Non ma fille, tu n’iras pas danser (2009)

Non ma fille, tu n’iras pas danser is a French film first released in 2009, directed by Christophe Honoré.  The film stars Chiara Mastroianni, Marina Foïs, Marie-Christine Barrault, Jean-Marc Barr and Fred Ulysse.  It has also been released under the title: Making Plans for Lena.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Since the break-up of her marriage, Léna has coped as best she may to bring up her two young children single-handedly.  But when she returns to her family home in Brittany, she faces her toughest ordeal.  Her parents are so determined to patch up her life that they have invited her ex-husband, Nigel, to stay with them.  The road to Hell is paved with good intentions...

After a run of films set in the French capital, director Christophe Honoré makes a fleeting return to his native Brittany for his latest offering of emotional turbulence and existentialist angst, a film that combines the uncompromising austerity of his earlier Ma mère (2004) with the poetic melancholia of Dans Paris (2006).  The film derives its slightly off-putting title from an old Breton legend which is re-enacted towards the middle of the film, an amusing if somewhat pointless digression from a narrative that only just manages to hold itself together.  The legend concerns a wayward young woman who had a reputation for dancing her suitors to death and ended up marrying the Devil.  Considering what he puts his actors and audiences through you might easily reckon Honoré to be the reincarnation of this Breton virago.

A darkly compelling study of a woman caught in the maelstrom of mid-life crisis, Non ma fille, tu n’iras pas danser is arguably Christophe Honoré’s best film to date.  It is not flawless but it has a maturity and sensitivity, both in its mise-en-scène and writing, which is less evident in his previous work.  The film is adapted from the novel Week-end de chasse à la mere by Geneviève Brisac, who collaborated with Honoré on the screenplay.  Not only are the characters well-drawn (and skilfully portrayed by an exceptional cast) but their inner turmoils are vividly exposed through some intensely lyrical cinematography, which is beautifully complemented by Alex Beaupain’s eerily eloquent score. Despite the sombre tone of the film, there is a certain amount of compassion and tenderness mixed in with the cruel strokes of irony.

In her most impressive screen performance to date, Chiara Mastroianni plays the central character Lena with breathtaking conviction, captivating in her moving yet slightly disturbing portrayal of a woman teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown.   Lena is both a metaphor for the modern woman and an individual who finds herself trapped by the demands of convention and the people she knows.  Her attempts to assert her independence and follow her own will merely hasten her descent into Hell.  Like the woman in the Breton legend, her appetite for freedom causes her to destroy everything around her and merely drives her into the arms of Lucifer.  Through this complex and humane study of a woman in crisis, Christophe Honoré shows that he can hold his own amongst France’s leading auteur filmmakers.

© James Travers 2010

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