The Wait (2015)

The Worst Film Ever

I'll tell you why so serious

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Juliet Binoche's master-class skills as an actress are unequivocal, but the gargantuan task of convincing one into understanding why her character just couldn't bring herself to tell the truth was one that escaped me. I kept banging my fists on any solid object close by, saying "tell her!". Perhaps that was the intention of the director, or maybe it's because I'm a male, who has had no children, and probably never will, that made it difficult to understand the intensity of a mother's grief. Either way, I found the overall experience annoying, and only felt obligated to complete this film because of my loyalty to Ms.Binoche. I empathized (and cried)at the end when the long hug took place, but still didn't understand or accept the mother's behavior.

There have to be easier things than penetrating this movie, like climbing Everest on skis, knitting steam, or convincing Jeremy Corbyn he's a dork. I COULD start by saying that Juliette Binoche is brilliant. There's no answer to that except so what else is new; Binoche is always brilliant. Brilliant is what she does. This is a film of silences. In fact there are more silences here than in the Collected Plays of Harold Pinter; Volumes 1 - 3. It's clearly aimed at the heart of the Academic- Pseud axis because you can speculate what the hell it's about till the cows come home and like all classics of the genre it poses more questions than it answers like where has the girlfriend of the missing son come from, how can she afford to stay indefinitely in the house with no visible means of support and, perhaps crucially, what actually happened the previous summer between her and the son. You could speculate on any or all of this or you could wallow in the sumptuous photography/scenery and Binoche's tour de force or, alternatively, you could play a game of chess in your head. Either way it's a hundred minutes you'll never see again.

Without any planning, in the last few days I saw 2 films starring Lou de Laâge and although with completely different characters in both films (L'attesa and Respire) I was pleased with her capacity to enter the role . Juliette Binoche is as always one of the best actresses of her generation and always make great performances. About this L'attesa I can say that although in some parts the film goes a bit too long in the suspense, the story is well written and better represented by the cast. The image plans are very good but sometimes too still. But it is a must see film. A very good work from Francesco Di Giacomo However the story is never totality told to the audience, letting one always thinking ahead.

I've seen it as a part of Italian Cinema Festival in Lisbon, the director was there. To the end I wondered how this relatively young man could make it - bring a spectator in the intersection of sorrow, enchantment and tension and keep him there the whole film. There was a lot of wondering in general - during and after, - a lot of associations and interpretations. The film keeps you very alive in spite of difficult theme, awaken, wanting something from the characters, wanting to be like the characters, asking questions, enjoying slow beautiful shots, colors, landscapes, soundtrack, actresses. Remembering other roles of Juliette Binoche as in "Three colors: Blue" and "Paris, je t'aime", other astonishingly beautiful Italian films like "Stealing beauty". Wishing it to resolute and stop and to continue after titles. J.S. Foer said "humorous is the only way to tell a sad story". "L 'attesa" with very convincing vitality states that the only way to tell a sad story is beautiful.