skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Film: Leaving
Release date: 29th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 85 mins
Director: Catherine Corsini
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López, Yvan Attal, Bernard Blancan, Aladin Reibel
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: France
Leaving’s subject matter of an affair between a disaffected, middle aged, middle class housewife and a younger, working class man sounds an over familiar tale, but there is an unexpected sting.
The apparent perfection of Suzanne’s life is superficial. Her elegant appearance, marriage to an affluent doctor and stylish home provide a tastefully minimalist mask for the emotional emptiness of her existence. Like many a fictional heroine before her, her identity is subsumed in her role as housewife and mother.
When workmen are brought in to construct a studio where Suzanne will pursue her new career as a physiotherapist, she grows close to one of the workmen, Ivan, and embarks on an affair with him. So far, so unremarkable, but the film takes a far darker path than the romantic escapism that might be the expected consequence of its premise.
When Suzanne leaves her family for her lover, her husband reacts violently, and uses his contacts and influence to cut off the couple from any means of earning a living. Driven to near starvation, Suzanne grows increasingly desperate, determined to stay with her lover at any cost. Familial relationships disintegrate and the norms of behaviour are disregarded, culminating in a dramatic denouement…
The film’s apparently romantic theme is belied by a pervasive austerity, in its dialogue, cinematography and its clear-eyed, unsentimental characterisation. The dialogue is fairly unremarkable, and there’s a banal ugliness to some of the scenes that seems deliberate – the tinny sound of a van door closing, or the shabby surroundings of Ivan’s flat. When scenes occur within a beautiful setting, these standout all the more, and they are all associated with Suzanne’s feelings for Ivan – contemplating escape together among the thickly wooded, majestic hills of Languedoc-Roussillon, or watching Ivan’s daughter playing in the sea as sunshine bounces off the waves.
The house of Suzanne’s white coat clad husband is bathed in a blue and northern light, which appears uncomfortably wintry and sterile in contrast to the warm sunshine associated with Suzanne’s lover. The initial scenes of the film, setting up the context of Suzanne’s family life, are interspersed with a blank black screen, and these moments seem to last fractionally too long, creating an uncomfortable sense of the silence and emptiness within the family. As Suzanne’s affection for Ivan grows, these blank interludes appear to diminish.
The role of Suzanne was created for Kristin Scott Thomas, and this gives some indication of the intentions of director Catherine Corsini. In the hands of a lesser actress, the film could have descended into the realms of TV drama, but Scott Thomas is one of those actors who can create a performance that is more than the sum of its parts, and Corsini obviously had this in mind when creating the role. Scott Thomas conveys typical French poise at the film’s beginning, so her transformation from chic to shabby is all the more shocking. Her portrayal of Suzanne’s blossoming affection for Ivan is warm and naturalistic, and she convincingly conveys the indignity that sexual obsession can bring about, a desperation and growing irrationalism which provokes our sympathy, as Suzanne’s behaviour plays havoc with the insincere politeness’s of bourgeois family life.
Scott Thomas’ compelling performance means that Corsini doesn’t have to use the sentiment of poetic dialogue or overblown cinematography to give the story its magnetism, with the result that the film’s depiction of the realities of marital infidelity is more realistic and disturbing than you would expect at its outset. Sergi Lopez, as Ivan, and Yvan Attal, as Suzanne’s husband Samuel, both provide excellent supporting performances. We’re denied the satisfaction of making black-and-white judgements on these characters as they are, unsettlingly, too subtly shaded for that. Ivan seems patient and affectionate, but we learn little of his past – Suzanne discovers that he has been in prison, but not why. Samuel’s reaction to Suzanne’s declaration that she is leaving him is frighteningly violent, and his continued persecution of her and her lover displays a vindictiveness that leaves no room for compassion. But this viciousness is tempered by earlier scenes in which Samuel shows a tender concern for Suzanne, and the humiliation of his situation makes his behaviour understandable, if still unpalatable at best.
There’s a pared down fatalism to the film which has echoes of classical tragedy, which looked with a similarly dispassionate eye at the loves and losses of the human soul. But despite – or because of – the film’s austere heart, and despite the fine performances of its cast, there’s something lacking in Leaving. When Suzanne’s actions become so desperate that in them you can see the seed of her self-destruction, it becomes increasingly hard to sympathise with her. Without that strong engagement with her character, and in the absence of any compensatory strength in Ivan or warmth in Samuel, you begin to feel distanced from the film. It ultimately substitutes subtlety for the grander gestures of sacrifice.
Leaving’s unexpectedly nasty edge renders its depiction of sexual obsession, marital infidelity and disintegrating family life compelling and disturbing in equal measure. Scott Thomas’ strong performance lends a truthfulness and warmth to the film, but the violently irrational development of her character fails to convince. A fine film rather than a great one. KR
Kristin Scott Thomas brings another extraordinary performance to the screen, with a role that has already earned her a nomination for France’s highest accolade for an actress – Best Actress at the Cesar Awards 2010. This is Kristin’s first French-speaking lead role since I Loved You So Long, which garnered high critical praise and earned over one million pounds at the UK box office.
Suzanne (Scott Thomas) is married to Samuel (Yvan Attal) with two children. When she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist, it brings her into contact with a builder called Ivan (Sergi Lopez), an odd job man who has been to prison. The mutual attraction is sudden and violent. As Suzanne spirals out of control, she must decide between her family or living this all-engulfing passion to the full.
A stunning portrait of the destructive consequences that love can have, at the centre of which is a scintillating performance from Kristin Scott Thomas..
Film: Leaving
Release date: 29th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 85 mins
Director: Catherine Corsini
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López, Yvan Attal, Bernard Blancan, Aladin Reibel
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: France
DVD Special Features:
•
Exclusive Cinemoi interviews with the cast and crew
•
UK Theatrical trailer
Film: Leaving
Release date: 9th July 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 85 mins
Director: Catherine Corsini
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López, Yvan Attal, Bernard Blancan, Aladin Reibel
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: Metrodome
Format: Cinema
Country: France
Following her critically acclaimed performance in Il y a Longtemps Que Je T’aime, Catherine Corsini’s Leaving again sees Kristin Scott Thomas venture into the French filmmaking industry in a story of passion and betrayal and the complexities that arise when a family is broken apart.
Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) is an Englishwoman living in southern France who, for the past fourteen years has lived a comfortable upper class existence as a housewife on account of her husband, Samuel (Yvan Attal), a successful doctor.
When Suzanne decides that she wants to return to her work as a physiotherapist, Samuel arranges to have their garage converted into a surgery for her. Suzanne begins to realise a growing attraction to Ivan (Sergi López) one of the builders her husband has employed. An act of carelessness from Suzanne causes Ivan to suffer a leg injury, and she volunteers to drive him to Spain to visit his daughter. The two bond over a meal and, afterwards, Ivan kisses Suzanne, and so begins a passionate and damaging affair that will have dire consequences for everyone concerned.
When Suzanne eventually decides to leave Samuel in favour of a life with Ivan, the lovers find themselves blissfully happy for a short while, until Suzanne finds that she can no longer access her husband’s bank account, and Ivan discovers that Samuel has used his friendship with the local Mayor to have him blacklisted.
Penniless and unable to find work, Suzanne and Ivan find themselves resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive…
To get the obvious out of the way, it is fair to say that, in terms of story, Leaving wins few points for originality. We are accustomed to seeing stories of marital breakdowns and affairs in everything from Hollywood films to soap operas to celebrity gossip magazines, and Corsini’s story does not re-write the book on such matters. Nor does it attempt to. In the case of Leaving, the fact that the story is one that we are familiar with acts as a help rather than a hindrance, enabling the plot to unfold without any unnecessary complications, and our attention to be fully concentrated on the absorbing performances from the three leads.
The chemistry between Scott Thomas and López is palpable, and the intense happiness that they experience in the early days of their union serves to make the eventual disintegration of their life together all the more tragic. One scene in particular, in which Suzanne is forced to sell her expensive jewellery at a petrol station in order to pay for their petrol, is heart-wrenching to watch, and Scott Thomas plays it to perfection, displaying Suzanne’s shame and humiliation through her shaking hand and the helpless look in her eye, as she attempts to maintain an external aura of calm.
All of the intensity of the passionate sexual attraction between Suzanne and Ivan is equalled in the simmering, venomous relationship between Suzanne and Samuel, as he desperately tries to convince his wife to return to him and their children. Samuel is unrelenting in his refusal to accept that his marriage is over, and resorts to devious, underhand tactics to hinder his wife’s new relationship. The performance of Yvan Attal is sensational, he shifts effortlessly and seamlessly between ice-cold passive-aggressiveness and red-hot fury, as he struggles with so many conflicting emotions: his love for his wife and desire for reunion; his embarrassment at having lost her to a man he clearly feels is beneath him; and his satisfaction at seemingly having the moral authority in the situation.
It is a credit to Corsini that none of the characters in Leaving are stereotypical, and her approach to the film avoids making judgement on who is right and wrong, leaving it for each viewer to ponder on the moral complexities of such situations. Suzanne is a likeable character who seemingly falls hopelessly in love, and so we would question whether we can blame her for leaving her family to live with another man. However, at several points in the film we see her put her own needs and desires before her duties as a mother - her children are rarely taken into consideration when she makes several life changing decisions, and she fails to show any real gratitude for her husband, who’s money has allowed her to live in luxury without working for so many years. Samuel, too, could easily have been played as a cold, emotionless husband who deserves to lose his wife, but we see in him a genuine love for Suzanne and desire to keep his family unit intact at any cost. Despite how devious and underhand his attempts to hinder Suzanne may seem the question still remains, if Suzanne is willing to do anything for love then is Samuel not entitled to do the same? Ivan is not the traditional knight in shining armour - he may be kind, genuine, artistic and deep, but he is also an ex-con, and shows little remorse for the fact that he has torn a family apart. All of these aspects of the three central characters combine to display perfectly the point that Corsini is trying to make: as wonderful and empowering being in love can be, it can also be selfish - depriving us of the ability to make rational judgements, and filling us with jealousy and rage. Leaving shows us both sides of the spectrum - we see love in all its blissful glory, and in all its petty shame.
The story may be as old as France itself, but the performances of Scott Thomas, López and Attal give Leaving enough raw emotion and depth to make it a thoroughly engaging drama that draws the viewer so effortlessly into its world that it is impossible not to be affected by its outcome. PK
