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Film: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
Year of production: 2002
UK Release date: 28th April 2003
Distributor: Optimum
Certificate: 12
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Laetitia Colombani
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihan, Isabelle Carré, Sophie Guillemin, Clément Sibony
Genre: Romance/Thriller
Format: DVD
Country of Production: France
Language: French
Review by: Samuel Clifton
The first feature from French director Laetitia Colombani is also one of compatriot Audrey Tautou's first appearances following her international breakthrough in Jeunet's Amélie. Together they tackle the thorny issue of 'erotomania' in an unconventional love story filled with twists and told in a non-linear narrative.
Matters of the heart abound as cardiologist Dr. Loïc Le Garrec (Brotherhood Of The Wolf's Le Bihan) unwittingly becomes the focus of attention for art student Angélique (Tautou). New neighbours after she begins house-sitting for a family on vacation, Angélique embarks on what she believes to be an affair with the married, expectant father.
Things start innocently enough as she surreptitiously sends the doctor flowers at his office and dedicates works of art to him. The affair soon turns sour, however, when Le Garrec's wife (Carré) suffers a miscarriage and the marriage breaks up. Learning of this, Angélique excitedly plans a trip to Florence with her newly available love. Of course, Angélique's dreams are dashed when Le Garrec leaves her stranded alone at the airport. So begins Angélique's inevitable descent into depression, delusion and obsession..
In quick succession she loses both her job and a prestigious art scholarship. Already at her nadir, Angélique sees a news broadcast telling of Dr. Le Garrec's arrest for the assault of one of his patients. A tumultuous sequence of events quickly unfolds and comes to a head with Angélique's life hanging in the balance.
It's at this point that the story rewinds itself to make a point of divergence when Angélique sends a single rose to Dr. Le Garrec. From here, we see the affair from his perspective and his is a story that differs greatly from the version of events told from Angélique's point of view. Angélique's fragile state of mind is further illuminated by the realisation that events seemingly so important to her were not what they at first appeared to be. In the final passage, Angélique is afforded the opportunity for recovery and redemption but an ominous conclusion suggests that she might not take it…
Writer/director Colombani is possibly her own worst enemy in her début feature. Whilst her examination of the psychological phenomena of 'erotomania' is confidant and daring, her execution is sadly lacking. The problem is that her addition to the 'woman scorned' genre brings little new to the table besides a thin intellectual examination of the psychology of obsession and even this feels a little tacked on. The film consistently tries to be new and unpredictable, but it fails in most of its attempts. For instance, there is a scene within Angélique's half of the film in which she catches Le Garrec in an embrace with his wife. Whilst she is shocked at this discovery, we are not. Colombani's script can't help but hit all the familiar plot points that we've seen time and time again: The fragile, naïve waif who falls for the strong, stern professional; the marriage that breaks down over trauma and mistrust; the inevitable violent conclusion. All are present and correct.
The script's dialogue does feature some memorable moments when you feel a real sense that Colombani has lent an introspective and delicate touch to her film, but these are sadly few and far between. What's more, these genuine moments in the script are negated by Colombani's juvenile visual devices which only serve to betray her youth and inexperience. In the midst of Angélique's downfall, we witness the wilting of a rare plant placed into her care by the family whose house she is sitting. This visual metaphor for life and love dying may have been poignant in Disney's Beauty And The Beast some twenty years ago, but here it just seems trite.
Colombani's lack of originality extends also to the decision to present her début in the popular non-linear style. In Twyker's Run Lola Run, the simple story was greatly enhanced by the replay of a single day's events, whilst Nolan's tale of an amnesiac in Memento necessitated that it was told in reverse. He Loves Me... does not benefit in the same way from using this device. This is partially because it's unnecessary. The revelations unveiled in the second half are not as shocking or surprising as the filmmaker would have us believe. The predictable script cannot bear the weight of suspense that a non-linear narrative carries. More disappointing, however, is the feeling that the film may well have been better without the leap backward. The jump creates a strict dichotomy between the two protagonists that robs the film of any moral or emotional complexity. If the film had unfolded itself in a more straightforward fashion, Angélique's descent into mania may have been more immediately engaging and relatable. As it is, we are given perhaps a little too much objectivity on events. Tellingly, one of the few true moments of pathos in the film only occurs towards its conclusion when Angélique finally gets a kiss from her object of desire. By this point, the non-linear portion of the narrative has already been resolved.
Where Colombani must be commended is in her direction of the cast and their performances. Tautou is admirably committed to her role; especially given stardom must have beckoned following a star turn in Amélie. She lends the best parts of Colombani's script the lightness of touch and introspection it deserves. As the beleaguered Dr. Le Garrec, Le Bihan's understated performance is watchable and believable. Equally, the supporting cast of Carré and Sibony are well measured in their roles as Le Garrec's wife and Angélique's admirer respectively. Credit is also due for the inclusion of Nat King Cole's L.O.V.E. as a recurring musical motif throughout the film. It plays as a soundtrack over a montage of Angélique's supposed moments of happiness with Le Garrec and serves as one of the films truly surprising, humorous and ironic aspects.
Colombani's treatment of the subject of 'erotomania' is undeniably brave and well examined. However, Colombani's final product fails on many counts to avoid the pitfalls of its genre. The script can't help but feel derivative and the direction speaks of someone who's searching for their own distinctive voice. Ironically, it's the peculiarly French sense of detachment from its subject matter that denies the film of any real emotional impact. Some respite is to be found in the excellent cast and their superb reading of the highlights of the script, but the film still struggles to satisfy or leave a lasting impact. SC
Film: Frontiers
Release date: 7th July 2008
Certificate: 18
Running time: 104 mins
Director: Xavier Gens
Starring: Karina Testa, Samuel Le Bihan, Estelle Lefébure, Aurélien Wiik, David Saracino
Genre: Horror
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: France/Switzerland
Torture porn: two words that really shouldn’t have been put together, a bit like the combination of cannibalistic Nazis. So when you combine them all together you get some idea of Frontiers’ brutality.
Frontiers begins with a small group of friends who are fleeing Paris, which is going through a rather turbulent time, with a new extremist right wing president coming into power.
During their escape they come across a cosy little motel - cosy if you find Nazi paraphernalia and huge guns appealing that is. Events unfurl, and our merry gang of wannabe political freedom fighters are axed, cooked alive, chained, sliced and shot. No doubt there are many other atrocious acts inflicted upon them, but by the end it all blurs into a big screaming red blotch on your memory…
The violence in this film is as in your face as it gets. No camera cut aways a split second before the gore – and no letup on the fake blood. Despite this, there is a gradual crescendo of violence and bloodletting, which is built up throughout the film, so that by the climax our surviving heroine is doing quite a commendable impression of Carrie.
Hand in hand with the gore is the most interesting side of the narrative, as the evil doers are in fact a very strange and clearly deranged family who have a certain liking to Adolf himself. We have the Nazi father figure and his children, who he seems to have stolen over the years and brought up as his own – adopting them into his little Mein Fuhrer worshipping church. Finally, there’s the mother figure who crops up twice in the film, and does little other than sit in a wheelchair spewing gunk out of a pipe that is poking out of her throat. They are a lovely family unit and they like nothing better than chopping up and eating passersby. This idea of a family carvery does work nicely, and brings a sinister glow over the flat out gore that doesn’t really do much to scare or unsettle.
Despite this, Frontiers appears to steal from a few other horror films, melding them all together into a grotesque 104 minute show. Of course, in its defence, the genre of the horror film is so abundant that it makes it relatively impossible to create a truly original storyline to go along with the scares and bloodshed. The idea of the killer family lends itself to that of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, with Frontiers attempting its own version of the infamous dinner scene, with the incapable grandfather of Texas Chainsaw Massacre being replaced with the mother here. Then we have the usual torture porn comparisons to that of Hostel, and the ramped up gore reminiscent of other recent French horrors such as Switchblade Romance and Martyrs.
The actors and actresses are excellent - the women possessing a disconcerting amount of venom towards the victims while the men convince as towering Nazi brutes with their pecs taking up as much room on screen as their victims’ innards. And speaking of the victims, they are a realistic bunch who don’t whine and moan like the majority of horror film casts do, but boy do they scream, wail and cry. The lead protagonist, played by Karina Testa, maintains a successful level of allegiance between herself and the audience, and makes for a very convincing broken shell by the end of the film. A satisfying crack in her sanity is presented onscreen during the last third of the film, which is punctuated with a loud battle cry during the climax.
A lot better than the usual Hollywood horror fare, however, it certainly won’t satisfy the adrenaline seekers among you who like to be psychologically tested. JCH
Film: Brotherhood Of The Wolf
Release date: 19th February 2007
Certificate: 15
Running time: 137 mins
Director: Christophe Gans
Starring: Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Jeremie Renier, Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci
Genre: Action/Horror/Mystery
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: France
Set in pre-revolutionary France, director Christophe Gans utilises the legendary tale of the Beast of Gévaudan to weave his multilayered and very loosely fact-based plot around.
Gregoire de Fronsac (Simon Le Bihan), artist, soldier and forward thinking man of science is dispatched to Gévaudan by his king in an attempt to accelerate the destruction of a murderous wolf-like beast that has been terrorizing his subjects. With the assistance of his Iroquois companion, Mani (Mark Dacascos), he swiftly concludes that rather than a demon set free from the depths of hell, due to the king’s favour of reason over religious teachings, he is in fact dealing with something manufactured, or at least influenced by man.
Shortly after arriving in the area, Fronsac meets the Morangias family and their circle of self-centred opinionated fair-weather friends. He immediately clashes mental swords with one armed adventurer, recently returned from Africa, Jean-François de Morangias (Vincent Cassel), while simultaneously falling for the charms of his younger sister Marianne (Emilie Dequenne).
As the first hour slowly progresses, going off at seemingly unrelated tangents, as Gans cleverly mimics Jaws by keeping the beast off camera, we are introduced via Fronsac’s investigation to more and more colourful characters. Femme fatale Sylvia (Monica Bellucci), clergyman Sardis and an epileptic mute girl, amongst others, become possible suspects, although, at this point, we are not quite sure what we are supposed to be suspecting them of.
The less is more approach of the first half, having served its purpose by building tension and offering clues, suddenly shifts up several gears as we cross over the hour mark to become an adrenaline fuelled fight fest that rarely slows down, yet still manages to pack emotional clout when it does pause briefly to come up for air…
Fronsac and Mani are joined by young idealistic nobleman Thomas d’Apcher as they set out on their journey to hunt the beast, a precursor to an almost Indiana Jones-style romp featuring numerous sprung traps and “close but no cigar” moments, with respect to the quarries capture. Following on from this, we have several exciting martial arts sequences, involving an array of brutal yet ingenious weaponry, before we take one final plot building breather - just before the exciting pay off scene. Gans, whether intentionally or not, may ape Steven Spielberg’s gift for tension building before rewarding the audience with exciting moments of peril, but it is when the action explodes across the screen that the directors veer off in different, yet equally effective, directions. Gans’ style is a hybrid of quirky European idiosyncrasies fused with Asian frenetic camera work, and speckled with well placed slow motion sequences thrown in for good measure.
The cinematography is simply stunning, from the mud-entrenched autumn slow-motion fight scene with individual droplets of rain mixed with blood, so vivid we can almost feel the spray, to the snowy winter search for lost children, and the lush forest wolf hunt where Gans utilises every vista to maximum effect.
Naturally, being a French film, we have the obligatory sex scene, but even then Gans shows his skill, allowing the camera to scan the length of Monica Bellucci’s naked body as she entertains her suitor, before seamlessly merging the curves of her thighs with the peaks and troughs of a scenic mountain region. While all the actors are well cast with Bellucci, her real life husband Cassel and Simon Le Bihan are particularly strong in their roles - and obviously relishing the opportunity to wear such elaborate costumes. However, it is the surprisingly good performance from Mark Dacascos that draws us in and demands our attention.
This is in a mainstream movie with artistic undertones. Placed in the skilful hands of Gans, it is in essence a piece of pure entertainment and something to enjoy time and time again. MG
