Chère inconnue (1980) - film review

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…

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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