Film Review
If some brave soul were to take all of the French films d'auteur that
have been made over the last thirty years and distil this intoxicating
morass of self-conscious nombrilistic artistry into one film the result
might well resemble Nolwenn Lemesle's debut feature,
Des Morceaux de moi. Lemesle
leaves practically no film auteur cliché unturned in her attempt
to fly the flag for the independent filmmaker, blissfully unaware that
her style of
cinéma
vérité now looks as dated and tatty as a
moth-eaten tanktop from the 1970s. What Lemesle serves up for us
is yet another slice of miserable family life in the provinces seen
through the eyes of a disenfranchised teenager, who, when she isn't
playing the great documentarist with her trusty camcorder and wearily
droning on about the crushing vacuity of her existence, is happily
playing the tomboy with her weird bunch of mates, one of whom is an
English guy in a kilt. It's not the most auspicious start to a
film career for someone who has already made two shorts -
Poids plume (2005) and
Sid (2007) - and served a stint as
a screenwriter on other films including Frédéric Andrei's
Par suite d'un arrêt de travail
(2008).
Scrappy, uneven, shallow and grimly derivative as it is for the most
part,
Des Morceaux de moi is
not entirely without charm. Zabou Breitman and Tchéky
Karyo bring solidity to the wishywashy narrative with their authentic
portrayals of the central character's reviled parents, both gaining our
sympathy as the reasons for their odious behaviour become
apparent. What most saves the film and prevents it from being
just another lazy cut-and-paste exercise by a wannabe auteur is the
arresting presence of Adèle Exarchopoulos, who is probably just
about the best thing to hit French cinema in over a decade.
Before this, Exarchopoulos had made her presence felt in Rose Bosch's
wartime drama
La Rafle (2010), but it wasn't
until she played the central role in Abdellatif Kechiche's acclaimed
La
Vie d'Adèle (2013) that her talents were fully
recognised.
Adèle E. isn't just a hyper-charismatic and hyper-seductive
phenomenon, a natural born star with her irresistible
enfant sauvage allure and low,
husky voice, she is above all a mesmeric actress who doesn't so much
draw you into her character's universe as forcibly yank you in and
make you a willing captive for every second she is on screen.
Des Morceaux de moi is a film that
desperately need something to hold it together and prevent it from
being just a messy scrapbook of random (mostly recycled) images.
Exarchopoulos fulfils this role admirably and more then compensates for
the multiple failings in Lemesle's mise-en-scène and
writing. Sluggish and drearily imitative,
Des Morceaux de moi is still
something of an ordeal to sit through, but its siren-like lead actress
at least makes it bearable and leaves you hungry for more.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Erell is a bored seventeen year old girl who lives in a provincial
backwater where the only thing she can do to relieve the boredom of her
monotonous existence is to film everything and everyone she encounters
with her camcorder. Life at home is far from being a bed of
roses. Since her older sister Sarah left to start a new life with
her boyfriend in Paris four years ago she has had to cope with the
temper tantrums of her chronically sick mother alone. Her father
is of no help - he is more interested in his collection of insects than
his family. With her buddies Gabin, Javier and Le Majeur, who
regard her as a boy and treat her as such, Erell struggles to fill the
empty days with small acts of rebellion. Her relationship with
her parents comes under further strain when Sarah suddenly returns with
the news that she is pregnant...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.