Partir (2009)
Directed by Catherine Corsini

Film Review

The scenario is a familiar one.  The bored wife, the complacent husband and the Latin lover.   We all know the story.  It is the eternal triangle, a tale of lust and infidelity that can only end in disaster, or, at the very least, a houseful of broken china.  The plot is as well-trodden as the floor coverings in Hampton Court Palace and yet in this, her latest film, Catherine Corsini gives it a modern twist that makes it relevant for today's discerning cinema audience.  Partir is as much an expression of a woman's right to live her life as she chooses as it is a thoroughly engrossing piece of film drama.

With its unashamed sensuality, authentic depiction of male-female conflict and deathly dark undercurrents, Partir feels like an overt homage to François Truffaut (a director whom Corsini greatly admires).  The references to La Peau douce (1964) and La Femme d'à côté (1981) are not too hard to spot, and music by Truffaut collaborators Georges Delerue and Antoine Duhamel powerfully evokes the romanticism and darkness of Truffaut's tragic melodramas.   The spectre of Françoise Sagan can also be felt in the film's characterisation of an illicit romance as something that is both beautiful and terrible, a delirium of the senses that arouses the best and worst of human passions.

As well as being superbly directed, Partir also offers some sublime contributions from such talented performers as Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López and Yvan Attal.   Kristin Scott Thomas needs absolutely no introduction and her performance is just as you would expect - intelligent, compassionate and unceasingly believable.  Thomas brings to her portrayal an intensity which lends her character the aspect of a tragic heroine, conveying a real sense of desperation as she tries to grasp what may be her last chance of happiness.  Whilst Thomas dominates this film, she has some fine support from Sergi López and Yvan Attal, who complement one another perfectly as the lover and the husband - the one virile and passionate, the other cold and manipulative.  With three such charismatic performers, the film's explosive potential is fully realised.

Until recently, Catherine Corsini has received little in the way of serious critical acclaim for her work.  Her previous successes, La Nouvelle Eve (1999) and La Répétition (2001), both appear pretty lightweight in comparison with this latest offering, a full-bodied fusion of erotic thriller and romantic drama that is directed with flair and confidence.  Partir has a reality, a humanity and a feverish intensity that sets it way apart from Corsini's other films and hopefully marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in this director's career.

Film Synopsis

Suzanne has grown tired of her comfortable middle-class existence.  Now she is forty she yearns for new challenges and decides to resume her old career as a physiotherapist.  Her husband Samuel encourages her in her new enterprise and soon she is overseeing the construction of her new private clinic.  The building work is well under way when Suzanne notices the site foreman, Ivan, and becomes inexplicably drawn to him.  He is nothing like her husband.  He is rough, muscular and has none of the bourgeois polish that Samuel and her other friends have.  Ivan, a Spanish labourer who has spent time in prison, belongs to another, earthier world - and yet Suzanne finds him irresistible.

The middle-aged woman is guilt-stricken when she causes Ivan to be injured in an accident.  Unable to work, the latter accepts an offer from his besotted employer to accompany him on a trip to Spain to visit his daughter, whom he has not seen for some time.  This is merely an excuse for Suzanne to get to know Ivan better.  Before either of them knows it they are caught up in a tempestuous love affair that makes it impossible for them to separate.  In the end, Suzanne decides to run away from her husband and begin a new life with her Spanish lover.  Unfortunately, Samuel has no intention of letting her go...