MURDEROUS
MAIDS / LES BLESSURES ASSASSINES
Jean-Pierre Denis, 2000; 94m
The
story of the murderous Papin sisters has engendered much inspired commentary
over the years, from artists and intellectuals ranging from Simone de
Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Benjamin Perret to psychoanalyst Jacques
Lacan; perhaps most notably, it served as the basis for Jean Genet's
play The Maids. Now Jean-Pierre Denis has created a film which, using
new information based on recent scholarship on the case, provides a
fascinating, and provocative portrait of the two women. The children
of a terribly unhappy marriage, Christine and Léa Papin spent
their childhood shunted off to relatives or placed in convent schools.
When she was fifteen, Christine was hired out by her mother to work
as a maid; five years later, her younger sister Léa joined her
in the same household. Denis powerfully conveys how these two young
women, rejected by family and buffeted by a heartless provincial society,
turn to each other with what becomes an all-consuming intensity - and
the defense of their private world eventually causes them to lash out
at anyone who threatens it. Sylvie Testud, also seen in Akerman's LA
CAPTIVE, is remarkable as Christine, a woman whose placid demeanor belies
the rage inside her; Léa is played by Julie-Marie Parmentier,
who appears also in Robert Guédiguian's THE TOWN IS QUIET. She
was one of the four young actresses revealed in I'm Not Afraid of Life
(Rendez-Vous 2000).
Fri March 9: 1 & 6:15
Sun March 11: 9
ACCORDING
TO MATTHIEU / SELON MATTHIEU
Xavier Beauvois, 2000; 100m
A fine actor (seen last year in Garrel's Nightwind) as well as director
(his Don't Forget You're Going To Die was one of the major hits of the
1996 Rendez-Vous program), Xavier Beauvois returns with this impassioned
tale of family loyalty. Francis and his two sons, Matthieu and Eric,
all work in the same factory in a Normandy town. After his father is
fired for a minor infraction, Matthieu tries to mobilize his co-workers
to confront management, but to no avail. A short time later Francis
dies under mysterious circumstances, and Matthieu, convinced his father
committed suicide, decides to take out his revenge on those he considers
responsible. Benoît Magimel, one of France's hottest young actors
(recently seen in Pierre Grimblat's Lisa), gives a searing performance
as Matthieu, a young man bursting with rage and not sure where to direct
it; the film also features Natalie Baye (appearing as well in TOMORROW'S
ANOTHER DAY) and Antoine Chappey.
Fri March 9: 3:30 & 8:45
Sat March 10: 1:30
SAMIA
Philippe Faucon, 2000; 73m
Over the past decade a number of French films have dealt with the growing
presence of North African immigrants, yet no work can be said to have
delved as deeply into that world as Philippe Faucon's SAMIA. Based on
an autobiographical novel by Soraya Nini, SAMIA chronicles a few weeks
in the life of its title character, a teenage girl of Algerian descent
living with her family in Marseilles. For Samia and her friends, just
being a teenager seemingly isn't hard enough; in addition, they must
endlessly negotiate the differences between the world of their parents
and their adopted homeland. Structuring his film as a series of loosely
related incidents, Faucon powerfully captures both the warmth and support
of these families as well as the at times stifling rigidity of the codes
and traditions they fight so hard to maintain. Making her screen debut,
Lynda Benahouda as Samia is simply astonishing, embodying with her quiet
strength a spirit of independence and a determination to make her own
way.
Sat March 10: 3:45
Sun March 11: 1:15
Tue March 13: 6:15
ESTHER
KAHN
Arnaud Desplechin, 2000; 145m
Arnaud (La Sentinelle, My Sex Life) Desplechin's third feature (Cannes
Film Festival 2000, Official Selection) is his boldest and most surprising
film yet. Esther (Summer Phoenix) is the daughter of Jewish immigrants
who live in a London tenement at the turn of the century. An outcast
in her own family, Esther takes to the stage: under the tutelage of
a pompous theater critic (Fabrice Desplechin) and a down-at-the-heels
actor (Ian Holm, in one of his finest performances), she finds a life
for herself in the theater. Few filmmakers at work today are so attuned
to nuances of behavior and character, and Desplechin achieves something
quite unusual and breathtaking with his lead actress, who can tremble
like a bird one minute and roar like a lion the next. This is not a
movie about finding fame and fortune on stage. It's about the terrifying
yet liberating reality of acting, and the painful act of self-recreation,
culminating in an extended backstage sequence as powerful as anything
in late Bergman.
Sat March 10: 8:30
Sun March 11: 5:30
THE
TOWN IS QUIET / LA VILLE EST TRANQUILLE
Robert Guédiguian, 2000; 132m
Robert Guédiguian first came to international attention with
the lovely Marius and Jeannette, which premiered here in Rendez-Vous
in 1998. A native of Marseilles, he has made that bustling Mediterranean
city, with its potent mix of races, classes and cultures, his special
muse, chronicling the lives, loves and dreams of its inhabitants, often
working with the same troupe of actors; with THE TOWN IS QUIET Guédiguian
has made his most ambitious work to date. There's Michèle (played
by Ariane Ascaride), a fishmonger raising her granddaughter while her
daughter struggles to rebuild a shattered life; Paul, who uses his severance
pay from being a dockworker to buy the car of his dreams; and Abderamane,
transformed by his experience in jail and now looking for a way to make
his mark on the world. Their stories combine with those of Guédiguian's
other finely-etched characters to create a rich, insightful Altmanesque
fresco of a very particular contemporary urban reality, showing in the
words of the director that "at a time when life is more and more
meaningless, the town is not quiet."
Tue March 13: 1
Sat March 17: 1
Sun March 18: 7:15
GIRLS
CAN'T SWIM / LES FILLES NE SAVENT PAS NAGER
Anne-Sophie Birot, 2000; 101m
Piers Handling of the Toronto Film Festival writes that "this wonderful
first feature (A Winstar Cinema release) from newcomer Anne-Sophie Birot
captures one of the most ephemeral of relationships: that between young
teenage girls. Gwen and Lise are bosom buddies; their loyalty to each
other supersedes almost every other relationship in their lives....
Birot's complete identification with her two young protagonists gives
LES FILLES NE SAVENT PAS NAGER the veracity and intimacy that is its
greatest strength. Its double point-of-view is used to great effect,
communicating the intricacies of both girls' experiences. Birot has
caught the cadences and rhythms of teenage anxieties, complicated by
home lives that are never simple, set against a landscape that is as
harsh and unforgiving as the life lessons Gwen and Lise (Pascale Bussières)
are about to learn." Topped by an eye-catching performance by Isild
Le Besco (Gwen), who was in last year's Rendez-Vous with La puce and
who is equally striking in this year's SADE by Benoît Jacquot,
this is a film not to be missed.
Wed March 14: 1 & 6
THREE
BY EIGHT / TROIS HUIT
Philippe Le Guay, 2000; 95m
Recent years have seen a number of superb French feature films about
working people, such as last year's excellent Human Resources, films
which approach their usually stereotyped subjects with a refreshing
complexity. The title of Philippe Le Guay's new film refers to the one-third
of our time spent at our jobs, and the way in which that portion of
our days defines so much about us. Pierre gives up his own business
for the security of a factory job. Soon after his arrival he attracts
the attention of Fred, a powerfully built co-worker; at first his taunting
of Pierre seems innocent enough, the typical hazing of a newcomer, but
it soon increases in intensity and eventually becomes violent. Trying
to fit into his new workplace, Pierre just takes it, but the pressure
affects his home life, especially his relationship with his adolescent
son. An unsettling, deeply personal film, TROIS HUIT is a taut, gripping
drama that exposes some of the darkest recesses of male sexuality.
Thurs March 15: 1 & 5:45
Sat March 17: 4:15
LA CAPTIVE
Chantal Akerman, 2000; 108m
The second installment in producer extraordinaire Paulo Branco's project
to bring each volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time to the
screen, Chantal Akerman's very free adaptation of La Prisonnière
completely differs from the approach taken by Raul Ruiz for Time Regained.
Rather than the kaleidoscopic, ever expanding Ruizian vision, LA CAPTIVE
is a spare, at times extraordinarily intense, description of an emotional
state. "In LA CAPTIVE, a lovely young woman, Ariane, lives with
a wealthy young man, Simon, in an enormous old Parisian apartment which
he also shares with his grandmother. Simon is obsessed with Ariane and
keeps her as his willing captive. She acquiesces to his elaborate desires,
his ceaseless surveillance and endless questions, responding in vague,
neutral ways that maintain her own reserve of privacy, her own mental
and physical freedom. Sympathetic and even affectionate to Simon, Ariane
prefers women as sexual partners, and leads a (known) double life, thus
intensifying Simon's pain, obsession and desire.... Beneath the elegant
surface - the banal, casual conversations, the impeccably polite exchanges
-there is a depth of passion surging through Akerman's most recent work."
- Kay Armatage, Toronto Film Festival.
Thurs March 15: 3:10;
Fri March 16: 9
Sun March 18: 2
SADE
Benoît Jacquot, 2000; 100m
"With SADE (courtesy Offline Releasing), Benoît Jacquot eschews
the contemporary settings of his most recent work for a historical peep
at that most outrageous of eighteenth-century Frenchmen, the Marquis
de Sade. Libertine, masochist, sexual adventurer, writer and libertarian,
he remains an endlessly fascinating subject.... Avoiding the pitfalls
of the biographical film that skims over many decades, Jacquot instead
concentrates on a relatively small period of Sade's life: his imprisonment
by the Jacobins during the French Revolution and his near-brush with
the fickle guillotine. Sentenced to a prison for the French aristocracy,
Sade finds his reputation has preceded him and his company is shunned
as a result. His easy wit and way with words, plus his incisive mind
and unequivocal values attract the attentions of the impressionable
young Emilie de Lancris, who is alternately repelled and attracted by
Sade's free-thinking ways.... Daniel Auteuil enters into the very spirit
of Sade, and newcomer Isild Le Besco brings a wary, wide-eyed charm
to the role of Emilie. Sumptuously photographed, this film is a feast
for the eye and a provocative look at one of history's most misunderstood
thinkers." - Piers Handling, Toronto Film Festival.
Fri March 16: 1 & 6:15
Sat March 17: 9
FUR
ON THE ROSES / DU POIL SOUS LES ROSES
Agnes Obadia & Jean-Julien Chervier, 2000; 85m
For many viewers, the sexual "coming of age" film is somewhat
a specialty of the French; audiences the world over can thank French
cinema for continuing opportunities to re-experience the pleasure and
pain of growing up. Yet even this illustrious tradition doesn't prepare
one for the extraordinary frankness of FUR ON THE ROSES. Co-directors
Obadia and Chervier plunge us (in more ways than one) into the morass
of fears, fantasies, desires and dreams of two French teenagers, Roudoudou
and Romain. Their burgeoning sexualities inspire more questions than
answers: Is this what my body's really going to look like? When I'm
finally with someone, will I know what to do? And when words or dramatic
action seem insufficient, the filmmakers turn to animator Sébastien
Laudenbach, whose brilliant animations supply other perspectives on
where these characters are at. Bold, innovative, and finally touching,
FUR ON THE ROSES is a work of real freshness and great promise.
Fri March 16: 3:30
Sun March 18: 5
