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RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA TODAY (2000) Send This Review to a Friend
The latest concentrated look at films emerging from France, "Rendez-vous With French Cinema Today," (March 10-19, 2000, at the Walter Reade Theater) yielded several that merit widespread viewing. I have a few favorites, one of which is the colorful, lively family drama LA BUCHE, the first feature directed by Daniele Thompson, who already has had a long career as screenwriter of such films as "The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob," "Cousin, Cousine," and "Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train,"
The setting is the Christmas season in Paris. The family life under observation is a bundle of conflicts, all expected to disappear at this time of year. To the contrary in this big-hearted film, all problems and secrets burst to the surface amid the glitz and pressures of the holiday. The film's glossy, attractive look contrasts with the emotional turmoil raging within the characters. Yet the film is also alive with humor. The persistent ring of a phone is heard graveside during a funeral and nobody's instrument seems to be the culprit. The source amounts to the best cell phone gag I've encountered on screen.
The action swirls mainly around three sisters, one of whom is Louba, delightfully played by the charismatic and beautiful actress Sabine Azema, who sings in a Russian-style nightclub and is involved with a married lover. There are also Sonia (Emmanuelle Beart), headed for divorce, and Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the youngest, who is moody and independent-spirited. As for their mother Yvette (Francoise Fabian), she has just buried her second husband, a musician, and her former husband Stanislas (Claude Rich), still nurses a grudge for her having left him. The daugthers have decided it would be nice if their long-estranged parents shared Christmas eve dinner, their past animosities notwithstanding. Another key character on the scene is Joseph (played by Christopher Thompson, the son of the director), who lives in Stanislas's storeroom in exchange for being a helper.
With all of these types, you can see the possibilities for a family album of complications and surprises.
Thompson handles the parallel situations with style, and given the appeal of the cast, "La Buche" has flair, emotion, and humor and never ceases to be entertaining as the various crises are faced
Another superior film is BELLE MAMAN, in which Vincent Lindon, a popular figure in French film these days, stars as Antoine, a guy who falls in love with his mother-in-law Lea at the very ceremony at which he is marrying his pregnant girlfriend (Mathilde Seigner). Since the "belle maman" is played by Catherine Deneuve, who looks great, that isn't far-fetched. Lea fights his attentions but she finds Antoine a turn-on. She also has a lover (Idris Elaba) in the Bahamas. Lea's mother, exuberantly played by Line Renaud, is a cigar-smoking, joke-telling lesbian.
This is basically a nutty comedy that clicks along with crazy scenes, embarrassing situations and difficult choices. Director Gabriel Aghion strikes the right tempo and tone in working with the screenplay by Jackie Stephens-Budin. Through it all Deneuve is a major plus, fitting nicely into comedy in a part much different from the kind she generally takes.
In LA DILETTANTE actress Catherine Frot dominates the film like a hurricane. She plays Pierrette, a woman who manages to breeze through life despite assorted obstacles because she doesn't allow herself to take anything so seriously that she'll admit defeat. She's been living in Switzerland, but decides to pick up roots and move to Paris so she can be near her son, a boring young man who plods along at unglamorous work, and her daughter, whose father is now remarried. She hasn't seen her mother for 15 years and is happy in her snobbish new household.
Pierrette begins to turn everyone's world topsy-turvy and gets into a flock of difficulties, including arrest amid false charges that she knowingly took part in art fraud. Nothing completely fazes her, and Frot is memorable in this portrait of an irrepressible woman. Pascal Thomas directed from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jacques Lourcelles and he manages to emphasize humor and character more than sentimentality.
One film meant to telegraph its charm is LES ENFANTS DU MARAIS (THE CHILDREN OF THE MARSHALAND), which harks back to the 1930s as an ode to a peaceful country life before World War II came along. Word has it that it was a big hit in France, but it seems too precious by far on this side of the Atlantic. We are meant to be totally charmed by two men who opt for the simple life getting by as best they can, but they become quite boring after a while despite a cast that includes Jacques Villeret, Jacques Gamblin, Andre Dussollier and Michel Serrault. Director Jean Becker imbues the story with reverence for nature and values that mean something and there are some lovely scenes, but the plot spins on and on, saturating us with quaintness.
On the other hand, MA PETITE ENTERPRISE (MY LITTLE BUSINESS)is one of the highlights of the French collection. It is a very clever, funny comedy directed by Pierre Jolivet. Vincent Lindon is seen is the role of Yvan, who has a woodworking business that is destroyed by fire. When he moves to get the insurance, he learns he has been victim of a scam by the man (Francois Berleand) who wrote his policy. The dire situation calls for extreme means, involving criminal acts that go wrong.
Jolivet directs with a deadpan style and the cast members are all superb, including Catherine Mouchet as a secretary prevailed upon to help, and Yoann Denaive, as Yvan's teenage son, whose computer literacy comes in handy. The comedy is broadened by also exploring the relationships of those involved, and whenever something goes wrong, there is usually wit involved and tied to human behavior in the face of technical or physical challenges. The comedy clicks along, nicely paced, and never appears to be taking itself too seriously, which has the effect of making us take it seriously as a very droll film that really deserves a strong release.
By now Viagra is old news, which is perhaps why director Claude Berri's LA DEBANDADE gets laughs for a while and then, shall we say, peters out. Berri plays Claude, a husband whose sexual abilities have been waning despite having a wife as beautiful as Marie, played by Fanny Ardant. Marie's interest has also waned; she seems to be content to have a warm, friendly marriage and she likes to read a lot in bed. But Claude's friend Paul (Claude Brasseur) tells him about the new miracle.
The joke is that when Claude does start using Viagra, after a series of funny very detailed technical sex education scenes in which he seeks medical help, events conspire to keep him from enjoying its effects. Besides, his wife wants no part of artificial aids. The trouble is that the subject can elicit laughs only to a point before the movie becomes repetitive and tedious. After a while it almost makes you long for Bob Dole.
Perhaps the most imaginative idea among the new French films comes in PEUT-ETRE (MAYBE), talented director Cedric Klapisch's film that leaps ahead in time from a noisy millennium eve party in Paris. The conceit is that a strange opening upstairs in a townhouse leads Arthur (Romain Duris) into a world 70 years later with Paris partly covered by sand. He meets Jean-Paul Belmondo as the man who would be his son if it turned out that Arthur had given in to the urgent desire for a child by the woman in his life. The lesson: if Arthur backs off from the fatherhood, look at the future generations that will be lost.
Although the film is interesting visually, with back and forth trips in time, once the basic point is made, there isn't much of anywhere to go, and the gimmick becomes shopworn. Give points for the idea and the arresting look of the film, and it is also interesting to see the renowned Belmondo as an older man. But how long can you be swept away by the fantasy?
What happens to a family when one of its members returns from prison after being involved in corporate corruption? In Benoit Jacquot's sophisticated PAS DE SCANDALE (KEEP IT QUIET) the family, including his wife, played by Isabelle Huppert, and his brother (Vincent Lindon again) do their utmost to maintain appearances of calm and lack of concern. But Gregoire (Fabrice Luchini), the ex-con businessman, has other ideas He wants to explore life regardless of what anyone else thinks. Nothing will remain quite the same. The film's strength is the atmosphere created, thanks to Jacquot's direction and the skillful acting.
There were two better than average shorts, both directed effectively by Emmanuelle Bercot and both with a young actress to watch, Isild Le Besco. In LES VACANCES she plays an angry, rebellious daughter who lacks understanding for her struggling mother, who is trying her best to take her daughter on vacation despite the economic pressures. In the superior LA PUCE Le Besco plays a sexually restless 15-year-old who is seduced, not unwillingly, by a man who should know better and is an enticing contrast with the immature boys her age. In France this amounts to sophisticated exploration of sexuality. In the United States it would be statutory rape.
"Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Today" was presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Unifrance and the French Film Office, Unifrance USA, together with the French Cultural Services.
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