are thrillers out there under the tagline of Hitchcockian, where the use of visuals, imagery and tension build up are alluded to the Psycho director. Cronenberg is another one whose body horror escapades are paralleled when someone extrapolates the human spirit with bucket loads of blood and special effects.
Then whenever you have a sniff of a quirky romantic comedy that has some black vein within it, you are almost always going to be associated with Woody Allen.
It’s a terrible comment to aim for, too, and almost always, you can tell that’s the bar they were setting themselves. Which, unfortunately, is the case for Vincent Lannoo’s Les Ames De Papier, otherwise known as Paper Souls.
The French film revolves around Paul, a novelist who is stricken by grief after his wife passes away. To find some resonance in his life, Paul starts to write funeral speeches for other people after penning one for his lot loved one. When he comes across widow Emma, he discovers that his life is about to take an expectant turn and allows her to into his life when she asks Paul to help her son remember his dead father. Complicated romance then ensues in this Parisian comedy-drama, especially when Emma's deceased husband reappears on Paul's doorstep.
Regardless of how I may have opened this article, Paper Souls genuinely has a bit of tenderness and humanity within it to be interesting enough. Set around Christmas time, you could allude its Noël spirit to self-deprecating British comedies such as Love Actually. Indeed, it has some of this essence just teamed with an odder edge. Its sympathetic drollness enhances the delicacy of the human spirit after death and mashes these characters together through wrought moments and troubled emotion. It’s in this narrative, the exploration of death and rekindling of life, where Paper Souls finds its strength, in the quandaries and poignancies of life.
Regardless of how I may have opened this article, Paper Souls genuinely has a bit of tenderness and humanity within it to be interesting enough. Set around Christmas time, you could allude its Noël spirit to self-deprecating British comedies such as Love Actually. Indeed, it has some of this essence just teamed with an odder edge. Its sympathetic drollness enhances the delicacy of the human spirit after death and mashes these characters together through wrought moments and troubled emotion. It’s in this narrative, the exploration of death and rekindling of life, where Paper Souls finds its strength, in the quandaries and poignancies of life.
But unfortunately, it fritters away its potential and stirring first half of the film, failing hold together its themes. Paper Souls is exactly like its titular object because it folds in itself with the weight of added components to the film. The addition of Nathan, the supposed dead husband, adds this surreal caper-esque atmosphere to the film that detracts from the journeys Paul and Emma were making. It seems ham-fisted, trying to shove something “unique” into the film that makes it memorable but, in itself, is problematic. It strains the overall product of the film making it fall apart.
Paper Souls does its best but it is never excellent as it should be. The contrasts two halves is like cutting open a fresh bit of fruit and finding that, after deliciously eating half, the bit you have left has been so tampered with that it is rotten. This is such a shame for Lannoo. It laments this attempt at being different like Allen. Whereas it’s true strength lied without overblown quirks and rather in fleshing out the decay of human spirit and how something new can develop from it. Like a paper airplane, the film loses direction too easily.
Paper Souls does its best but it is never excellent as it should be. The contrasts two halves is like cutting open a fresh bit of fruit and finding that, after deliciously eating half, the bit you have left has been so tampered with that it is rotten. This is such a shame for Lannoo. It laments this attempt at being different like Allen. Whereas it’s true strength lied without overblown quirks and rather in fleshing out the decay of human spirit and how something new can develop from it. Like a paper airplane, the film loses direction too easily.
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Where is Paper Souls set?
A) London
B) New York
C) Paris
Let us know in the comments below!
Where is Paper Souls set?
A) London
B) New York
C) Paris
Let us know in the comments below!
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