Film Review
The hardest thing for an adult to do is to enter the world of a
child. Having negotiated the turmoil of adolescence and been
conditioned to put aside all things childish, it is virtually
impossible to go back and look at the world as a child. Yet this
is what Japanese director Nobuhiro Suwa - aided and abetted by first
time filmmaker Hippolyte Girardot - achieves with this remarkable
portrait of childhood, one of the most original and insightful French
films of 2009. Not only does the film offer one of cinema's most
authentic depictions of the fragility of childhood, through the
experiences of two adorable young girls who cannot bear to be
separated, it is also a work with a unique and beguiling poetry, the
happiest union of the auteur aesthetics of French and Japanese cinema.
Hippolyte Girardot needs no introduction. Since his memorable
leading role in Eric Rochant's
Un monde sans pitié
(1989) he has become one of France's most committed and respected
actors, most at home in unconventional and challenging auteur films
such as Maroun Bagdadi's
Hors la vie (1991) and Patrice
Leconte's
Le Parfum d'Yvonne
(1994). Not yet 60, the eternally youthful Girardot shows no sign
of slowing down and it is not too late for him to start a whole new
career as a film director. Since his feature debut
2/Duo (1997), Nobuhiro Suwa has
established himself as one of Japan's most promising independent
filmmakers, his films distinguished by bold improvisational techniques
that instantly bring to mind some of the early films of the French New
Wave. Together, Girardot and Suwa create a film that has
characteristics of both French and Japanese cinema, a film that
combines the intimacy of such accomplished French auteurs as Jacques
Doillon and Eric Rohmer with the enchanting lyrical style of Japanese
masters Yasujirô Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi.
It is impossible to review
Yuki et
Nina without paying tribute to the two young actresses who carry
the film with effortless charm, Noë Sampy and Arielle
Moutel. Each a compelling and authentic performer in her own
right, able to play long (Ozu-like) sequences with breathtaking
naturalism and heart-rending truth, both angelic performers evoke not
only the innocence of childhood but also the cruelty and injustice, the
heartache that inevitably comes when childish fantasies collide with
the grim realities of adult life. Where the film is most
successful is in forcing us to see the world from a child's
perspective, so that we not only empathise with the child protagonists
but feel a genuine sense of sorrow and loss as their last years of
innocence are torn from them and they are driven reluctantly into the
adult world.
Yuki et Nina
is a refreshingly modest and understated film, but few films are as
effective in reconnecting us with our own childhood and reminding us
what it is like to see the world through the eyes of a child - a
bewildering dreamworld where anything is possible, even reconcilliation
between adults.
© James Travers 2013
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Film Synopsis
When Yuki, a 9-year-old Franco-Japanese girl, learns that her parents
are about to separate, she realises that she must accompany her mother
to Japan. This revelation is devastating. Not only
will Yuki lose contact with her father but she will also have to leave
behind Nina, her only true friend. Together, the two girls make a
desperate attempt to prevent Yuki's parents from separating. In
the end, the only hope they have for staying together is to run away...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.