{"id":100,"date":"2021-07-22T16:11:22","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T16:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/venu4445.local\/?p=100"},"modified":"2022-07-10T11:37:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T11:37:56","slug":"fox-on-film-entertainment-french-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/fox-on-film-entertainment-french-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox on Film: French Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"100\" class=\"elementor elementor-100\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2e5ce9a3 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default qodef-elementor-content-no\" data-id=\"2e5ce9a3\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-65c1cfcf\" data-id=\"65c1cfcf\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4c601b2d elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4c601b2d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.12.2 - 23-04-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\tReviewed by Peter Fox\r\n\r\nDirected by AZAZEL JACOBS Written by PATRICK DEWITT\r\nStarring MICHELLE PFEIFFER as Frances Price LUCAS HEDGES as Malcolm Price VALERIE MAHAFFEY as Mme Reynard IMOGEN POOTS as Susan\r\nA Sony Pictures Classics Release, Rated R, 113 minutes.\r\n\r\n****\r\n\r\nFrench Exit is a masterfully executed film and offers an intimate look at what happens when a wealthy woman, Frances Price, whom Michelle Pfeiffer brilliantly portrays, faces financial ruin. Directed by Azazel Jacobs and written by Patrick de Witt, this dark comedy is both inventive and poignant. It offers an intimate look at the inevitability of default to one\u2019s natural identity when the means to a high utility level, acquired through marriage, is no longer available. When the consequences become unbearable, Frances must choose between life or death.\r\n\r\nThe story begins when Frances arrives unexpectedly at a high-end prep school to reclaim her 12-year-old son, Malcolm, portrayed as an adult by Lucas Hedges. Her husband has died, and she has inherited a massive fortune, including cash, priceless art, and a Park Avenue home in New York City. Flash forward 15 years, where we learn from Frances\u2019s advisor that the fortune is now gone, in large part to her careless spending habits. When Frances requests the money she brought to the marriage, the advisor reveals that the amount was minuscule and long ago. In the meantime, Malcolm is indecisive about his engagement with Susan, played by Imogen Poots. After a lunch meeting with her best friend Joan (Susan Coyne), Frances accepts her offer to move to Paris to live in her apartment. Francis, Malcolm, and their black cat, \u201cSmall Frank\u201d-named after her late husband, leave the heartbroken Susan and New York for a passage on the Cunard line to Europe to settle in the Paris apartment owned by Joan.\r\n\r\nWhile on board the ocean liner, Malcolm enters the bar and meets Madeline (Danielle MacDonald), who works on the ship as a psychic reader. She and Malcolm share a few drinks and a roll in the hay, much to the chagrin of Frances. While at the customs counter after they arrive, Madeline forges a connection with the black cat before leaving them. At their new apartment in Paris, Francis removes her smuggled cat and 15 stacks of cash, worth a total of 1.5 million Euros. She neatly places the money on a shelf in the closet, and as the story moves on, the stacks are like a ticking clock, winding down to a zero hour and its inevitable consequences.\r\n\r\nShortly after settling in, Francis receives an invitation to meet an old friend from New York living in Paris, Mademoiselle Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey). Eccentric but affable, Reynard has prepared dinner and drinks but receives haughty condescension from Frances, whose dialog cuts to the quick for most of the film. There are plenty of gags along the way. When Mme. Reynard excuses herself for a moment, Malcolm discovers a frozen dildo in the kitchen freezer. When he returns to the living room and tells Frances, she asks: \u201cWhy would you want it cold?\u201d Malcolm replies: \u201cThat\u2019s the mystery.\u201d\r\n\r\nNot a single cell phone or computer appears in the film, but the automobiles, costumes, and remaining art direction are present-day and give the film a timelessness. After a bike ride, Malcolm stops at a payphone to call Susan in New York and discovers she is now engaged to a new boyfriend, Tom (Daniel Di Tomasso). When he returns to the apartment, he discovers that Small Frank has bitten and injured Frances. As he bandages her wound, the cat runs out into the Paris night.\r\n\r\nAfter this moment, the film\u2019s central question is brought forth in dialogue spoken by Mme. Reynard. In a private chat with Malcolm, she asks him: \u201cDo you ever feel as though you\u2019ve had adulthood thrust upon you at too young an age, and you\u2019re still essentially a child, mimicking the behaviors of the grown-ups all around you so they won\u2019t uncover the meager contents of your heart?\u201d Reynard could as well have directed this question to Frances, only on the subject of social privilege. Just substitute the word <em>Privilege <\/em>for <em>Adulthood<\/em>, and in this sense, the question speaks to Frances\u2019 parvenu nature; a working-class woman who has married into wealth but must now face the naked truth that she is hopelessly on the way back down the societal and economic ladder to her place of origin and humble beginnings. As the years of her immersion in the ruling class have afforded her the look, vernacular, and mannerisms of someone \u201cto the Manor born,\u201d she is woefully unprepared for the impending loss of the resources required to sustain her gluttonous existence and counterfeit identity. Psychologically and emotionally, she is lost, fearful, and against the wall. Pfieffer\u2019s performance is convincing and also sympathetic. We feel her hopelessness and desire to make things better, not only for herself but for Malcolm. Her ordinary world is quickly slipping away, but she doesn\u2019t know what to do about it. Before Malcolm can answer Mme Reynard\u2019s pointed question, Frances bursts back into frame and bellows: \u201cThat witch you fucked on the boat on the way over. She understood him, didn\u2019t she? Why can\u2019t we ask her where he is?\u201d\r\n\r\nA private investigator, Julius (Issach De Bankole), is summoned, and he quickly returns with Madeline. Shortly after that, Susan arrives in Paris with Tom, her objective being to decide whom to marry. With the apartment filled with all of these various characters, the comedic peak of the film unfolds as Madeline conducts a seance to locate and communicate with Small Frank, the cat. In the scene, Malcolm confronts Frank\u2019s spirit on abandoning him as a young boy, bringing Frances closer to him.\r\n\r\nA quick look inside the closet reveals that the stacks of money are nearly gone, resulting from Frances\u2019s inability to handle her finances responsibly. At the park across the street from her apartment, she gives a homeless man \u20ac300,000. Then, she sits at an outdoor cafe and writes a note to her friend Joan, informing her that she will commit suicide. She leaves a \u20ac100 tip for the waiter, who mails the message to Joan.\r\n\r\nFrancis summons Madeline to conjure Frank for one last conversation but not to ask him to come home. Instead, she clears her slate with him regarding Malcolm, their marriage, and their ultimate fate.\r\n\r\nAside from one technical glitch in the film (I won\u2019t give it away, but here\u2019s a hint: keep an eye on the money), this is a near-flawless film, with Michelle Pfeiffer serving up one of the best performances of her career. Lucas Hedges is in equal parts soft, vulnerable, and firm in his portrayal of Malcolm. The sleeper performance of French Exit comes from Valerie Mahaffey, who displays excellent range as Mademoiselle Reynard. French Exit is a delightful, funny, and also thought-provoking cinema. \u2610\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-ded0e56 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default qodef-elementor-content-no\" data-id=\"ded0e56\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-eada4bb\" data-id=\"eada4bb\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9000f15 elementor-widget elementor-widget-gallery\" data-id=\"9000f15\" data-element_type=\"widget\" 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data-e-action-hash=\"#elementor-action%3Aaction%3Dlightbox%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6MTA1ODIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC92ZW51bWFnYXppbmUuY29tXC93cC1jb250ZW50XC91cGxvYWRzXC8yMDIxXC8wN1wvZ3JvdXAuanBnIiwic2xpZGVzaG93IjoiYWxsLTkwMDBmMTUifQ%3D%3D\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-gallery-image elementor-gallery-item__image\" data-thumbnail=\"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/group.jpg\" data-width=\"2000\" data-height=\"1336\" alt=\"\" ><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Peter Fox Directed by AZAZEL JACOBS Written by PATRICK DEWITT Starring MICHELLE PFEIFFER as Frances Price LUCAS HEDGES as Malcolm Price VALERIE MAHAFFEY as Mme Reynard IMOGEN POOTS as Susan A Sony Pictures Classics Release, Rated R, 113 minutes. **** French Exit is a masterfully executed film and offers an intimate look at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":10582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venumagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}