17 fois Cécile Cassard

a portrait of a woman in 17 fragments, a woman who has just lost her husband, a woman who leaves behind her a life in the provincial city of Tours where every person, every object and every gesture holds memory of a love she cannot bear to have lost, a woman who proceeds forward, a bit blindly, as she essays to remove a great distance that has between her and her heart, which has become, in her mind, an unsafe place. beatrice dalle incarnates this woman, cecile cassard, giving a beautiful performance worthy of recompensation. perhaps even the cesar for best performance for this year. she doesn't merely act well, she inhabits this woman: dalle doesn't lie when she tells us, as she often does, that she lives a character while she is making a film.

the director, christophe honore, not forgetting that it is he who illicits dalle's wonderful performance, demonstrates a masterful command of visual storytelling in remembering that, in film, pictures have a more important weight than words in advancing a narrative story-line. much is heard in the french press and on television that this is an experimental film, a film without a linear narrative. no, in fact, the film is a conventional narrative at heart for it follows a linear journey of a woman as she strives to refind herself. and it is a beautiful story, mixing pain and loss with laughter and love. i look forward to more films by him in the future.

also of note is a good soundtrack by alex beaupain and les lily-margot and the beautiful cinematography by remy chevrin: they achieve a perfect symbiosis, such as in the opening sequence, the scenes at the abatoir-factory in Toulouse, and the dancing scene between dalle & romain duris, who plays the director's alter-ego of sorts, in the hotel where cecile first stays in Toulouse.

After the death of her husband, Cecile Cassard (Beatrice Dalle) seems unable to cope with her everyday life and fears to be harmful for her young son. She settles down in another town (Toulouse) while the little boy is raised by a woman friend of Cecile. The movie shows "moments" (17, hence the title) in her life. Scene after scene, as she goes along, she comes back to life.

The movie is slow paced, too slow most of the time, and relies on moods created by colors, sets and anecdotes chosen by French director Christophe Honore. The overall atmosphere is rather dark with some touches of bright colors. Dialogue is poor.

Beatrice Dalle, once a sex symbol (37.2 Degrees in the Morning - 1986), was disappointing in her acting and her look didn't help. She was boring to watch and she had a lot of screen time.

Two wonderful scenes were worth seeing though: they were both infused with the talent of Romain Duris, who stole the show each time. The first one was the Merry Christmas scene, when Matthieu (Romain Duris) shows up at Cecile Cassard's new home and offers her to make three wishes; the second one was when he sang "Lola" at the picnic party. Cinematography was absolutely beautiful and Romain Duris so mesmerizing. (5/10).

To be brief:

1. "17 fois Cécile Cassard" has a bad reputation. I do not feel comfortable about that. This is true: a) the names and characters appear in several Honoré's movies and novels (he is also a writer; he already used the name "Roland Cassard" in "Les Cahiers du Cinéma", name coming from - a Breton too - Jacques Demy's films: "Lola"... "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" where Geneviève - Catherine Deneuve's part - pretends she is... 17); b) the construction and the pace may give trouble to viewers narrow-minded. To the others, what is the problem with those famous 17 times that bothered so many critics? Do they think the script is "literary", "intellectual", thus boring? Not at all. Mourning has swept through Cécile's life. And life, or living, slowly (slowly in the film's time, not in her lifetime) gains ground, step by step (17). And life indeed lives in the film from the very beginning, even in death, and does not quit. Plus: the shots are very beautiful, and sweet, especially at night-time.

2. So much life in it: due to Béatrice Dalle's astonishing performance. Think whatever you want of the maverick real Dalle - I love her (integrity, so rare, frightens the narrow-minded and the conservative). But you cannot say she is not perfect as an actress. That'd be hypocritical. Perfect is the word. So true. Directly to your heart. If you are fond of her acting, I may suggest (again for Arte!) Gaël Morel's "New Wave", in which her part (a 'borderline' mother at least) is not so long, but consuming: a really terrifying presence, so true that you didn't think it were possible to play. Thank you Mr. Honoré, thank you Ms. Dalle.

Many motives to like it. From melancholia touch to the performance of Beatrice Dalle , from the beautiful job of Romain Duris to slow rhytm , bodies and short stories, sensuality and that so French charm of je ne sais quoi.

A widow, her decision about her kid, her new life or , more exactly, new level of life and few experiences, erotic, off course , but not only.

A film of atmosphere, inspired cinematography, offering- working as seed for special emotions.

Indeed, it risks, for part of audience, to be just boring. But its beauty , the nice sensuality, maybe the not very smart dialogue because the story is inside gestures, looks and apparitions - and song- are the relevant pieces of this charming - provocative- melancholic puzzle.

I write this review so other will not do the same mistake that I did.

I have seen the film when it was in theater because of some good reviews in the press... But I must admit that it is the worst experience I have ever had. Though I tried, I still do not understand what lead some user to do a good comment of this film.

I do not like to do bad reviews, but this film has been such a bad experience that I cannot help to say what I think of it, even ten years after seeing it.

This film represent for me what goes wrong in the French cinema industry and authors: - films that are boring; - scenarios which makes little to no sense at all; - worst, a lack of connection to the way real people behaves (for instance, apparently the abandon of a child is not so hard), thus preventing spectators to project themselves in the movie; - ... And for those who will watch it in French... Always the same problem of actors always mumbling... French is my native language, but still I have sometimes troubles to understand!

As another review states it, the film is pretentious and indulgent... Pretentious because the film is not enjoyable, the acting is poor... And still it is released as if it was a new milestone of the Cinema. The film also includes scenes of homosexual men making out - for those interested! I didn't understood the point of the scenes, apart perhaps to lure homosexual into seeing it (as many other movies do with nudity, which isn't an excuse to a scenario poorly written, I'm afraid) or pretend to be "à la mode"... (I'd go for the second explanation).

In the end, I said that I had to resist to leaving the theater. This is not only because the film is so boring: it is because I felt obfuscated that I paid to see such a poorly made film with a boring scenario which make so little sense, with characters I cannot feel related to because they all seems to be in the deepest depression... And finally because I feel ashame that this is the typical French cinema drama's worst: a genre where it seems to be OK to do a bad film as long as you say it's art!