Rien à faire (1999)
Directed by Marion Vernoux

Film Review

Marion Vernoux's follow up to her enchanting three-way romantic comedy Love, etc. (1996) is a similarly astute portrayal of a fraught romance. This time the tone is somewhat darker and the intrigue involves a man and a woman from opposite ends of the social spectrum each seeking release from a meaningless and empty existence. The subject is hardly original, you can probably call to mind at least a dozen films that have offered a similar scenario, but Vernoux brings to it her trademark sensitivity and delivers a film that is startlingly compassionate and true-to-life, asssited by one of French cinema's most gifted actresses, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

It is in this kind of intimate, lowkey drama that Tedeschi is at her absolute best, and Vernoux instinctively knows how to make the best use of her talents, using lingering portrait shots that are so expressive of the main character's fluctuating states of mind. In Patrick Dell'Isola the actress has the perfect screen partner and together their performances make up for the somewhat mundane character of the story, which wends an all too predictable course over well-trodden ground. Vernoux's most impressive film so far, Rien à faire is an exquisitely crafted and searingly truthful exploration of those eternal themes that plague all of our lives - love, loneliness and desire.

Film Synopsis

An unemployed working class woman, Marie, has difficulty filling her empty days until one day she meets Pierre at a supermarket checkout.  He is also out of work and has little to do except attend job interviews and do the shopping.  Both Pierre and Marie are married, but come from opposite ends of the social spectrum, Pierre enjoying a lifestyle Marie can only dream of.   Despite their differences, their shared predicament brings them together and their friendship quickly turns into a passionate love affair...