Credits
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Summary
Louise lives with her wheelchair-bound brother Gilles, in an isolated house on the coast
of Brittany. Their only contact with the outside world is Yvette, a local baker
who has taken a liking to Gilles. Well into middle age, Louise partly resents having
dedicated her life to caring for her brother and decides to place an ad in the local newspaper
in the hope of attracting her ideal mate. Louise is surprised to receive a response
to her ad, but she quickly realises the letter is from her own brother. Moved by
the unexpected tenderness in his writing, Louise decides to carry on the correspondence,
using an assumed name…
Review
After their Oscar winning success in
La Vie devant soi, director Moshé Mizrahi and actress Simone Signoret
are reunited in this poignant drama revolving around such eternal themes as loneliness,
growing old and unrequited love. Mizrahi’s direction is notably less inspired
than in his earlier film, and some of the plot developments are not fully explained and
seem faintly ludicrous. However, the quality of the cinematography and the exquisite
performances from the three lead actors offer a more than adequate compensation for the
film’s shortcomings.
In her later years, Simone Signoret confirmed
her reputation as one of Fench cinema’s most cherished actresses with some extraordinarily
moving portrays of vulnerable, disillusioned and lonely women. As the part of Louise
in this film, she gives a harrowingly true to life performance of a complex middle-aged
woman. Jean Rochefort, another of French cinema’s finest actors, is equally
as impressive, and brings both humanity and a sense of cruel irony to the film.
It is left to the magnificent Delphine Seyrig to lighten the tone of the film in her role
as the slightly mischievous (yet, in her own way, emotionally crippled) Yvette.
The film is set on the coast of Brittany, a raw location which offers some spectacular
photography and contributes greatly to the mood of the piece.
© James Travers 2003
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