L’Empreinte (2008)

L’Empreinte is a French thriller film first released in 2008, directed by Safy Nebbou.  The film stars Catherine Frot, Sandrine Bonnaire, Wladimir Yordanoff, Antoine Chappey and Michel Aumont.  It has also been released under the title: L’Empreinte de l’ange.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Since separating from her husband, Elsa Valentin lives a peaceful and contented life in a Paris suburb with her young son, Thomas.  When she goes to fetch her son from a birthday party one day, she comes across a little girl who appears strangely familiar to her.  For some reason that she cannot explain, Elsa is convinced that the girl is her own child.  By exploiting her son’s acquaintance with the girl’s brother, Elsa inveigles her way into her household.  As she does so, she becomes ever certain that the daughter she thought had died in terrible accident has been returned to her...

There are few forces in nature more powerful and more tenacious than the mother instinct, and director Safy Nebbou uses this as the basis for this slick, masterfully composed psychological thriller.  The almost primal confrontation between two women who appear equally certain of their maternity of a little girl provides the motor for one of the darkest and creepiest French thrillers in recent years, a film that owes a great deal to Hitchcock (in both its design and its central theme of transference) and which is far more chilling than any of the slasher movies which have recently been inflicted on French cinema audiences.

This is Safy Nebbou’s second feature, following his generally well-received debut film Le Cou de la giraffe (2004), and already he looks like a force to be reckoned with.  Nebbou’s stylish mise-en-scène, coupled with some highly imaginative camerawork and some razor-sharp editing, gives L’Empreinte an unsettlingly claustrophobic feel of a nightmare.  Dreams and reality become indistinguishable as one woman’s desire to resurrect her dead daughter turns into a destructive obsession.  The overall effect is perhaps a little marred by the cop-out denouement, which somehow feels like the wrong ending to the film, even though it is purportedly what happened in the true story on which the film is based.  Real life has much to commend it but it isn’t necessarily the best screenwriter.

What makes L’Empreinte a particularly compelling film are the performances from its two lead actresses, Catherine Frot and Sandrine Bonnaire, an inspired pairing which gives the film both a visceral intensity and blistering poignancy.  Frot is still better known for her comedy work, in such films as Le Dîner de cons (1998), 7 ans de mariage (2003) and Mon petit doigt m’a dit (2005), but recently she has begun to distinguish herself with her more serious dramatic roles.  Here, as a woman who becomes consumed with the idea that she is the mother of another woman’s daughter, Frot turns in her most harrowingly convincing performance to date.  Sandrine Bonnaire is no less impressive and her scenes with Frot are electrifying in their intensity.  We are reminded of Bonnaire’s previous collaboration with Isabelle Huppert in Claude Chabrol’s La Cérèmonie (1995), which features a similarly unsettling malignant incursion into a cosy bourgeois household.  Safy Nebbou’s writing and direction are certainly very commendable but what ultimately sells this film and makes it a compulsive viewing experience are the absolutely gripping performances from two of French cinema’s finest actresses.

© James Travers 2010

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*** Note this review contains spoilers ***
Angel of Mine (a.k.a. Imprint or Mark of an Angel) is a powerful film which was gripping from beginning to end.   The fact that the daughter did actually belong to the ’crazy’ mother makes it all the more compelling; the chances of that being so are astronomical.  I prefer the French title; since I know a little French, the translation into Angel of Mine doesn’t seem right and gives away the outcome of the film.  The film is in French with English subtitles but that does not detract from the appreciation of a good film.   Excellent acting, an excellently directed film which is a true story.  I was pleased with the outcome, and the acceptance of both families to the truth.   I would have liked to have had more information at the end as to what happened to the girl; I believe she went to live with her true mother but this is not spelled out at the end and I would like to have had this clarified.  What about the legalities too of who the child’s mum is once the truth is revealed?   I really enjoyed the film, and I’d recommend it.
Hazel Davies (Devon)  5 stars

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