La Fille de l’air (1992) - film review

Brigitte lives with her boyfriend, Daniel, who is on the run having escaped from prison for a series of armed robbery offences.  Brigitte is a few months’ from giving birth when the couple’s home is raided by the police.  At the time, Daniel is involved in a violent robbery which goes wrong – a policeman is killed and he is arrested.  Both Daniel and Brigitte end up in prison, although Brigitte’s sentence is reduced to a few months.  Daniel however must remain in prison for 18 years.  Realising that this will destroy her husband, Brigitte resolves to rescue him in a daring prison escape involving a helicopter...

La Fille de l’air is a stunningly filmed action thriller from the award winning director Maroun Bagdadi, a film which has all the dynamism, gritty realism and startling energy of his earlier films.  This is a film which literally pummels the senses, both visually and aurally, particularly in the climactic action scenes such as the police raid at the start of the film and the remarkable escape sequence at the end.

This is however much more than an empty action film.  This is a film which retells the incredible true story of a woman who was driven by love alone to rescue her husband from prison.  That woman was Nadine Vaujour, who became a national hero in France when news of her daring adventure hit the newstands in May 1986.  In this film, her personal drama is enacted by Béatrice Dalle, a French actress who is regarded today as one of the best in her profession, and here she gives one of her best performances.  Dalle’s portrayal is both sympathetic and vulnerable – you actually desperately want her to succeed even though all the odds are badly against her.

Although it is not quite Bagdadi’s best film (that honour must surely belong to his political masterpiece Hors la vie), La Fille de l’air is a gripping and well crafted piece of cinema.  A sad footnote is that it was Bagdadi’s final film – the director was killed tragically the year after its release when he fell to his death in a lift shaft, cutting short the career of a hugely creative filmmaker.

© James Travers 2001

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