Class Trip

Starring:ClÃ©ment van den Bergh, Lokman Nalcakan, FranÃ§ois Roy, Yves Verhoeven, Emmanuelle Bercot, Tina Sportolaro, Yves Jacques, Chantal Banlier, BenoÃ®t Herlin, Julien Le Mouel, Tom Jacon, LoÃ¯c Pichon, Thierry Redler, Jean-Claude Frissung, Alain Payen, Guy Jacques, ValÃ©rie Bettencourt, AnthÃ©a Sogno, CÃ©cile SimÃ©one, Antoine Moussault
Director: Claude Miller
Studio: Picture This
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Bill Murray gives yet another simple, seemingly effortless, yet illuminating performance in Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers. Don Johnston (Murray, Lost in Translation, Rushmore) receives an anonymous letter telling him that he has a 19 year old son who's looking for him. Don only decides to investigate at the prompting of his neighbor Winston (the indispensable Jeffrey Wright, Shaft, Basquiat), who not only tracks down the current addresses of the possible mothers, he plans Don's entire trip down to the rental cars. Almost against his will, Don finds himself knocking at the doors of four very different women (Sharon Stone, The Quick and the Dead; Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under; Jessica Lange, Sweet Dreams; and Tilda Swinton, The Deep End) who were once his lovers. Part road movie, part detective story, part existential meditation, Broken Flowers is even more minimalist than most Jarmusch movies (Stranger Than Paradise, Dead Man, Mystery Train)--anyone looking for an easy resolution should look elsewhere. But for anyone willing to let a movie be a poem as much as a story--i.e., let it observe behavior without explaining it--Broken Flowers will offer a wealth of mysteries, gestures, and Bill Murray's soulful eyes. It's a movie that's wonderfully eloquent about what's not being said. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Broken Ending.......2007-06-19

Fun, but the ending is left open deliberately. If you like Bill Murray and enjoy off beat films you will like this.

May be Jarmusch's Most Accessible Film Yet.......2007-05-31

Broken Flowers is about a lonely retired former womanizer played by Bill Murray. His name is Don Johnston, a "Don Juan" if you will, who receives a random letter in the mail from an unnamed former girlfriend. The letter indicates that Don has a son who has just begun a trip to search for his father. Don seems somewhat indifferent to the news but given the theme of the film it's likely that he is more tired of life and perhaps a bit self-absorbed than actual indifference, as this news is something that will eventually serve to re-awaken Don and perhaps it gives him just the self-interest he needs to live life with renewed vigor. In that sense, the story of Don is an existential tale more so than one with a conventional end. The film offers us means to complete a nice story of a father's union with his son that he's never met. But director Jim Jarmusch is not conventional and he is too smart to throw such a trivial narrative our way.

At the suggestion and great enthusiasm of his friend and neighbor Winston, Don is convinced that the search for this former girlfriend and the mother of his son is a worthy undertaking. So he goes off to find five of his former girlfriends at the time his son would've been born (about 20 years ago). One, Michelle, has passed away and he visits her grave and seems to express more reverence for her than the others...he even tells Winston he loved Michelle and she is the only one he says that about. Another is Laura played by Sharon Stone. Don gets to sleep with Laura again and he doesn't seem as surprised as I was when Laura's flirty teen daughter Lolita walks about the house in nothing but her epidermis. Her overt sexuality probably mirrors that of her mother's and Don seems unfazed by it...great dead pan acting once again by Bill Murray. Dora is another former girlfriend and she is played by Frances Conroy. Dora seems to contain an underlying regret in her decision to choose a lifestyle completely different than the one she practiced when Don met her. Jessica Lange plays another former girlfriend who works as an animal communicator. All three of these women seem to initially react quite positively to Don and are pleasantly surprised to see him, but they are still interesting and unique in their own ways. Finally, Penny is played by Tilda Swinton and seems to be the only former girlfriend that is really disgusted with seeing Don. I won't reveal how Don's journey ends but I will say that he is given an opportunity to reflect on his life during his travels, and that is something he badly needed.

Perhaps Broken Flowers doesn't ask that we read into the clues as to who sent the letter and if Don will find his son. If you look carefully in the credits and perhaps watch the movie again you will find some decent resolution to those questions but that isn't necessarily what Jarmusch is telling us about Don. Broken Flowers is not about a father meeting his son as much as it is about a man becoming a father.

To note further on the film's content, I must say that I always enjoy the atmosphere of a Jarmusch film, as much as they may require a bit of patience. Some will find it to be a slow movie but it is both fascinating and funny. In my humble opinion, it also happened to have the best soundtrack of 2005.

Open the bonus features.......2007-05-28

Jim Jarmusch's comments in the Bonus Features section of this DVD are well worth hearing, as they will temper the stupor one might feel at the end of this typical Jarmusch work. No need for me to supply a plot synopsis, as that's already been done on the opening page of this site. Instead, I'll give you my reactions as a viewer.

I was amused by the absurdities arising from Don Johnston's search for his son (who may or may not exist). Jarmusch tells us that, as he sees it, randomness is a key player in life and in the universe, and so Don's hunt for the mother of his possible child leads him into the sometimes hilarious randomness of these women's lives, as one of his ex-lovers is a "closet organizer," another sells prefabricated luxury homes, another is an "animal communicator," and the last is something of a wild motorcycle chick living in the country. The "plot" tumbles forward like dust drifting in the cosmos. One never knows where any of it will go or why. And Bill Murray, as Don, delivers a generally humorless performance as a man in a comatose state, empty and sad and somehow incomplete, in contrast to his hilarious neighbor Winston, who seems more than fulfilled by his gorgeous wife and six kids. Winston also works three jobs to make ends meet, while Don sits in his lovely home, decorated with beautiful art, listens to sad operas, and stares at his blank plasma TV screen. As was Jarmusch's intention, Murray's performance throws a very large wet blanket over the whole proceeding, as Don is a man without a plan, a sexual drifter who lets randomness take him from one of life's seemingly pointless encounters to the next.

The truth of randomness and mystery in our lives cannot be denied. What gives Jarmusch's work its integrity is his unwavering adherence to this truth in every frame, setup, and script he produces. His outlook, however, grates against many viewers who long to escape into more simple pleasures such as cute comedies, warm romances, and blood-pounding dramas. After all, this escape route has been the traditional role of cinema, but Jarmusch, because of who he is, never really takes it. Tangentially, his movies are hilarious in the way a Kafka story is. The juxtaposing of diversely different elements into the same space makes me laugh out loud.

The other point Jarmusch (and Don) makes is that about time. We know the past is done (and Don learns that through the course of his journey). The future is unknowable. So all we have is this moment, within which we do whatever we can. That's it. Nothing new here, but again, Jarmusch is true to his vision, and again, it's hard to swallow. There are no resolutions, no looking forward, no going back. Nothing can really be learned or discovered except the reality of the moment. Historians, give up your search for the past. Seers, resign your fraudulent predictions of the future.

In this movie Jarmusch framed a shot that forced me to repeatedly look into the rearview mirror of a Ford Taurus, just as Don is looking into the past, but, like the movie, the view was claustrophobic. And Murray's character was numb, lost, and ultimately suffocating. Although this movie could have left me depressed, it left me thinking, thanks to Jarmusch's insights into it.

Return of the Zombie.......2007-05-01

After suffering through "Lost in Translation" I must have felt masochistic a week later when I sat through this bilious offering. I was ready to give Bill Murray C.P.R. several times since I was convinced he was stone dead. I was waiting for George Zucco to show up with the Tanna leaves to animate him.I would like to go to a convention of people who enjoyed this film...perhaps we could meet in a '68 Volkswagon. After "Last Year at Marienbad" I would rank this as the worst thing I've watched in 60 years.

Do zombies have children?.......2007-04-24

Bill Murray stars as an aging Don Juan (yes, sure, I just got it - his character's name is Don Johnston ) who is so deadly bored with his life and his much younger beautiful girlfriend (I assume his girlfriends have been always much younger and beautiful, and a man may actually get tired and bored with it) that he does not seem alive at all. One day, his latest girlfriend leaves him and at the same day a mysterious pink letter informs him that he could have a 19 year old son. Reluctantly, literally pushed by his friend and neighbor, an amateur private detective Winston (Jeffrey Wright), Don visits his four formers lovers (Sharon Stone (she organizes people's closets and has a teenage daughter Lolita (and Lolita she is ), Frances Conroy (a realtor with a loving husband and a big and sadly quiet house), Jessica Lange (she does not drink, she does not eat, she does not walk - but she can read the animals' minds); and Tilda Swinton, in a surprising role of a white trash who has a lot to say to Don but...does not. Instead, two of her intimidating friends do). This movie has been praised as a humorous cross-country journey a-la Jim Jarmush - anti-Hollywood style but I think that it is one of the scariest horror movies I've seen - "from the lives of zombies" and Bill Murray is the best zombie I've seen. Will he find out if he actually has a son? Do zombies have children? Do I care?

Average customer rating:

Laugh out loud funny
Shameless self promotion
Fairly funny movie with stellar cast
This movie's a sleeper!
Amazing Cast-Average Movie

Waking Up in Reno
Starring: Wayne Federman , Tony Orlando , Natasha Richardson , Chelcie Ross , and Billy Bob Thornton
Director: Jordan Brady , and Jonathan Brady
Manufacturer: Miramax
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00003CYFD
Release Date: 2003-04-08

Amazon.com

Shelved for two years before its limited theatrical release, Waking Up in Reno is the kind of comedy that makes you feel guilty for laughing. The lowbrow fun begins when Arkansas car dealer Lonnie Earl (Billy Bob Thornton, perfectly cast) cheats on his wife Darlene (Natasha Richardson) with Candy (Charlize Theron), the wife of his best friend Roy (Patrick Swayze). When the couples pack up Lonnie Earl's ill-fated SUV to see the monster-truck jam in Reno, Nevada, Roy's meager sperm count and Candy's surprise pregnancy result in a series of marital repercussions. Stuck in a no-man's-land between road-trip farce and redneck parody, this comedic misfire trades in dimwit stereotypes and white-trash condescension, showing its age with a thankless hot-Latina cameo by Penélope Cruz. It's painless enough to be watchable, and Thornton's character is a likeable fool as he surveys the damage he's caused. Watch carefully, and you'll find plenty of mostly unfulfilled promise along with a half-hearted chuckle or two. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Oscar(R)-winner Billy Bob Thornton (SLING BLADE, Best Adapted Screenplay, 1996; MONSTER'S BALL) and Charlize Theron (THE CIDER HOUSE RULES) are matched with Patrick Swayze (DIRTY DANCING, GHOST) and Natasha Richardson (BLOW DRY) in a fun and sassy romantic comedy where two married couples discover there's more to their friendship than meets the eye! Not long after Roy (Swayze) and Candy (Theron) and Lonnie Earl (Thornton) and Darlene (Richardson) arrive in Reno on their dream vacation together at the Monster Truck Show, these Arkansas natives learn they're sharing more than a two-bedroom suite! With side-splitting laughs and a sizzling cast, let yourself go ... because you're sure to enjoy this fun-filled guilty pleasure!

Customer Reviews:

Laugh out loud funny.......2007-06-11

To go from Dirty Dancing to idiot standing, Patrick Swayze is too funny.
Billy Bob is at his best doing his country thang from his home of Arkansas
and is worth watching twice!

Shameless self promotion.......2007-05-30

OK, so it's a chick flick. It has a good story, some surprises, and a good ending. HOWEVER: I am in this movie! I was paid sixty five dollars and had a great time doing it. You can see me walking on the sidewalk next to Fitgeralds twice. I'm the very large man in a green coat.
Buy it, you will enjoy it.

Fairly funny movie with stellar cast.......2006-08-06

***
Waking Up in Reno is a fairly funny comedy about an unfunny subject---infidelity. Billy Bob Thornton is perfect as a southern used car dealer, Natasha Richardson as his overall-wearing passive wife. Charlize Theron plays "the mistress"; in fact she is trying to be a good best friend to the woman she is cheating and a good wife to her husband, whom she loves. Patrick Swayze plays the victim husband, a really nice guy, but way too naïve and totally unable to stand up for himself.

The movie is the story of the two couples' red-neck vacation to Reno. There are many funny moments, and overall it is very enjoyable. As you can imagine, the acting is good. It's far from a terrific movie, and it is a "guilty pleasure" in a way because the subject is so serious and sad that it feels odd to be watching a comedy about it. Still, I gave it three stars because all in all, it's worth the time spent viewing it.
***

This movie's a sleeper!.......2006-02-04

Believe it or not, my husband and I enjoyed this movie. We thought Charlize Theron did a great job with what she had to work with, Billy Bob made us laugh. It might be that part of the pleasure we got from the movie was remembering a trip we made out west. We stopped at the place where Billy Bob ate the 72 pound steak, etc. We're from PA and that trip showed us a world that we had never experienced before. The bottom line is...the movie made us feel good (which is more than I can say for most movies). Yes, it had its flaws but it was fun to watch. That's good enough for me.

Amazing Cast-Average Movie.......2006-01-09

Waking Up in Reno was a bit of a disappointment, considering the makeup of the cast: Patrick Swayze, Billy Bob Thornton, and Charlize Theron among others.
The movie sheds light on two couples from Arkansas who decide to take a road trip together to Reno, Nevada. The ride is actually quite "bumpy," with quite a few unexpected "twists and turns..."
The plot has elements of both comedy and drama making it rather difficult to label it as one or the other; it's actually a bit of both.
The acting is pretty good (but nothing great), while the humor and the plot are just about average.
On the positive side, the movie's southern flavor was quite enjoyable, though enough is enough when it comes to picking on them (the southerners). It gets tiring after the first 20 or so movies!
As for Patrick Swayze's character being naïve and slow, that was just sad/pitiful!
Though the potential for a great movie was definitely there it fails to take off. A shame really...
In a nutshell, it's an ok movie, and that's about it; it lacks that extra something to put it over the top. No masterpiece here.
If a Billy Bob Thornton movie is what you're looking for, check out Monster's Ball.
If Patrick Swayze is what you had in mind, check out the AMAZING series North and South, and the movies Next of Kin and Ghost.

Average customer rating:

wet dreams
Grasping for Reality in a Child's Mind Fraught with Delusional Thinking
Class Trip
Alpine Suspense

Class Trip
Starring: Clément van den Bergh , Lokman Nalcakan , François Roy , Yves Verhoeven , and Emmanuelle Bercot
Director: Claude Miller
Manufacturer: Picture This
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000UHG0M
Release Date: 2006-07-11

Description

In Class Trip (La Classe De Neige), Nicolas is an insecure child plagued by visions of disaster. His peers tease him, or ignore him, while his teachers are frustrated by his lack of social skills. Nicolas leads a lonely life until a class trip to the ski country, where Hadkann, the class bully, befriends him and becomes intrigued by his dreams. When one of Nicolas's visions mirrors a true-life murder, he and Hadkann set out to solve the crime. Claude Miller directs Class Trip with a deft and subtle hand. Adapted from Emmanuel Carrere's acclaimed novel of the same name, Miller takes his audience inside the mind of an emotionally damaged child. He recalls the intense social hierarchy of childhood, combining it with the psychological suspense of an unseen killer, and the haunting beauty of the French countryside. His previous works include Alias Betty and La Petite Lili.

Customer Reviews:

wet dreams.......2006-12-23

I gave this film one star for the interesting soundtrack and another star because I would feel badly having to give this no stars. The film is billed as a Horror film but in reality it is a psychological thriller and not a very good one. A young lad is taken to his class trip by his father to join the rest of his classmates in the French Alps. The kid is troubled to say the least, he wets the bed or so we are led to believe, and he has these very odd dreams. His father leaves him off forgetting to leave his suitcase. Without his own clothing and having to borrow another kid's PJ's he is left to his innermost fears. His dreams MIGHT be predictions of what is going to happen notice the word MIGHT.
There is an eerie soundtrack and some pretty good acting but this film goes nowhere fast. I am fond of French Cinema and have watched quite a bit both in French with and without English subtitles. This film is not helped by the subtitles and it is just as bad without them. If a film has a good plot I am game. If a film has a mediocre plot I can still deal with it as long as the other elements are strong enough to carry the film like great acting and good character development. Unfortunately, this film is so disjointed that even with some good acting and an eerie score it simply leaves me with nothing.
I think our main character wets the bed because he is scared of how I am going to review this film. I realize that developing a character for a small boy is a tall order. The kid is really good at blank stares. The film reminds me of one of my least favorite American films of all time "DONDI" where the kid has one big line and does the same line over and over again I can't remember the whole line but it always ends with "GI BUDDY". The kid in this film always has this cold stare. He uses this stare in just about every scene after awhile I just grew so bored with this kid that I hoped he would stop having these dreams and go to sleep so I would not have to see him staring into space another time. The editing of the film is also problematic. There are always Police about and Police in this boy's dreams at some points we do not know if what we are seeing is Real or a Dream. Are these police part of the film and why does everyone always whisper in these films. Does the writer really think that kids can't guess that an adult is hiding something? I liked the acting of the two teachers in the film. I grew to find that the had some talent but due to a poor script they were limited as to how much they could add to this project. Those who felt that this is a great film must be deprived of great film or dreaming themselves and merely thinking they saw this one. If you don't believe me, go ahead and buy this, but remember I told you so...SG

Grasping for Reality in a Child's Mind Fraught with Delusional Thinking .......2005-08-05

La Classe de neige (CLASS TRIP) is terrifying little film that sweeps the viewer into a world so altered by a child's viewpoint that finding the story is a detective game - and a fine one at that! Director Claude Miller adapted Emmanuel Carrère's novella by the same name and out of this tale of 'everyday macabre' he has created a horror film that stands along with 'Diabolique' as pinnacles of French cinema.

Nicolas (Clément van den Bergh) is young, enuretic son of overbearing parents (Father François Roy and mother Tina Sportolaro) who is denied the companionship of his classmates on a bus trip to a ski resort by the father's insistence on driving him in his car. Nicolas is a loner, a child who has many phobias, and who (we learn) has been exposed to many 'strange' situations. His father is a traveling saleman of prostheses, samples of which he keeps in his trunk. This arrogant father has at times been abusive, and at time coldly hostile, but he is the only person with whom Nicolas can relate.

Once at camp Nicolas discovers his father departed before unloading Nicolas' suitcase. The kindly school teachers Miss Grimm (think of the fairy tales!) Emmanuelle Bercot and Patrick (Yves Verhoeven) help Nicolas adjust and the class ruffian Hodkann (Lokman Nalcakan) not only loans him pajamas but befriends Nicolas in other ways. Nicolas confides to Hodkann his father's strange occupation and soon the two exchange many stories that intertwine. When a child near the ski resort is found dead, rumors abound about bizarre men who kidnap young children in order to remove their organs for the transplant black market. Nicolas has nightmares which include invaders to the class trip, memories of his father, prostheses becoming body parts, etc and one night as he tries to correct the results of his bedwetting, he gazes out the window at the first snow, walks into the snow locking himself out, and is discovered the next day in Patrick's car (yet another source of future nightmares).

Nicolas and Hodkann bond and attempt to solve the mystery of the dead child and this adventure leads to some terrifying events - and we never know which of the tales is true and which is the product of Nicolas' fragile, twisted mind. Suffice it to say that the ending is disturbing and leaves the viewer with the fear to turn out the lights!

The cast is superb, the musical score as composed by Henri Texier with a lot of help from movements from the Rossini 'Petite Messe Solennelle', and the cinematography by Guillaume Schiffman is extraordinary, moving smoothly and frighteningly between imagined incidents and reality. This is a fine study of the fragile and fractured mind of a child and the elements that are both the etiology and the sequelae to delusional thinking. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 05

Class Trip.......2004-07-23

Nicholas is an insecure child plagued by visions of disasters and horrible accidents. In his dreams he sees his father in a car crash, his brother is abducted and his own classmates are shot by men in white masks. His peers tease him and his teachers are frustrated by his lack of social skills. Nicolas disconnects from the world around him, inhabiting his own friendless, nightmarish realm. On a class trip to the ski country, the class bully befriends him and becomes intrigued by his dreams. As the line between reality and hallucination blurs, Nicolas?s visions begin to come true. When police find a dead child in the woods, murdered and mutilated, Nicolas knows there is a connection between this crime and his visions, and with his friend?s help he sets out to fine it. There is no nudity in this movie.

Alpine Suspense.......2004-04-29

"Class Trip" ("La classe de neige") is a psychological thriller about fourteen-year old Nicolas (very well played by Clement van den Bergh), sent to a school in the French Alps. Although his teachers are supportive, Nicolas is withdrawn. He gradually develops a friendship with fellow student Hodkann (played by Lokman Nalcakan). Nicolas seems consumed with shocking memories, or are they wild fantasies? Artificial limbs, children abducted for organ harvesting, paramilitary attacks on the school, freezing to death in a car, his own funeral, missing children, hostile fathers, and monkey paws granting wishes all make appearances. Nicolas quietly tells Hodkann and some others parts of the story. What is true and what is not? What to do about it? The suspense builds quite masterfully to a satisfying conclusion.

While this film seems to be marketed as a gay film, it is really a thriller. Nicolas may have a mild crush on Hodkann, but it doesn't go further than that. The two skin scenes are not gratuitous and are tasteful.

Customer Reviews:

Oh my...........2004-10-18

Oh my goodness...I don't think I have seen a worse film in all my years. I am a huge fan of Brad Renfro and thought, "Hey, why don't I add another one of his DVDs to my collection, since he is a really good actor so I know none of his movies could be bad, at least in my mind because just him being in the movie is an automatic 3 stars." Boy, was I wrong! I couldn't even watch this. I had to keep pausing it and returning back. It was just horrible. I bought it used and wish I could take it back...that was 15 dollars shot out of my pocket. I don't recommend viewing this due to the complete torture of boredom. But I think you should watch this if you hope to become a screen writer on what NOT to write. If they can make movies like this I have a bunch of scripts I think they should put together than would be block buster hits compared to this film. Just absolutely horrible. Not to mention, Brad Renfro was only in like 3 scenes with like 2 lines. Just horrible. Completely horrible.

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