| Rendez-Vous with French Cinema |
|
|
| Written by Kevin Filipski | |
|
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema February 29–March 9, 2008 Walter Reade Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza (West 65th St between Broadway and Amsterdam) filmlinc.org IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue ifcenter.com  PARIS  THE GROCER'S SON (Le fils de l'épicier) In fact, Bonnaire’s moving documentary about her autistic sister, Her Name Is Sabine, is one of six features made by women that made it into this year’s series. (One of several contributors to the strange, animated omnibus film Fear(s) of the Dark is also female). If you miss it at Rendez-Vous, it’s doubtful that you’ll get another chance to see a film like All Is Forgiven; the feature debut of actress Mia Hansen-Love, it's a quietly absorbing study of a teenage girl who re-connects with her father after his heroin addiction caused them to part ways 11 years earlier. There’s also Let’s Dance!, the latest from Noémie Lvovsky. It stars the spectacular Jean-Pierre Melville as a Holocaust survivor approaching 80 who tries to spruce up his life when he meets a fiftyish spitfire (Sabine Azema), all the while dealing with an ex-wife whose mind is going (Bulle Ogier) and a middle-aged daughter who's pregnant with her first child (Valerie Bruni-Tedeschi). Lvovsky deftly combines near-farcical sequences with glimpses of longstanding family tensions surfacing at the most inopportune times. Of the female directors in this edition of Rendez-Vous, only actress Sophie Marceau comes a cropper with her ludicrous mystery Trivial (the original French title, La Disparue de Deauville, has more zing). Marceau herself plays the femme fatale reasonably well, yet as a filmmaker she stumbles with a dumb story and by-the-numbers direction. Lovely locations compensate somewhat, as does the hangdog presence of Christophe Lambert (remember him from Highlander?) as a down-in the-dumps detective. Several films by obscure directors are low-key character studies. The most successful of these is The Grocer’s Son by Eric Guirado, whose conversational style is perfect for this story of a 30-year-old slacker returning to his family’s rural grocery truck business after his father has a heart attack. There are beautifully calibrated performances by Nicholas Cazle in the title role and Clotilde Hesme as Claire, a Parisian friend who tags along on his journey home. Nicolas Klotz’s Heartbeat Detector takes a good premise -- a company psychologist (the always-watchable Mathieu Amalric) becomes personally affected while investigating the current CEO’s erratic conduct -- and ruins it by stuffing the film with incidents that advance neither the plot nor our understanding of a group of fascinating characters taken from Francois Emmanuel’s novel. At least Klotz’s detached, clinical technique is appropriate to this brooding drama. Two frivolous attempts at light-heartedness end up becoming obnoxious. The Feelings Factory stars Elsa Zylberstein in Jean-Marc Moutout’s only rarely amusing comedy about an annoying single woman desperate for a long-term relationship, while Shall We Kiss? wastes the eternally sexy Virginie Ledoyen in a fourth-rate Woody Allen rip-off that has neither wit nor insight. That its uncharismatic star, Emmanuel Mouret, is also its writer and director doesn’t help. A trio of veteran directors takes part in this year’s Rendez-Vous. Claude Lelouch, who hit it big with A Man and a Woman in 1966 but never approached the level of that classic since, unveils his latest, Roman de gare, as the opening night film. It contains several of Lelouch’s hallmarks, including graceful photography, interlocking stories, and insistent musical interludes (here, Gilbert Becaud’s chansons). But the disappointing result never reaches any dramatic climax, despite nice performances by Fanny Ardant, Audrey Dana, and Dominique Pinon. Much better is Cedric Klapisch’s Paris. Like Lelouch, Klapisch has a proclivity for large narrative canvases, as several story strands run into and bounce off each other. But Klapisch is more interested in people than his own cleverness. Hence Paris, as much a valentine to a beloved city as a subtle exploration of the multicultural population that calls it home, is enormously affecting. The film is buoyed by a phenomenal cast: Juliette Binoche, Francois Cluzet, Fabrice Luchini, Romain Duris, and Karin Viard give Klapisch’s vision a soulful, even melancholy atmosphere. Finally, there’s A Secret by Claude Miller, who has had hits (The Little Thief, The Accompanist) and misses (Betty Fisher and Other Stories, Little Lili). A devastating slice of buried French history, A Secret personalizes the Holocaust by showing its effects through the eyes of Francois, a young boy who grew up in 1950s Paris. Some 30 years later, Francois (again, a superb Mathieu Amalric) sifts through memories to discover why his father has become so withdrawn from life. Miller’s powerful drama also boasts extraordinary acting by Julie Depardieu and Cecile de France as the women in Francois’ life, and Ludovine Seigner as the woman who was married to his father before he was born. Miller handles the tonal shifts and elaborate flashback structure in masterly fashion. |
