| Dir. Philippe Claudel, France, 2008, 117 mins, French with subtitles
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius
Review by Carol Allen
Not a lot happens in this as far as action is concerned. It is more a lovingly detailed and absorbing study of characters, the revelation of their past and their changing relationships, all of which rings true.
Juliette (Scott Thomas) has had no contact with her family for 15 years. They have cut her out of their lives. Then her younger sister Léa (Zylberstein), who was a child when they last saw each other, invites her to live with her, her husband Luc (Hazanavicius) and their small daughters. We quickly learn that the reason for their previous estrangement is that Juliette has been in prison for murder and much of the story is to do with how the people around her deal with or fail to deal with that fact. To reveal any more would be to spoil your enjoyment of this beautifully made film.
Scott Thomas is terrific in the leading role. When we first see her waiting for her sister to come and pick her up, she is a solitary, dowdy, withdrawn figure, frowning mistrustfully at the world, chain smoking on autopilot, her unmade up face shot in unforgiving close up and her beauty blurred and scarred by her experiences. Gradually as the film progresses and Juliette starts to come out of her protective shell and relate to the people around her, the actress’s natural elegance and grace re-assert themselves. Zylverstein gives an equally good albeit less commanding performance as her sister, who is warm, sociable and loving on the outside but torn apart inside by hidden hurt. The back story of their lives is revealed skilfully and gradually. Léa’s husband Luc is initially a rather unpleasant character, wary and resentful of his sister in law’s presence but we get to understand the reasons for his attitude as he too thaws and develops. The relationship between Juliette and the older child P’tit Lys (Lise Ségur) as the aunt teaches the little girl the songs she herself sang in her own childhood is very touching.
There are also some beautifully drawn and well-observed supporting characters among the people whom Juliette encounters in her journey back to life. Fauré (Frédéric Pierrot) is the policeman she has to report to as a condition of her parole. He is an attractive man who’s very supportive to her, but his own life has been a bitter disappointment to him. Then there’s Michel (Laurent Grevill) the art-loving widower with whom she slowly develops a relationship. Even the characters who appear in just one scene, such as the potential boss, who rejects her when she reveals her past in a job interview and the objectionable guest at a dinner party, who is all prurient curiosity, have their independent life.
Although Scott Thomas’s command of the French language seems impeccable to a non-native speaker, she does have, it appears, a slight English accent, so the film has given her an English mother (Claire Johnson), who is in a care home suffering from Alzheimer’s. The scene where Juliette visits her and her mother momentarily recognises her as the little girl she once was and breaks into English is particularly powerful.
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