Ceci est mon corps (2001) - film review

Antoine is a brilliant student from a comfortable middle class background who has a promising business career ahead of him.  To the chagrin of his family, he decides to take a break from his studies to play the lead role in a film by the controversial director Louise Vernet.  Antoine learns that the role had previously been offered to another young man, Lucas, who killed himself after a stormy affair with Louise...

Ceci est mon corps is the first full length film to be directed by Rodolphe Marconi, who previously won the 1999 Cannes Jury Prize for his impressive short film Stop.  Whilst photographed with maturity and sincerity, the film’s threadbare narrative and tendency to replay tired clichés prevents it from having any real impact.  Despite the combined talents of an impressive cast, too many scenes fail to convince, and the editing is unnecessarily arty in the rare moments of dramatic intensity.  Jane Birkin, in her first French film role for four years, appears to have as much difficulty with her character as her lines, but her presence gives the film the wry introspection and weight which are lacking elsewhere.  Louis Garrel – son of director Philippe Garrel and grandson of actor Maurice Garrel – shows talent in his portrayal of the lead character Antoine, but, again hampered by a weak script, he just fails to make his character believable.  The film’s misleading title (which was vehemently attacked by Christian fundamentalists) and its French poster boldly imply raw eroticism and a sense of “enfant terrible”-style provocation, two things which are strikingly absent from the film.

© James Travers 2004

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