Elissa Franceschi @elissafranceschi - Tumblr Blog

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On the edge (at Mt Barney Lodge)

Have you ever slept in a boot? It's pretty interesting

Itching to share new music 🎹

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It's an India Aire blastin' kinda Winters Day 😂 #thistooshallpass (at Bulimba, Queensland, Australia)

Back to brown for winter 💇☺️ thank you @william_webb_hair and @ellajadehair for the beautiful cut colour and treatment. Best salon in Brisbane. (at Ella&Jade)

'Ma Ma' is the latest offering from screenplay writer and Director Julio Medem, and was showcased at a special screening for theSpanish Film Festival. Penelope Cruz (‘Vicky, Cristina Barcelona', ‘Nine’) is simply sublime as Magda, a fiesty and fearless single mother who is diagnosed with breast cancer. She faces the painful journey ahead with stoic elegance, her only request to her delightful gynaecologist Julian (played byAsier Etxeandia) is that he saves her a nipple- just as a token she jokes. It is not easy viewing at times, lots of hospital rooms, unfair diagnoses and precious time cruelly cut short, but for a film that is saturated by the prognosis of inevitable death, Ma Ma is achingly full of life.

Magda decides that her cancer is not going to define her, nor erode her sense of self and femininity and she chooses to withhold the information from her son for the summer, whilst she comes to terms with the toll that chemotherapy will take on her. Yet just as life is at times stranger than fiction, the very same day she is diagnosed she meets beautiful soulArturo (played by Luis Tosar). They bond over different facets of grief (the day they meet at her son's football game, he finds out his wife and daughter have been in a car accident) and fall in love; becoming the companion that the other needs so desperately to survive. Most of the frames are comprised of pale greys and blues, painting a melancholic state which is often at odds with the comedic dialogue and light-hearted nature of Magda’s coping mechanisms. In moments of a morphine-induced haze, she imagines a blonde haired orphan from Serbia - this little girl acts as a recurring metaphor in the film, but the audience has to wait a while before things become clear. Undoubtedly one of Cruz’s most intimate character portrayals, 'Ma Ma' is as arty as it is moving. It is not often such a beautiful box-office treasure is willing to be truly vulnerable in the physicality of a role; we see her naked, with no hair, no make-up, we see her cry and laugh but most of all, endure.

When all else seems lost, the film poses the question, what would you do if you had nothing left to lose? Well, having been jilted by an ex-husband and now with a companion who is too unable to make love to her, Magda decides to explore her sensuality with reckless abandon. The consequences of one particular evening at a secret sex club is possibly the most beautiful moment in the whole film. Because amidst all the horror of cancer, the film seems more affiliated with Magda's journey of motherhood, her body, her desires and her victorious determination to create new beginnings, against all odds.

-Film review by Elissa Franceschi for mycitylife.com.au

#spanishfilmfestival mama penelopecruz filmreview

Excuse the rusty morning voice, just a new somethin I'm working on over my breakfast 🎹☕️

Mon Roi is the latest offering from Director Maïwenn and screenplay by both Maïwenn and Etienne Comar. It has seen mixed reviews at Cannes and was recently featured at the Palace Centro Cinema and Palace Barracks Cinema, as part of the Alliance French Film Festival; a fantastic venue celebrating the very best of recent French cinema. Translating to mean ‘My King’- Mon Roi follows protagonists’ Georgiou (played by acting heavyweight Vincent Cassel) and Marie-Antoinette aka Tony (played by Emmanuelle Bercot) and their tumultuous relationship. The film opens to a breathtaking abyss of snow and jagged mountains, Tony suffers a horrific ski injury and the scene abruptly cuts to her recovering at a rehabilitation centre. Nostalgia and healing are the prominent themes for the duration of the film and the audience is suspended in Tony’s nonlinear grief, as she sorts through her memories portrayed flashback form. It is the build-up of this love story retold and the nuances of the other relationships that make for a beautifully rich and vibrant film.

The two lovers meet in a neon-lit nightclub in Paris and their push-pull courtship begins. Georgiou’s charisma sweeps Tony off her feet (he normally sleeps with models but makes Tony feel like the grand prize he was always waiting for) and the early red flags seem lost on her when he proclaims he is the ‘King of jerks’. The audience is placed in the epicentre of their passion and filming is raw with intimate angles and overly dramatized monologue-like dialogue. The honeymoon period seems rushed to all those around them, particularly Tony’s loveable brother Solal(played by the hilarious Louis Garrel). Protective Solal begrudgingly permits Georgiou to join their friendship circle but is the first one to see his true colours. Mistresses, debt, drug problems, hangers-on and unrelenting narcissism from Georgiou sends Tony into a downward spiral of extreme mood swings which only worsen after the birth of their son. Enter stage-left the troublesome ex-girlfriend Agnes (played by Chrystele Saint Louis Augustin) who is the prolonged thorn in Tony’s proverbial side. Georgiou panders to her at the negligence of his wife and newborn son even making her ‘Godmother Agnes’ - to Tony and the audiences utter disbelief. As with most tragic love stories, Solal’s efforts to warn his sister and pull her away from the toxicity of this unpredictable Jekyll and Hyde are in vain, and he is left to pick up the pieces. A key scene towards the end of the film sees flaws laid bare on the table they once shared, Tony turns to Georgiou and admits that even after nearly ten years together- she barely knows him at all. Considering the film is just over two hours long (but did not drag) it’s almost bemusing it takes her this long to see how wrong she was about him, but the audience is just as taken in by him and left holding on for dear life - a credit to Cassel’s enchanting presence.

In totality, it would be fair to brand ‘Mon Roi’ as indulgent, but is that not the very nature of visceral and extreme passionate love affairs? It is suggested by a nurse at the treatment centre that there are always underlying reasons why people have accidents, no wonder it takes Tony so long to reach a point of peace with what damage was done; but as the credits roll it is clear that despite the heartache endured, she has resolved that it was somehow worth the ride. -Film review by Elissa Franceschi for http://www.mycitylife.com.au/

#filmreview monroi frenchfilmfestival