Vert paradis (2003) - film review

Sociologist Lucas is preparing a thesis about bachelor life in a rural community.  To that end, he returns to the place in the French countryside where he grew up.  Here, he renews his acquaintance with his former childhood friends, Isabelle and Simon.  Soon after their marriage, the latter separated and have not seen each other for several years.  Convinced that the couple are still in love with one another, Lucas tries to bring them together again.  He doesn’t realise that Isabelle is in love with him, not Simon…

After a couple of promising short films, Vert paradis is director Emmanuel Bourdieu’s first full length film, an unusual romantic drama which is set in rural France.  Whilst the film has a lot of originality – particularly in the way it uses Hitchcockian suspense to heighten the sense of irony – it is strangely lacking in human feeling and depth.  The film’s strengths are some creditable acting – notably from Natacha Régnier, an actress who career is very much in the ascendant – and its atmospheric photography; both create a mood of existentialist aching for an unattainable fulfilment.  On the downside, the script feels painfully contrived in places, and an overly complicated narrative structure (which uses flashbacks rather pointlessly) makes the film less accessible and coherent than it deserves to be.

© James Travers 2005

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