La dentellière

What can I say about this movie? It reduced me to tears in 1977, and again in 2003. It doesn't stand up to over analysis, but it rings so absolutely true... which has given the film it's resonance down the years. Isabelle Huppert's performance is sublime, and the last scene one of the most heartbreaking in cinema.

"La dentelliière" is "Pretty woman" (1990, Garry Marshall, difference between man and woman in wealth) or (even more) "My fair lady" (1964, George Cukor, difference between man and woman in education) without an happy end.

A student falls in love with a hairdresser. His attempts to "upgrade" her are not only an insult for the woman, but in so doing the man also destroys the woman he is in love with.

The introvert woman is played by a young Isabelle Huppert and it is hard to believe that only a year later she would play a very cynical person in "Violette Nozière" (1978, Claude Chabrol).

The film is rich in brilliant scenes. I just mention a few. (1) After meeting each other for the first time the man and the woman are searching for each other. Because each of them is looking at places where he/she expects the other they don't find one another. (2) The man introducing the woman to his parents. The father in law likes his daughter in law from the first moment. The mother in law keeps asking questions about her education and carreer opportunities. (3) The man is having heavy philosophical discussions with his study friends. When the woman aks afterwards what al these discussions were about, he is not capable of explaining it in normal words.

The film ends with a close up renimiscent of "The 400 blows" (1959, Francois Truffaut).

Who knows why we retain the memory of some films and others remain a forgotten blip. "The Lacemaker" stayed with me over the years. I thought Isabelle Huppert played a marvelous part, and the story line fascinated me. I can still feel the sadness of her character when she was rejected by her lover, and then paid the price for her addiction to him. Films like "Blade Runner," "Murmur of the Heart," "Experience Preferred but not Essential, " The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "Closely Watched Trains," and a host of other good films will always be special to me, but not as endearing as "La Dentelliere."

I understand that this is the film that brought Isabelle Huppert, already the accomplished veteran of over 20 films and yet just 22-years-old, to the forefront of the French cinema. It is not hard to see why. She is apple sweet in her red hair and freckles and her pretty face and her cute little figure playing Pomme, a Parisian apprentice hairdresser. She is shy about sex and modest--just an ordinary French girl who hopes one day to be a beautician. Along comes François (Yves Beneyton) a tall, handsome, young intellectual from a petite bourgeois family who sweeps her off her feet.

They set up housekeeping and eventually he gets around to introducing her to his family. Alas, Mom finds the girl "decent," and ...well, it's rather predictable. You should watch. I've seen the story a number of times, and I find it rather painful, especially because in this case Huppert is so incredibly sweet and adorable. It is a naturalistic love story, like something from a nineteenth century novel, sad, compelling, bittersweet and ultimately tragic in an all too familiar way.

Claude Goretta's direction is lean and finely cut, and he does a great job with Huppert. There are moments of pure genius, especially the stunning final shot in which Pomme suddenly turns to the camera, on her face a vaguely hopeful, enigmatic expression. It lingers just long enough so that we realize this really is the end, and the lights are about to come up. The shot is especially effective because we can see the posters from Greece on the walls that reveal that what she just told François was a kind of proud make-believe story. Also very well done without undue emphasis is the scene where Pomme goes to him at the window in their apartment, presenting herself to him, so to speak, her naked little self so vulnerable, and he is not interested. Nothing more need to be said. It is like the turn in a sonnet: everything changes.

Without the beguiling child-like, but deeply experienced and finely expressed performance by Mademoiselle Huppert, this film would still be good, but nothing special. She carries the film: her timing, her intense concentration, her sense of who she is and how she feels at every moment is just perfect. She is exquisite.

For those of you familiar with the work of Isabelle Huppert, this is a film not to be missed.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

Class differences are extremely detrimental to human relationships especially to relationships which involve love between a man and a woman.However hard one may try,one cannot really get rid of class differences in daily lives.Swiss film 'The Lacemaker' is sincere in its depiction of a tender love affair which was bound to fail from its inception.Based on a Goncourt prize winning novel by Pascal Lainé, 'La Dentellière' reveals actress Isabelle Huppert in one of the most sensible roles of her acting career.It is with great confidence and ease that she plays the role of a shy woman who is not too enthusiastic about getting into relationships with men.However,a chance meeting with an intelligent boy changes her life for good.La Dentellière succeeds as it depicts how vulnerable some women can be.It is neither anti women nor pro men but it has something for intelligent viewers who would like to be impartial judges of male female relationships.Those who have deep knowledge of French cinema would not fail in recognizing young actress Sabine Azéma playing a minor role.