Ceux d’en face (2001) - film review

When her boyfriend, Sébastien, leaves unexpectedly for a voyage of self-discovery in a distant country, Linda is tasked with collecting his suitcase from a friend, Mikaël, an ageing composer who lives alone in a remote country house.   Mikaël welcomes Linda’s company and invites her to stay until her boyfriend returns.  Upon Sébastien’s instructions, Linda sets about arranging a large number of photographs contained in the mysterious suitcase – photographs which depict human experience across the world – whilst listening to recorded messages which he sends her periodically. As she is engaged in this task, Linda undergoes a similar kind of spiritual transformation to that which her boyfriend has already experienced.

Ceux d’en face is an unusual film which attempts to get its spectator to regard the world, or rather human existence, in a new light.  Through its innovative use of photography, music and the spoken word, it offers the kind of spiritual experience which is rarely encountered in cinema, and to some extent it is an effective and intriguing work.  The film doesn’t quite have the impact it could have had – mainly because it relies too heavily on some unnecessary dramatic devices, principally the unconvincing rapport between Mikaël and Linda, the only two characters who appear physically on the screen.

Where the film is at its most powerful is where, oddly, it is at its most abstract.  The best example of this are the sequences where the camera pans slowly across a vista of black and white photographs showing faces of human suffering and joy, accompanied by some haunting music and a hypnotic voice over.  Alain Resnais’ Nuit et brouillard and Chris Marker’s Sans soleil are brought to mind as the images we see burn themselves into our consciousness, making us aware of a world out there which we ought morally to concern ourselves with but which it is too easy to ignore.  Unfortunately, such aristic magic is buried within a rather lame piece of drama involving two singularly antipathetic and implausible characters.  Had these been made as a shorter, more abstract film, it might have been devastatingly effective.  As it is, the film is strikingly poetic, subtly engaging, but far from satisfying.

© James Travers 2003

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