L'équipier

Since the release of "l'EQUIPIER" ,Lioret has become one of the most promising directors in France with two important works " Je Vais Bien Ne T'En Fais Pas " and " welcome";quite rightly so.

"L' Equipier" displays originality,sensitiveness and (yes!) humor (Je Préfère les PHARES,says the new kid in village ,En Mangeant son FAR =i like lighthouses best,says the hero,while eating his far;in French "Phare " (lighthouse) and Far (a famous Breton pastry)are homonyms).

The rapport the grumpy Torreton and the all smile Dérangère have between them is extraordinary ;this kind of rapport was already present in "Tombés Du Ciel" and would make the marvelous "welcome" even more worthwhile.

Lioret takes advantage of the splendid Breton landscapes and of his lighthouse in the storm ("lighthouses in the sea are hell" says the seasoned keeper) The action takes place in 1963 thus one year after the Evian agreement ;the newcomer was a paratrooper whose left hand was injured (we"ll understand why at the end of the story,and it is all the more disturbing since we find him nice and gentle).Brittany ,probably for historic reasons,did not seem to like aliens at the time ;it's also probable some of their sons were killed in that dirty war and his coming reminds them of what they lost.

"l'Equipier" IS one of those rare recent movies which has got something of the old cinema,particularly that of Jean Grémillon.

Sandrine Bonnaire is somewhat eclipsed by the two male principals but she brings the melodrama touch,the icing on the cake.

During the ball,the music seems more Irish than Breton:variations on "star of the county down" and " the water is wide".

I have just seen this today at the French Film Festival at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. What a very very romantic story; akin to The Widow of St.Pierre for me.I sighed such a big sigh when it was over. More than many films I have seen recently, I did NOT want it to end.It took me in and wrapped me up as only a truly wonderful film can do.Maybe I'm impartial. I know that Gregori Derangere has caused me to fall completely in love with a film character for the first time in SO many years. He is just so GOOD, so filled with love for everyone around him, and so quiet and handsome. As the French might say, Un Hero Veritable. And the xenophobia of these island Bretons is just SO oppressive and so insidious.For most of them, getting rid of the handsome newcomer is what preoccupies them for the length of the film. The cinematography ,framing, pace, mood- all excellent. Hats off to the director and screenwriter who understand that the most convincing, tantalizing and mesmerizing way to present sexual charisma and chemistry- is not through bare flesh but through glances and brief silent encounters. I know-I'm partial. Nevertheless,I am STILL sighing.

This is the second time Sandrine Bonnaire has made a film in the rocky, ocean-lashed confines of Brittany--the first one being Voleur de vie, which I found better, truer to life. The story of a forbidden love that leads to pregnancy has been done so many times and Lioret is not the great director who can make it all fresh.

Grégori Dérangère is like a big friendly dog in this picture, not showing much emotion: we're supposed to admire his endurance and honesty but it all grew tiresome for me. Bonnaire shows how tough a Breton woman has to be amid the crashing waves and male stupidity, but her mind often seems elsewhere. Only Phillippe Torreton as the hapless Yvon shows any great commitment to the project. Once more he reminds me why he's one of my favorite actors.

About the injured hand change in the middle of the film : it was filmed with the good one but the director decided afterward, for aesthetic reasons, to flip the image in the computer so the characters and everything else in that scene appear as though it was filmed conversely. He said it in an interview.

The dramatic tension builds up with the emotions of each character. We feel exactly as they feel. The rejection of the stranger by many of them is especially strong, and their angriness towards him all collapse magnificently when he reveals, in a Coup-De-theater scene near the end, why precisely he lost the use of his hand. Another fascinating psychological evolution : the complete rejection of him by his lighthouse partner that slowly but surely becomes esteem and friendship.

A story that looks typical at the start but that nevertheless brings an extraordinary personal view of people, not to mention the sea views that are just breathtaking.

... but that, I'm afraid, is as close as we get to Virginia Woolf in this story of closed communities and acceptance of outsiders. Gregori Derangere, so good in Bon Voyage, is rewarded with another central role as the etranger who comes to the rugged, inhospitable (in more ways than one) Brittany community to work in the local lighthouse. Set in the sixties the story is told in flashback hung on the peg of a daughter who has returned to her roots to sell the house she lived in as a child and remembers the stranger/catalyst and the conflicts he triggered. Sandrine Bonnaire is on hand as the married woman destined to strike sparks off and with Derangere and it's refreshing that when they do, inevitably, get it on they do so out of doors in daylight - against a wall in fact - whilst the Bastille Day celebrations go on around them. Given that Bonnaire is married to Derangere's colleague, Phillippe Torreton it does tend to put the master bedroom out of bounds and the scene - the one and only time they have sex - reveals no tenderness or finer feelings, merely lust that nevertheless produced the girl through whose memories the story is filtered. Not perhaps to everyone's taste it is, nevertheless, a fine effort, made entirely on location and none the worse for it.