I saw a French movie late yesterday afternoon with my husband: Mademoiselle Cambon. He was reluctant, as he is not much of a foreign film guy, but since he often has me translate English language films, due to his not so good hearing, in a way, it's perfect for him to have subtitles. He didn't hate it, which was a relief, and enjoyed talking about it afterward. Maybe more than he enjoyed the movie. You know, not much action (well, actually, none), and a lot of silence and "looks". Not a typical guy kind of movie.
I found it soothing and profound, because it's ambition was to witness two people who are different enough to be interesting to each other, but also different enough that their worlds can never really entwine. They were both good people, trying to not hurt others or themselves, but by connecting at all, of course managing to do both. Life is messy. Every engagement with another person causes shifts and regrets and hopes and sadness. They glimpse a whole alternate universe in each other, but don't act it out, because they are decent.
To my thinking, the French are more successful at showing the lives of ordinary working people than us Americans. When we try, we make comedies and outsized characatures. French filmmakers understand real people, and they cast people with real, lived-in faces. We believe these people exist, we know them, we enter into their lives. I said to my husband, if Americans remake this film, they will cast Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt. That's an American's idea of ordinary. Not only do these beautiful people not represent us, they distract us from seeing ourselves and reflecting on our own lives.
So if you want a "slow" film with no gratuitous violence and no twists and turns, but just a small glimpse into the worlds of feeling regular people undergo, often unmarked by the people around them, then this is your film.
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