La Répétition (2001) - film review

In adolescence, Nathalie and Louise’s childhood friendship turns to passionate love, but when Louise sees her lesbian lover flirting with men she puts an abrupt end to the relationship.  Ten years later, the two women meet up by chance – Louise has abandoned her drama studies to pursue a career in dentistry whilst Nathalie is becoming a successful stage actress.   Although Louise is married and Nathalie is romantically attached to her director, the two women soon rekindle their former love – with dramatic consequences…

Catherine Corsini’s moody portrayal of an impossible yet ineluctable romance has echoes of François Truffaut’s later films, particularly La Femme d’à côté.   Corsini’s darkest and most introspective film to date, La Répétition offers an uncompromising – almost clinical – examination of a thorny lesbian relationship involving two characters for whom life, it would appear, is nothing less than an abstract piece of theatre.

Whilst the film shows increasing maturity in Corsini’s direction (assisted by Agnès Godard’s excellent cinematography), it is not an easy film to watch.  Despite respectable performances from the two lead actresses, it is difficult to find their on-screen relationship credible, and the fact that neither character is particularly sympathetic doesn’t help.  Films set in the milieu of the acting profession generally have an irksome self-indulgent, navel-contemplating feel to them and La Répétition , regrettably, appears to fit that pattern.  Ironically, the character which most actors fail to portray convincingly or sympathetically is another actor, and this is perhaps the main reason why this film fails to satisfy.   Emmanuelle Béart and Pascale Bussières are both hugely talented actresses but it is hard to feel anything for them in this film, so seemingly empty and implausible is the characterisation they offer us.

Although La Répétition may not be the most compelling or original of recent French films, the mood and style of the piece offers a welcome antidote to the shallow glossy trash which takes up most screen time in cinemas these days.  It may not be Catherine Corsini’s best film, but it confirms her talent as a serious director and offers a tantalising foretaste of the much more significant films she will undoubtedly give us in the future.

© James Travers 2004

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