Film Review
Valérie Donzelli's eagerly awaited follow-up to her
well-received debut feature
La Reine
des pommes (2010) and her acclaimed emotional roller-coaster
La Guerre est déclarée
(2011) is another exhilarating personal tribute to the mysterious power
of love but it fails to live up to the high standard of the director's
first two remarkable films.
Main
dans la main is an energetic, shamelessly eccentric potpourri of
a film, in which dance, music and some bizarre humour are employed with
verve and imagination to enliven what is a curious melange of
traditional romantic melodrama and modern fairytale. The film
does not have anything like the narrative sophistication and emotional
punch of
La Guerre est
déclarée but as a piece of wild cinematic whimsy
it has much to commend it, although its uneven pace, strained
sentimentality and lack of a decent ending will doubtless disappoint
many spectators who had been enchanted by Donzelli's previous tour de
force.
Once again, references to the French New Wave directors abound, most
notably in the Truffaut-like voiceovers and attempts to view modern
life through the eternally optimistic prism of Jacques Demy.
Donzelli is not the first filmmaker of the third millennium to take a
leaf or two out of Demy's rose-tinted book - Christophe Honoré
has revived the old Demy magic in some of his films recently, and far
more successfully. Whilst Donzelli's self-conscious mimicry of
the Nouvelle Vague does at times appear gratuitous, it adds colour and
charm to her idiosyncratic style of filmmaking. The opening
sequences of
Main dans la main
are particularly impressive - they grab the attention like the opening
to a grand opera or big budget MGM musical - but Donzelli fails to sustain the hectic pace and
things have slowed down to an asthmatic crawl way before the film's
midpoint. It isn't long before the central running gag - a
love-struck couple who are bizarrely compelled to replicate each
other's actions - has worn decidedly thin and become a running sore.
Donzelli again casts her real-life partner Jérémie
Elkaïm in the lead male role, allowing the actor to impress us
with his versatility as the part (evidently a near-relation of Billy
Elliot), requires him not only to hone his comedic skills but also to
be an adept dancer (he succeeds admirably in both of these).
Valérie Lemercier is an equally inspired casting choice for the
unprepossessing dance instructor that Elkaïm's character becomes
inexplicably attached to. Lemercier isn't only a great comic
actress, capable of fielding visual and scripted gags with unwavering
élan, she also has immense talent as a tragedian, able to expose
the grim inner lives of her protagonists with subtlety and depth -
qualities that make her perfect for the part of the tragicomic enigma
that is Hélène. Elkaïm and Lemercier form a
chalk-and-cheese partnership that serves the film well, one that
provides it with a constant source of humour and poignancy. So as
not to let us forget that she is also a very capable actress as well as
a promising filmmaker, Donzelli puts in an appearance, playing
Elkaïm's amiable sister, who rivals Lemercier's character in her
obsessive love of dance.
Main dans la main may not be
the unqualified success that Donzelli's previous film undoubtedly was
but it has its moments of breathtaking genius and is an enjoyably
madcap variation on a familiar theme. Yes, the plot is virtually
non-existent, the characters are a little too caricatured to be taken
too seriously, and the eclectic mix of styles doesn't quite gel into a
satisfying whole. But, for all this, it is a film that gladdens
the heart and provides a pleasing diversion from the tedious realities
of everyday life, and who can ask for more? Like Truffaut and
Demy, there is something infuriatingly addictive about Valérie
Donzelli's brand of cinema, and something tells me we ain't seen
nothin' yet.
© James Travers 2013
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Film Synopsis
When Hélène Marchal and Joachim Fox meet they would
appear to have nothing in common. She runs a prestigious dance
school in Paris; he is a provincial artisan who is at least ten years
her junior. But, despite their differences, Hélène
and Joachim cannot help but be drawn to one another, as if some strange
enchantment has taken possession of them both Nothing, it seems,
can separate them...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.