Bird People (2014) User Reviews

Huh?

[mamlukman · 5/10 · 7 September 2014]

Saw this tonight at TIFF. Piers gave his usual pretentious introduction. I guess my reaction is WTF? It starts off fine, with interesting scenes of the airport…but are we supposed to follow one of these people we see? No. Is there a point to the long introduction? I think not. Then it switches to Audrey on the subway and bus, but a much shorter segment. So then we launch into this big story about Gary Newman (name has no significance according to the director-- she just chose a name that sounded common). Gary quits his job, marriage, children, house, etc. after thinking it over in a sleepless night. No real reason, just that he "feels like a melting sugar cube." Don't we all? So then there is a series of telephone calls with Gary's partners, lawyer, etc. Will this go anywhere in terms of advancing the story? No. Then a much, much longer Skype talk with his wife, Radha Mitchell (one of my favorites). Does this advance the story? No. Then all of a sudden we drop Gary and we focus on Audrey the maid. We know we're switching since "Audrey" appears in a heading on the screen. Subtle. So she gets some overtime, is invited to a party she doesn't go to, tells her father she spent the day at the university when she spent it being a maid at the hotel, and finally we are treated to watching her clean a couple rooms. Suddenly the power goes out, she goes up to the roof, feels that she is falling, and poof, she has turned into a sparrow. Then the sparrow flies around talking to itself and having various adventures. Then the bird turns back into Audrey, she gets on the elevator with Gary, and they have a conversation about "Personne" meaning both "no one" and "a person"--opposite meanings in the same word. Gary asks her what the opposite of this word would be in French. "Pareil" (the same) she says. (If this is the key to the movie, then I don't know how to turn it.) Then they shake hands. Fin.

Maybe I missed everything about this movie, maybe not. Yeah, sure, it was technology vs. magic dream state. Sort of. But you know what? Audrey uses modern technology too. A lot of stuff about open windows…which means? Freedom? The best I can come up with is that they are both searching for a better life and looking for freedom. Otherwise, they seem to be random stories that have nothing to do with each other. And if there is an "ending" it eludes me. I'm adding this to my growing list of French films I find incomprehensible. I will say that Anais (Audrey) is cute, so she makes it watchable when she's on screen.

Finally, you could also make the case that this whole movie is an extended ad for Marlboros. Everyone smokes--everyone. At every chance they get. They borrow cigarettes. The buy cigarettes. Every time they hold the cigarette box or put it down, we're treated to a closeup of the box and brand name. I guess my question here is how much money did Marlboro pay to get this sort of exposure? Why do we pay to see an ad?

huh? kinda interesting

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 8 March 2016]

Gary Newman (Josh Charles) is a Silicon valley engineer in Paris for business. Audrey Camuzet (Anaïs Demoustier) is an University student working as a maid in an airport Hilton where Gary is staying at. Gary has a breakdown. He skips his flight out and resigns from work angering his business partner. He's also leaving his wife Elisabeth (Radha Mitchell) and kids. Then an extraordinary transformation happens to Audrey.

First of all, this needs to be condensed. Parts of this is as compelling as watching surveillance video. I'm not advocating rushing this but it needs to be faster than a meditation. It's also static at times. Gary's confrontation with his wife is visually static but it is filled with tension. That's not always the case. This movie often lacks tension. There is a big change in the second half of the movie. It's a head scratcher. While it's interesting, I wonder what's the point. It lacks direction and it's also very odd that Gary is rarely in the second half. There is only one scene where there is any tension in that second half and that cat really scared me for a second. I doubt that I could recommend this to anyone but at least, it does something different.

Literally one of the worst films I've watched in my life

[cabassotti · 1/10 · 25 November 2018]

Just a bunch of ads (Marlboro, Hilton, Ibis, HSBC, Pringles...) and a non-sense screenplay that tries to look profound. In the beginning it makes you think it's going somewhere, but don't fool yourself, it doesn't. Dialogs are imbecilic.

Bird People Soars

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 1 March 2015]

In a letter to Lou Andreas-Salome, the German Poet Rilke wrote, "The bird is a creature that has a very special feeling of trust in the external world, as if she knew that she is one with its deepest mystery." Using magic realism together with impressive camera work and CGI effects, Bird People reflects that mystery and turns it into a persuasive allegory of transformation. Directed by Pascale Ferran (Lady Chatterley) from a screenplay by Guillaume Bréaud, the film not only observes the alienation that exists in modern society, but goes beyond that to challenge our comfort level and glimpse what is possible.

Bird People depicts the lives of two very different people, Audrey (Anaïs Demoustier, The New Girlfriend), a maid at the Paris Hilton hotel in Paris close to the Charles de Gaulle Airport, and Gary Newman (Josh Charles, The Good Wife), a Silicon Valley engineer who is stopping overnight at the same hotel for a business conference en route to Dubai. Though they exist in totally different worlds, they are both stuck in life situations that are far from being nurturing. Neither can see a way out, until they do. As the film opens, the camera randomly peeks into the mind of travelers walking through airport terminals, riding on a commuter train or bus, enmeshed in their own world of smartphones, headphones, or simply daydreams.

There are no artistic or poetic visions in their thoughts, only internal conversations about appointments to keep, files to download, what to make for dinner, and other day-to-day minutia. Reminiscent of the Norwegian film, Oslo, August 31st, the people in the prologue have nothing to do with the stories that follow, but suggest that the difference is only in the level of awareness. Narrated by Mathieu Amalric who makes only a brief appearance in the film, the first hour concentrates on Gary (Charles), in Paris overnight and scheduled to leave the next day for Dubai. After experiencing a serious anxiety attack during the night, he makes some life-altering decisions the next morning.

Though his decisions appear to be impulsive, Gary tells others that he had thought about it for a long time. In a sudden one broom sweeps all move, he decides not to make the flight to Dubai, quits his job to the dismay of his business associates, and sells his stock to his partners. As if that wasn't enough housecleaning for one day, he tells his wife (Radha Mitchell, Silent Hill) that he is leaving her and the children, seemingly with little concern for their emotional consequences, though Ferran does not judge his actions, but simply records them. This "breakup" occurs in a face-to-face encounter during a stretched-out fifteen-minute Skype call, a process that is emotionally draining both for the characters and the viewer.

When pressed for a reason for his action, all he can come up with is that he "can't take it any longer" and has "had enough." Looking depressed and disheveled without any plans for the future, we fear for his life but Gary isn't ready to take any irrevocable steps of that nature, content to free himself only of his worldly responsibilities. Fortunately, the mood shifts as the second hour focuses on Audrey, a housekeeper at the hotel, as she goes about her routine of meticulously cleaning each room. Though in outward appearance, she is cheerful, there is a hint of an inescapable boredom and ennui in her life. Her only contact with people is to listen in on hallway conversations and sift through a guest's belongings in their room looking for a connection or an insight into who they are.

Peering into the windows of apartments across the courtyard with people living disconnected lives, she is again reminded of her sense of separation. What transpires, however, has nothing to do with her job, her family, or friends. It is a lovely flight of fancy that is too enchanting to reveal but includes an inspired Japanese artist, Audrey's discovery of a personal matter concerning the hotel concierge, all this amidst swooping aerial camera shots that lift the film from the stuffy hotel rooms and let it breathe. The trajectory of the film mirrors the words of the German poet Rilke, "If I don't manage to fly, someone else will. The spirit wants only that there be flying." In that regard, Bird People soars.

One of the worst films I've seen this year - maybe ever

[joel-alfred-larsson · 1/10 · 11 December 2014]

I'm debating with myself how many points I should give this film. The lowest score, a "1", feels too low,given the production values and on rare occasion interesting scenes.

However, if the lowest score can stop someone from watching the film, then it is definitely worth it, because 20 minutes into the thing I wanted to get up from my seat and leave the theater.

Firstly, Bird People is boring. There are two main characters in the film. One of the two, Gary the American decides to change his life dramatically. But there is no real investment into his character before this big change takes place. The audience gets left out and it is hard to give a damn about Gary, which is especially true during the "so bad it's funny"- skype breakup scene. Add really hammy acting and dumb dialogue to the mix and you have a complete train wreck of a first hour.

The other character, Audrey, is marginally more interesting. But before the film has time to really draw you in - SURPRISE, Audrey turns into a bird! Yes, she really morphs into a bid. The rest of the film is like a cross between a Disney film and an ad for Marlboro Cigarettes.

I understand the connection between becoming a bird vs freeing yourself from work and relationships. But it is so overstated and ridiculous that any value the film might have had flutters away. And the ending scene just stinks.

A film about mutation, reincarnation and rebirth

[Pasky · 8/10 · 23 July 2014]

I saw this film in Amsterdam at a sneak preview, quite late, and it was incredibly hot. In the beginning I thought: Ouch! Another brainy French film... But no! I haven't seen such an original film in a quite while. Not only in its most amazing parts (a sparrow hovering above an airport, sometimes funny, sometimes scary; a real adventure in itself). But it is more in its entirety that this film impressed me, going from one story to another, combining realism and magic. Even the music is bewitching, like with Bowie's Space Oddity, at a key moment. This non-standard film is both spectacular and experimental, sensitive and cerebral, ultra-contemporary and timeless. Free as air, this films is about mutation, reincarnation, rebirth. A real jewel!

The Bird

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10 June 2014]

An interesting and fascinating film that takes place in Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport area. The fates of two people. First, an American businessman who suddenly decides to quit everything around him: his job, his wife, his kids, everything. Just like that, pffft...

And in second we observe the daily burden of an ordinary hotel room maid who also have some existential problems, a Young female who have many questions in her life to answer to...

Two people through with many things.

And the line between those two is a little cute bird...

Just that.

A sort of fairy tale, but also very interesting to think about after watching it.

Worst of All Time, Present, Past, or Future

[dansview · 1/10 · 8 March 2015]

This is actually a big day for me, because I witnessed the worst movie in the history of the universe. That's a milestone. I was actually quite excited initially by the plot summary and setting. I love stuff that involves airports, Paris, and hotels.

The first half hour held me, because I assumed they were establishing the setting for what was to come, and the payoff would be later. I really enjoyed the scenes of the hotel basement, and the housekeeper girl's routine.

But then something went completely haywire. There was a narrator coming out of nowhere. It wasn't even the character narrating. Just a random French male voice talking about the male character in third person. Then an endless Skype conversation that bordered on voyeurism for the rest of us. Then a bird flying around looking for snacks. I was looking for a rope and a stool.

"Experimental" is one thing, but completely discombobulated fantasy mixed with reality is yet another. Make up your mind and roll with one style. Like other reviewers, I got the metaphor about feeling trapped and wanting to fly free. But I would have preferred more interaction between the two main characters. That would have made for a decent film.

real beautiful

[Kirpianuscus · 13 June 2017]

it seems be a sketch. or mix of fairy tale and ordinary existential crisis. simple, convincing and beautiful. a delicate drawing more than a film. because it is a story of metamorphose. a story of new, fundamental beginning. and few admirable scenes - the young painter and the sparrow as model, the tension between Gary and his wife in on - line talk as good examples - are splendid portraits of deep solitude and the profound desire to escape from yourself. it is difficult to pledge for it. not only because the taste of each viewer is different but because the symbols, used as steps to the last scenes, has different translations for each of us. short, a real beautiful film. remembering "Anomalisa".

Unnecessary

[Shaniquaniminiquani · 2/10 · 11 September 2019]

I'm writing this minutes after having finished the movie and wow. I really have no clue what I've just watched. I wish I hadn't seen a trailer for this movie prior to watching it because it would of made me more indifferent towards it. The trailer makes it seem like it's just an average romance movie where the guy tries to overdose in his hotel room, the maid shows up, saves him and they get together. This is not the case.

So the movie starts off with shots of a terminal where we see people commuting and get short glimpses into their lives.This is also when we're first introduced to our female protagonist Audrey (Anaïs Demoustier), a maid working in a hotel just outside of Paris. She sees a bird from the window of her bus, camera goes black and switches to the next scene.

This is where the main flaw of the film really comes into play, there is no real reason given for anything that happens. All context has to be inferred, we're just kind of thrown in to this world that's already been revolving for some time which I personally wouldn't mind if it wasn't for the fact that the characters are one-dimensional and everything is just kind of "accepted".

In the next scene we're greeted by the other "main" character Gary (Josh Charles), a CEO for a company called "Island inc." on a business trip to work with some overseas clients and happens to be staying in the same hotel Audrey works in, About 5 minutes into meeting Gary it is stated that he has decided to randomly "stop everything", this includes of course deserting his wife, kids, company, job, home, responsibilities etc.. selling his stake of the company and not planning on returning to america, opting instead to stay at the hotel indefinitely. The closest we the viewers and his work colleges get to an explanation is that he "can't do *it* anymore" and that's it, we're just kind of supposed to accept that. Not long after some random guy comes in and starts narrating the story for about 2 minutes just to never be seen again.

I wish I could say that the movie is a slow burner but it really isn't. The already slow film manages to somehow get even slower when we are introduced to his wife in what could very well be a contender for the most drawn out Skype call in any movie I've seen outside of "Unfriended", and that's only because the movie was MEANT to take place in a Skype call.

Then we go back to following Audrey as she cleans rooms for about 20 minutes until all of the sudden the lights go off on the floor she's cleaning in which makes her decide to go to the roof (Because that's only logical, don't call the power-outage in or anything) where she transforms into a bird and doesn't question the fact for more than 2 seconds before jumping off of the roof of the hotel. Yep.

No reason is really given as to why (I know, surprising) but at this point she's become somewhat fixated on Gary even though her only interaction with him has been watching him sleep for about a minute before realizing she should probably leave the room as it's not vacant. She flies into his room through the window and sees a map on the bed which makes her believe he's gone to the airport and decides to meet him there, again, for no real particular reason.

I think the worst part is that this movie had potential to be really good had it not been for the director throwing in random ideas hoping for one to stick. Nothing about the first 3/4's of the film warrants screen-time and just feel like filler. The only redeeming point is that if you are able to get past the lack of reasoning, the final quarter (right up to the last 5ish minutes) is actually really well made.

After she transforms the camera changes to first person and you are able to see things from a birds perspective, She's able to glance into the lives of the people who's rooms she cleans on the daily by flying by their windows.Tight shots allow us to share the intimate space with the guests.

We are then greeted to beautiful shots of the night sky the camera moving freely, swaying, as if truly gliding the way a bird would mid flight. this, accompanied by sound design that wraps it all up to make for a complete atmosphere.

This is where the movie truly shines. There are moments in which she gets excited or scared and the camera gets faster and shakier to communicate her sense of anxiousness. Things that otherwise wouldn't seem problematic to a human are now an issue such as hunger, wind speed, and.. cats. The problem is, none of it lasts. As soon as you're fully immersed with the idea of being a bird you're brought back to earth when she returns to being a human and both Audrey and Gary finally meet properly in the hotel's elevator. They share some small talk over the semantics of the french word "Personne" which means both "nobody" and "persons" at the same time, they shake hands and then it just... ends. That's it, that's the movie, nothing is really said, nothing is really done, it just kind of exists.

I'm not quite sure who the target audience of this film would be, but for the average viewer I'd just recommend staying away unless you literally have nothing better to do with your time. It's also worth noting that the movie has a brief nude scene, it's not really integral to the plot at all (like all of the other things in this movie) so you can just skip it if you're planning to watch it with a younger audience.

American engineer and Paris hotel maid escape their mundane lives, maybe even together.

[maurice_yacowar · 9/10 · 7 December 2014]

Like her 2006 adaptation, Lady Chatterly, Pascale Ferran's Bird People celebrates the expansiveness of the human spirit. Here it's expressed in the need for non-carnal freedom, through the specific metaphor of flying.

The opening montage in the Charles de Gaulle airport surveys a large number of people between flights, rushing helter skelter ground bound. They seem constrained, locked in patterns, in a word, caged even as they roam. A later montage shows the airport at night, still, vacated but for a strew of bodies asleep. Awake or sleeping the people bound to their daily regimens are cut off from the free range of their spirits and imagination. From that crowd two characters emerge to take flight.

Gary Newman is the American in Paris, a Silicon Valley engineer there for a business meeting en route to a major project in Dubai. Gary is at a midway station (c'est la gare) in his life; an anxiety attack (angoisse) persuades him to become a New Man. He quits his job and abandons his wife and kids. By skipping his plane to Dubai and holing up at the airport Hilton he takes flight from all his responsibilities. Actor Josh Charles has a bird-like mien, especially in our first view, with his beak, furrowed brow and pursed lips. He imagines a bird's eye view of his rejected landing and reception at Dubai.

In the hotel restaurant a piano is computer-rigged to play its keys without a pianist. The modern machinery continues without the original human engagement. Newman is confident his company and his family will carry on without him so he flies their respective coops. He breaks up with his wife through another magical technology. Skype allows a vivid, extended face-to-face discussion though an ocean apart. The dynamic reverses their usual discussions, where their physical closeness failed to bridge the growing abyss between them. Ferran encourages us to approve Newman's clearly selfish declaration of potentially destructive independence. (To me his unforgivable irresponsibility was his tapping of the hotel mini-bar, not just the overpriced booze and chips but those little bottles of water! Damn, that hurt. True, when he sells his partners his company shares he will be able to support his ex-family and pay the Hilton tab, but still….)

Hotel maid Audrey is oppressed by her job and its encroachment upon her university studies. Like Newman, she needs air; both open windows immediately upon entering a room. In the wake of a relationship she lives a solitary life. Her sense of people living encaged is suggested when she peers across the courtyard at the apartment dwellers living their separate lives in a row (shades of Rear Window).

Though (or because?) she lacks Newman's wealth, station and responsibilities Audrey discovers a magical power. She turns into a sparrow and flies all over the place. She learns how the polished hotel clerk Simon lives (sleeping in his car), gets a closer view of the other people in their cages and feels the exhilaration of soaring beyond her normal physical limits. The magic stays realistic: she also learns the bird's urgent feeling of hunger and the existential threat from wind, cat, owl, traffic and locked stuffy room.

Both as woman and as bird Audrey glimpses a touching alternative to the Newman marriage, an elderly woman waiting for her old husband to join her in a still juicy love. That injects a romantic possibility into the film's last shot. Audrey and Newman finally meet and after parting return to introduce themselves and shake hands. They have discussed a verbal paradox: "personne" carries the contrary meanings of person and nobody. They consider the words that are contrary to "contrary." They may find the ultimate romantic paradox: the greatest freedom can be found in a connection. Prefiguring that union, the Japanese artist saves bird Audrey from starving by giving her some chips and the woman by finding her unconscious and bringing her to a recuperating sleep in his room. His drawings of the bird prove her flight happened.

This delightful fable takes wing from yet another miraculous technology: the personification of sparrow Audrey. That also reminds us how we're more richly endowed than ever with the potential of imaginative flight. In the flesh or in our fancy we can escape our lives of quiet desperation.

Surprising

[mason95135 · 9/10 · 5 August 2015]

I discovered this film by chance and when I watched the trailer I imagined a film about a man who is disenchanted with life, who feels a vague emptiness and leaves it all behind and forms an unusual connection, quasi-romance with the maid whom is a dreamer and a man whose dreams and love for life long ago died. Akin to Lost in Translation.

This is not the case! The film is nothing like what one imagines and does in fact involve bird people; although I will not spoil it. It is hard to rate Bird People as it does not fall in line with a traditional film. It does not fall under any genre; although it would be easy to see it as a observation of the ills of "modern" life; modernity and technology in the film fulfills the background not focus.

It is a surprising movie and one that will leave an impression on you. I highly recommend it!.

Transformation, both permanent and momentary

[Blue-Grotto · 8/10 · 12 October 2014]

The stars look different and just the sunlight is more beautiful when we fly away from our lives, even for a moment. "Beauty surrounds us," Rumi writes "but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it." Audrey and Gary are not quite birds of a feather. They are strangers to each other. Yet each of them goes through a similar transformation and dramatic shift in perspective. Their eyes open to new opportunities, as with Cinderella, after dreams or realizations of wonder. Audrey is a young hotel maid appreciating just how much the world is open to her. Gary is an American traveling in Paris on business who abruptly, and in a computer message, calls it quits on his wife, kids and job. With capable acting and directing, and superb writing, the film unravels slowly. At times a little too slowly. Is it really necessary, for the sake of the plot, to see Audrey light up and smoke almost the entire length of cigarette? As the film unwound I began to suspect and understand the reasons for the plodding pace. It is for us, and the characters, to ponder the intricacies of their lives, the possibilities of their newfound and limitless horizons, and more. Still, the next time someone breaks out a pack of cigarettes in a French film, I am going to walk around the block, read a book chapter or something, and return to the theater to see them on their last puffs in front of the same window. Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

This movie is like a lit match in the darkness... Savor it while it lasts!

[markovd111 · 8/10 · 26 August 2020]

I don't usually watch movies like this, yet the synopsis caught my attention. It seemed like a weird, but beautiful romantic movie about a man in crisis and a maid who helps him. Movie is nothing like that. It's a little bit too long for my taste and I would take at least 20 minutes of random and unnecessary footage. Still, in it's portrayal of characters who are not perfect it manages to show beauty and good in life through it's weird way. It's a slow movie where things of little to no significance happen, but it's all worth for the last 3 minutes of it. If you get that and what it means, you will like this movie. It isn't perfect. It isn't for everybody. It tries too much to be artistic but fails. But I still like it and recommend it, at least for one watch. 8/10!

Wonderful Film

[WilliamCKH · 8/10 · 31 December 2015]

I sometimes feel that watching movies nowadays is like ordering a meal at a restaurant. You order something on the menu with certain expectations, and declare it a success if at the end those expectations are met.

It would be grand to go into movies as an adventure, like a trip, not knowing where the film takes you and experiencing as it goes and only at the end do you know realize that there is no end, the journey was the destination.

Ferran takes us on such a journey...The film begins with fantastic scenes of everyday people all in their own little worlds, set in Paris, all with their phones, music, issues, problems, and hones in on Audrey, a housekeeper at an airport hotel and Gary, a tech exec, in town on business..... After a few scenes of their respective stations in life,...we are half expecting the two to meet, perhaps have an adventure or two, and eventually fall in love...But Ferran is not interested in putting together a ROMANTIC COMEDY... it is not on the menu. Instead, she focus not so much on the lives of these two characters... but uses them as a springboard for her main goal, to introduce us to the transcendent in the everyday world and everyday people that surrounds us. I won't go into how she achieves this but, she does it unexpectedly and wonderfully..

This film reminds me of some of the wonderful French films they used to make in the 70's by directors like Resnais, Tanner, Sautet, etc. with touches of Jacquot Benoit's A SINGLE GIRL, social commentary thru characters representing a whole generation of young men and women who are trying their best with modern life, but somehow seem out of sorts with the way their lives, and the world is turning out. We need more movies like this.... BTW, I have no idea how Ferran filmed the little sparrow, if it was real or computer-generated, but thru this film. I've become quite enamored with them. It's crazy that people say things like cruelty, violence and so forth in films are just for entertainment and don't really influence people's behavior. Of course films influence how we feel about the world. Just watching this film has made me like birds.

A beautiful hidden message...

[yesumessiah · 10/10 · 2 January 2022]

People and animals coexist in relative harmony and that existence is much more intimate than we would outwardly realize. As humans, we are likened unto animals in many areas, namely religion and then literature as metaphors. As a child and a Buddhist, we were admonished to observe nature, to learn from it. Such is this work. As people, we are compelled by our various paradigms to follow a path; that somehow no matter the circumstance, that it is our fate. But life is more than existence. It's about living and experiencing things outside that paradigm we chain ourselves to. Gary in sort of a "Matrix" moment makes a red pill decision to screw it all, no matter the consequences. His life is changed in the extreme, leaving his job, his wife, even his children to explore a new life free from the chains of fateful expectation. In the process, in a parallel experience, Audrey feels the pull of destiny as well, from her mundane part in the same world. In a twist of that "fate," she is transformed into a sparrow to view the world from a different perspective to awake the destiny that awaits her if she is courageous to face it. As a sparrow, she is still challenged and threatened by a cat and owl as she would as a human if they were people. She also experienced the freedom of flying as a way of breaking her routine to experience the magic of arbitrary choices and hence meet new people and the substance they might bring to her. This film is full of wonderful expressions of that substance and magic in an amazing way. In the end, she is emboldened by her experience to cross paths to finally meet Gary, two people who decided in their own way to free themselves from their previous prisons to maybe walk a new path together. As for me, a guy who would rather watch a zombie or action flick, this work of art makes me want to reanalyze my priorities as well. If there is any negative feedback to this expression of ideas, it simply means that some of us are still chained to our paradigms and given to fate rather than be an instrument of destiny. Well done to the makers and the actors. This is a diamond in the rough I thoroughly enjoyed.