La fille seule

"A Single Girl" is an absorbing experience. Nothing really happens and there's not much dialogue, but it's completely engrossing. It's about a morning in the life of a hauntingly beautiful woman, Valerie, who's at a crossroads in her life. It's filmed in real time, meaning there are no cut-aways that skip time. If Valerie needs to get somewhere, we watch her walk to that place. There's no narration or "traveling" music. It's as if we are Valerie. What makes the film work so well is the wonderful, subtle performance by Virginie Ledoyen.

Early one morning Valerie has to tell her unemployed boyfriend Remi that she is pregnant. She has decided to keep the child, but they argue whether they should break up or not. That same morning Valerie starts working in room service at a smart hotel. The film follows the routine of Valerie bringing breakfast to the guests, Valerie constantly trying to phone her mother, and Valerie's relations with the other staff.

This was the breakthrough role for the 19-year-old Virginie Ledoyen, best known in America for the Danny Boyle film "The Beach", and earned her a César Award nomination. It was well-deserved. This is a great film, with no real plot or structure... just a look at love and the life of a girl in real time. And, you know what? Ledoyen is the selling point. Anyone else in the role and who knows what would have happened? I will have to be on the lookout for her in other films, because she clearly has that spark...

Valerie tells her boyfriend she's pregnant, he's not sure what he wants. She's mad, but hoping he'll somehow turn around. The unsettled uncertain back and forth is very real. She seems better than the boyfriend, but doesn't quite know it.

Then off to work at a new job in a hotel. Rhythm varies with the headlong speedy movement of work and occasional moments grabbed for a nap or a smoke. Tensions with staff and guests make you worry about this young girl: any situation could explode. She seems calm outwardly, but you gradually get a sense of the roiling interior. Will she crack under the pressure? Mysteries--why is she so cold to the black co-worker? Racism? Worry? You're not quite sure. At moments things loosen up, the girl shows attitude to the point you think she might get fired. Can she be that tough, that self-confident? In a way, yes. She turns out to be an amazing character who almost thinks she's ordinary, though she knows the men are after her like a pack of wolves. She's young, you worry for her, but she can take care of herself. In the end she seems awesomely, unfathomably self-sufficient.

This movie seems to be about female power. A good pairing would be with Sautet's A Simple Story, about an older woman also outwardly ordinary (though beautiful) but with amazing contained power, a kind of integrity beyond any men she encounters.

As John Lennon once wrote, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

This is a very simple film, and that simplicity gives it an extraordinary beauty. And speaking of "extraordinary beauty," Virginie Ledoyen is a revelation, a young Isabelle Adjani in the making.

Ledoyen plays Valerie, a young French girl who one morning meets her boyfriend in cafe, argues with him, then runs off to a hotel a couple blocks away to begin a new job. Her new co-workers greet her in the manner co-workers always greet a newcomer: some with welcome arms and others with contempt. When Valerie gets a break and runs back to the cafe to finish the argument with her boyfriend, we feel every tick of the clock. We know she is taking too long on the break and has got to get back!

But everything that happens to Valerie is so very real and so very urgent because the film is shot in real time. This was a daring attempt by the director, Benoit Jacquot, but his gamble hits the bullseye. Of course, with Virginie Ledoyen to follow around with his camera, Jacquot could hardly go wrong.

A Single Girl (La Fille Seule) is one of those rare, pleasant films. Beautiful, young, Virginie Ledoyen is followed with a video cam as she argues with her boyfriend then takes a job as a chambermaid dealing with various personalities and rebuffing passes from her boss. Virginie was made for the close-ups; one never gets bored watching her walk down the corridors of a large hotel. And this beauty seems unaffected by it all; she is another pea in the Parisian pod. Director Benoit Jacquot has an eye for beauty and for film; this is a must see.