
Coincidence of timing: three films out this week that tell US about America. Either in Woodstock, point of organ of the hippie challenge; in Moscow, then, where played a crucial episode of the East-West confrontation, the Farewell record. in Baghdad, where the United States are once again faced with the rejection of the pax Americana.
Woodstock, 1969. Sometimes, we must know cause destiny. Especially when it is at the bottom of the hole. Take Eliott: Interior Designer in Greenwich Village, he prepares to spend the worst weekend of his life with his parents, owners of a motel dilapidated in the North of the State of New York. Once, he must bear the gloom of his father and confront the waspish nature of her mother. To complicate it, Elliott decided to reveal to his parents that he is gay. It is precisely at this moment is the chance of a lifetime. Learning that the neighbouring has cancelled a hippie music festival, it will convince a friend farmer to his field. A few days later, 500,000 people will invade Woodstock for the largest musical gathering of all time. "Hotel Woodstock" shows no image of the concert are perceived to wave echoes. Director Ang Lee ("brokeback mountain", "Tiger and Dragon") preferred to describe "this magical night above the hangover of the 1970s, a last great moment of innocence". It is unable to half. Well marked at the beginning, "Hotel Woodstock" is lost gradually in the mists, justifying the tagline of the film: "If you remember Woodstock, is that you were not."

Moscow, 1981. Colonel of the KGB disappointed by the blatant failure of communism, Sergei Grigoriev, decides to transmit to the West of the ultra-sensitive documents. They relate to the Organization of the formidable spy network which allows the Soviets to the status of research scientific, military and industrial to the West. Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica, perfect in its role of grumpy bear able to get out and return the claws in a Flash), who spent long years in France, made contact with a young engineer from Thomson, Pierre Froment (Guillaume Canet, subtly erased). Soon, it turns out that the information provided by the KGB Mole, nicknamed Farewell, are explosive. In Paris, François Mitterrand, who has just been elected immediately includes the decisive importance of the revelations of Farewell. At a time when the cold war between in a new period of glaciation, Mitterrand has need to warm up relations with America. Washington, in effect, Ronald Reagan is concerned about the entry of Communists in the French Government. Made aware, the US President will feel reassured, aware that his French ally gave him access, according to his words, "one of the most important stories of the 20th century espionage".Christian Carion, the Director of "Merry Christmas" (film pacifist where French and Germans fraternised, the space of one night, in the trenches of the great war), sticks to her story. The Director focuses on the complex relationships between the mole and his contact, the least we can say is that they have not shown great professionalism. Without neglecting the collateral damage caused in their family life. Sober, without excess of dramatization, this reconstruction of the Farewell case lacks a little breath.
Baghdad, 2009. In the Iraqi capital, the danger is everywhere. But where there is maximum, the demining specialists are the first on the scene. Appointed to the head of a unit of experts to the nerves of steel, able to defuse with a simple clamp for the bombs to destroy all 300 metres in the round, staff sergeant James reveals a real Hothead. It takes all risks, for himself, but for his men, Sergeant Sanborn and Eldridge Minesweeper, which are yet not the type to have cold eyes. While the pitfalls of Baghdad grew in sophistication, James seems to increasingly dimmed by the proximity of the danger. But as to break basic safety rules, the tensions are aggravated between him and his men. On this fairly classic frame, Kathryn Bigelow, ultra Director gifted "Point Break extreme limit" and "K-19", signs a new miracle of cinema with "Deminers". As soon as the first images, you will be caught by the camera; it releases you two hours later, after have given you the sense of them have passed on the merits of a tank launched at full speed on a dirt road.