Film Review
Emmanuel Mouret's belated follow-up to his delightfully exuberant comedy
Laissons Lucie faire! (2000)
retains the sunny Marseilles location (the director's hometown) but is
a much more considered work, a sensitively played coming-of-age rom-com
that could easily be mistaken for one of Eric Rohmer's later
films. Although Rohmer's influence can be seen in all of Mouret's
films, this is the one which is most Rohmer-esque in its subject and
style, and yet Mouret also manages to impose his own auteur identity on
the film, through his sharp humour and nimble pirouettes between
farce and quite brutal drama. Spared the
Woody Allen-style escapades of Mouret's subsequent romantic comedies,
Vénus et fleur has an understated
maturity about it that sets it apart from the rest of the
director's oeuvre and makes it one of his most engaging films.
Like Rohmer, Mouret has no qualms over using non-professional actors in
his films. For
Vénus et
fleur, he cast unknowns in the three lead roles and his
producer, Frédéric Niedermayer, in the main supporting
role. None of these cast members had had much, if any, prior
acting experience, but you would never guess this from their
performances. Every scene is played as if was taken from real
life, and each character is well-drawn and authentically
portrayed. Isabelle Pirès and Veroushka Knoge not only complement one
another perfectly with their contrasting personalities, they both
deliver a compelling and nuanced performance, playing the film's
lighter and more serious moments with equal aplomb. Each of
their characters has a fragile inner self beneath a seemingly
insouchiant exterior, and what is most commendable about Pirès
and Knoge's contribution is the way in which they expose this
fragility, with the subtlest of gestures, like a criminal revealing a
guilty secret.
In contrast to Mouret's subsequent, more polished productions,
Vénus et Fleur has a raw,
almost
cinéma
vérité quality which gives it a particular
charm. This arose from the constraints that Mouret was up against
(a low budget and tight production schedule) but also from the way he
chose to make the film. Mouret did not start with a completed script
but instead developed the film from an outline whilst shooting it
(following the example of some of the French New Wave directors).
Consequently, the film grew organically, with the characters
developing naturally from the personalities of the actors.
This approach not only gives the film a striking realist edge but also
a sense of spontaneity, the impression that what we are watching is real
life rather than a calculated immitation if it.
Vénus et Fleur may not be as
slickly structured as Mouret's other films, but it does feel more
humane, more true to life. The humour is more restrained and
the poignant moments are handled with greater delicacy, the result being a
film of immense charm and sensitivity, and a potential career highpoint
for Emmanuel Mouret.
© James Travers 2011
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Film Synopsis
Whilst holidaying in the South of France one summer, Fleur, a shy
Parisian, meets an out-going Russian named Vénus. The two
young women could hardly be more different and yet they strike up an
immediate rapport. When Fleur invites her new friend to stay with
her in her holiday squat, Vénus readily accepts.
Vénus reveals that her ambition is to catch herself a
nice-looking Frenchman so that she can get married and settle in
France. To that end, she drags Fleur off to the beach so that
they can start hunting for eligible boyfriends. For some reason,
the young men of Marseilles prove strangely resilient to Vénus's
powers of seduction. When Bonheur, a friend of Fleur's brother,
drops by, Vénus is convinced that she has found her man and
immediately goes on the charm offensive. But again she is to be
disappointed. Bonheur is more interested in the quiet Fleur than
her man-eating companion...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.