Le chignon d'Olga

Hubert Benhamdine has a distinctive presence in this rather inconsequential film but promising though his performance is it did not save the film from teetering on the edge of boredom. He plays Julien, a young man who becomes attracted to a young woman in a French provincial bookshop, Olga, and as the poster tells us she has a chignon. End of Olga more or less, which was a pity as I would have probably found her life more interesting than Julien's family. There is also a tedious repetition of a Charlie Chaplin film which probably meant to show the pratfalls of life, and in this film there are plenty of them and none produced a smile on my face. Rohmer has been mentioned but I am afraid that is as misleading as the title of the film. Rohmer would have observed more lightly his characters, and this film does not. It maybe me as others seem to find its charm. I saw it years ago, forgot it and watched it again, and probably it will be forgotten again. I will miss Olga though and the opening promised something it did not deliver.

I almost gave up on Le Chignon d'Olga. It was late and i was tired. The film started with an endless array of characters all being introduced within a short space of time. Quite frankly, i was lost and couldn't figure out who was who.

Glad i stuck with it tho cos, once i got a handle on the characters, i found the film thoroughly enjoyable.

I can see why director Jérôme Bonnell is compared to Eric Rohmer. They seemingly both like to concentrate on the small nuances of peoples everyday lives, and as another reviewer mentioned, these type of films never get made in Hollywood. I, for one, hope the French never stop making these small intriguing films (this one was shot for under 1,000,000).

I will be watching for further offerings from Jérôme Bonnell. French cinema seems to be in safe hands.

Recommended.

zzzz..

It's unfortunate that Jerome Bonnell saddled his film with a title that calls to mind Eric Rohmer's 'Claire's Knee' because having done so he is doomed to suffer comparisons with the veteran film maker. It's true that the film itself, light as a soufflé, fragile as a soap bubble, is working the same side of the street as Rohmer but this is a wonderful, charming film in its own right. I saw it on its initial release knowing nothing about it or anyone associated with it on either side of the camera and I rejoiced in its freshness, pain, laughter and tears. I now know, having just acquired the DVD that it is the work of a 23 year old writer director, Jerome Bonnell, which makes it all the more admirable. I was recently reminded elsewhere on the IMDb site that not all French films are masterpieces, during the same debate an avid supporter of the New Wave spoke of the Godards and Truffauts of this world wanting to write with a camera. To the first I would reply that of course not all French films are masterpieces but you'll wait a long time before the accountants who run Hollywood would even consider putting two cents into a story as fragile as this and to the second I would reply forget trying to write with the camera give me a guy who writes with his heart a la Bonnell. You can't spoil this film by discussing the plot, you can only enhance it and whet the discerning appetite, nevertheless I'm about to give the plot a once-over-lightly so look away now if you must. Siblings Julien and Emma have recently lost their mother and live with their father, who writes children's fiction, in rural France. Julien is a gifted pianist but has lost the taste for music in his grief. He enjoys a platonic relationship with Alice, five years older, who he has known all his life and does his best to be supportive in her lifelong quest to keep choosing the wrong men. One day he sees a young woman, Olga, working in a bookstore and is instantly smitten. Throughout the summer he fantasizes about winning her even going so far as to engage in a gauche plot to impress her. Meanwhile Emma is torn between her instinct to look after her widowed father, experiment with lesbianism - which she gives up as a bad job - and earn some money. All of these events, inconsequential as they are take place towards the end of summer and long before halfway we are praying that eventually Julien and Alice will see what we, the audience, have seen almost from the word go, that they belong together. And that's about it with the possible exception of the odd bit of business involving minor characters; no high-speed car chases, no crack houses, no teenage cannibals, just quiet, gentle observation of the Human Condition. A MINOR masterpiece certainly. 10/10

A tale of provincial life in the south of France focusing on the lives of two young people, brother and sister, who live together with their recently widowed father. It is as languid and slow moving as the summer heat.

Very little appears to happen. What story there is is oblique, subliminal, played out in peripheral vision. If you stick with it, and I strongly recommend that you do, it may linger in your mind long after the closing credits roll. I only began to really appreciate how much I'd enjoyed it the day after I'd watched it. It is an acutely observed, heart-warming, touching study of the realisation that must come to every adult - that it's time to leave the comfort and security of the family home, to make our own way in the world, to become ourselves, and to face all the pain and challenges that involves.

When I read the Director was only twenty three in one sense I wasn't surprised. The film, for me, perfectly captures the joy and pain of semi independent youth. It is a film that had to be made with these feelings fresh in mind. That the Director does this with such style, so beautifully, so subtly, is what really impressed me. The title, referring to a female character's hairstyle, is typical of the film. Nothing is addressed directly but the film, taken as a whole, is a wonderful evocation of a moment in life that I'm sure will strike a chord in everyone who watches it - even if you can't exactly put your finger on the reason why. It's charming, it's quintessentially French, and it's beautiful. I loved it.

This is a typically French film - inconsequential, gloomy, and yet somehow beautiful. It is a tale of lost people coping with loss and searching for love in the South French countryside. The characters are just ordinary people: smoking, working, and wondering what to do with their lives.

If you are looking for a riveting storyline with a beginning, a middle, and an end; or if you want to be thrilled by action, or floored by humour, do not watch this film. But if you want to see a lucid and touching account of ordinary lives, and the questions we all ask of ourselves, you won't regret seeking it here.