Film Review
Jean-Marc Moutout's follow-up to his well-received debut feature
Violence des échanges en milieu
tempéré (2003) is a similarly wry piece of
social commentary, this time centred on the difficulty of forming
long-term relationships in a society where individuals are increasingly
unable to commit and communicate their true feelings. As in his
first film, Moutout deftly avoids the familiar clichés and
offers a work that is original, humane and troubling, a kind of pungent
and twisted fairytale in which a woman's search for her Prince Charming
comes close to driving her out of her mind and which ends on a note of
intense irony. Not your conventional romantic drama.
La Fabrique des sentiments is
provocative, veering towards the outright cynical, but it is also
astute, compelling and worryingly close to the mark in its portrayal of
grown adults struggling to form an emotional bond. The
existential quandary in which the heroine finds herself as she
attempts to balance her professional and emotional needs is brought
home by the film's very distinctive dreamlike composition, which blurs
reality and imagination to the point that the two become
indistinguishable. Moutout's clinically cold mise-en-scène
is appropriate for the story, reflecting the dearth of romanticism and
emotionality in contemporary society, and this is beautifully
complemented by the arresting contributions from the three lead actors,
Elsa Zylberstein, Jacques Bonnaffé and Bruno
Putzulu.
In one of her most mesmerising performances to date, Elsa Zylberstein
regales us with a complex portrayal of a modern woman whose world is
turned on its head when she awakens to her primitive needs, the need to
commit to one individual and start a family. Putzulu is the
obvious soul mate - attractive, romantic and likeable; Bonnaffé
is a far less appealing proposition - gauche, inarticulate, a tad
grouchy and overbearing. Naturally, being human and so
easily seduced by today's facile notion of where beauty lies,
Zylberstein's character is deceived by first impressions; her
simplistic idea of what love looks like inevitably sends her down a few
blind alleys before she reaches her final destination. With
subtlety, intelligence and barbed compassion,
La Fabrique des sentiments
reaffirms Shakespeare's wise observation, that the course of true love
never did run smooth, but is it also saying something more
controversial, that in our atomistic, self-reliant society old
fashioned notions of romance and commitment are, if not already dead,
perilously close to extinction..?
© James Travers 2011
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Next Jean-Marc Moutout film:
De bon matin (2011)
Film Synopsis
To all appearances, Eloïse, 37, has made a success of her
life. Her job as a property lawyer in Paris gives her a decent
income, independence and a chic apartment. But, whilst
happy in her professional life, she feels increasingly
unfulfilled. The one thing she does not have is love, the burning
amorous passion she sees in films and reads about in books. She
needs romance, the chance to marry and start a family. To that
end, she joins a speed-dating club, seeing this as the most efficient
way of meeting her soul mate. She thinks she has struck lucky
with the man this brings her into contact with. Jean-Luc is
good-looking, intelligent and considerate. Alas, first
impressions can be very deceptive. After this disappointment,
Eloïse's confidence is further shattered when she learns that she
has a tumour...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.