Dans les cordes (2007) - film review

Joseph runs a boxing club in a drab working class district of France.   His teenage daughter Angie and niece Sandra share his passion for the sport and both enter themselves in the national boxing championship.   Angie lacks the self-confidence of her cousin Sandra; whilst the former fails spectacularly, the latter triumphs.  Sandra’s success quickly sours the girls’ relationship and they become bitter rivals, just as Joseph’s marriage begins to fall apart...

In a film that marks her directorial debut, Magaly Richard-Serrano draws heavily on her own personal experiences.  That she is familiar with the world of boxing (she was a junior boxing champion) is apparent in the film’s trenchant realism, which is on a par with that of better known films about the sport, such as Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980). 

Dans les cordes is not only concerned with boxing – had it done so, that would undoubtedly have limited its appeal.  It also paints an uncompromising portrait of its social milieu, in particular the disintegration of a family unit, in a way that echoes the work of the great social realist filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach.

It has to be said that this is not a comfortable film to watch – the aggressive, even bestial, nature of the subject is reflected in the frenetic style of cinematography and editing, which does get in the way of the narrative and weakens the film’s impact.  However, the characters are well drawn and well acted, the story is told with some flair and originality, and overall this it is an effective first film from a promising new director.

© James Travers 2008

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