La vie promise

"La Vie Promise" ("The Promised Life") is among the French actress' Isabelle Huppert's finest accomplishments. This amazing masterpiece presents Huppert in a character, which is a combination abrasiveness and vulnerability, she is both exasperating and at the same time pathetic, monstrous, and saintly. It is difficult to envision another actress who could embrace the complexity of her character and yet still present her persona in such an intriguing paradigm of humanity who magically captures our full attention while taking our breath away.

It seems palpably unfair when such other female film stars as Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, or Renee Zellweger win Academy Awards, whereas Isabelle Huppert has never been nominated for an Oscar. Over the last thirty years, this effervescent French actress has put forth a series of remarkable performances, capturing every aspects of the human experience with style and panache. Check out her brilliant performances in "Madame Bovary," `Merci pour le Chocolat' and "The Piano Player" or the delightful weirdness of "8 Women'.

Huppert's role is that of Sylvia, a sullen prostitute walking the streets of Nice in France, seemingly frozen in time with an obsolete sense of her rebellious prerogative. When the cameras dolly in for a close-up, her heavy cosmetic attempt to preserve the illusion of youth reveal their exercise in futility. Her brittle, oftentimes hostile attitude is typical of what one would expect of a seasoned hooker.

Sylvia seems in charge of her life until the appearance of her 14-year-old epileptic daughter Laurence (Maud Forget). Laurence is in foster care and Sylvia would prefer to have her out of her life, which becomes obvious by her callous rejection and disrespect even though it was Laurence's birthday. Laurence, desperate for attention, turns up again unexpectedly in Sylvia's apartment and observes her mother's pimp pummeling her. When the pimp's associate turns his attention to Laurence by sexually attacking her, she fatally stabs him, thus compelling mother and daughter to hastily leave town.

Eight years earlier, Sylvia had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized after giving birth to a son. The boy's father (whether he was married to her or not is not clear) lived in the north of France. Out of some sort of mysterious compulsion, she and Laurence journey North, traveling by train, on foot and hitching rides with strangers; in order to seek out her long abandoned son and his father, who represent perhaps a new beginning or sanctuary. It is on this journey that mother and daughter begin to experience each other as the seeds of love kindle what had been lost over the harsh years. While hitchhiking they encounter Joshua, (Pascal Greggory), a car thief and escaped convict who has taken an interest in the well being of Sylvia and Laurence and ultimately takes the time to bring them to their final destination.

The film has the inspiring appeal of a half-told chronicle where significant and intriguing passages are casually left unexplained. The full meaning and resolution of Sylvia's relationship with Laurence and Joshua's criminal career remain delightfully obscured; leaving us just enough information to maintain our interest, yet preserving the mystery that tweaks our attention. The audience must search their own repertoires of imaginations to conclude the story.

Director Olivier Dahan is daring enough to bring his camera into tight close-ups leaving Huppert's character displayed in unflattering poses while wearing harsh make-up and in poor lighting. Huppert does not attempt hide behind the cheap make-up in order to present a good performance. Her talent is sufficiently powerful to reveal Sylvia's inner strength and bring her true character bubbling to the surface. Her painted exterior suggests one stereotype while her eyes tell yet another story. This is an extraordinary film not to be missed.

After bombarbing us with his music video special effects - hand-held and subjective camera, blackouts, voice-memories, home-movies, out of focus, fake rear-projection, and voice-overs, director Olivier Dahan has the sense in his climax to simply concentrate on the face of his leading lady, giving her no dialogue.

As Sylvie, a Nice street prostitute, Isabelle Huppert wears blonde dyed hair, blue fingernails, white eye make-up, pink lipstick, totters on high heels and pops pills. The blondeness matches Huppert's freckles, and her tartiness suggests a Euro Marilyn Monroe, with a dirty mouth. Sylvie gets laughs from the inappropriateness of her being the mother of 14 year old Laurence (Maud Forget), who suddenly appears to her mother and is involved in a death that recalls Cheryl Crane's killing of Johnny Stompanato. Together Sylvie and Laurence flee in search of Sylvie's husband Piotr (Andre Marcon) who lives in Viale.

The screenplay by Agnes Fustier-Dahan has some amusing touches, when Sylvie and Laurence are separated (though Laurence leaves Sylvie perhaps too often) and both of them get car rides from a car thief, Joshua (Pascal Greggory) at different times. Joshua and Laurence just miss spotting Sylvie, and Sylvie gets a lift from another car whose driver turns out to be a cop. Joshua is eventually used to give their triangle a conventional ending, which though could have been worse. However Laurence's bleeding seizures are never explained, other than being the result of having a prostitute for a mother. Sylvie is said to have a memory problem, and though we are never told why exactly she abandoned Piotr and their son, Yannis, her visit to a psychiatric institute suggests she went nuts and her prostitution is the best she can handle now, and of course, also her punishment. (The beating that Sylvie gets that brings about the killing from which they have to flee is evidence that her life is no Pretty Woman). Although the screenplay's use of the metaphor of a home that has burned down is clear, the ghost river that sits beside Piotr's house and the use of flowers remain somewhat obtuse.

Before the climax, Huppert has a few good moments. A look of irony when told the car driver is a cop, her reaction to meeting a nurse at the psychiatric institute who asks her about Yannis, and her heartbreaking tears when faced with the child who does not remember her.

This movie is held upright by the acting work of the main characters. Especially Isabelle Huppert exceeds herself once again, in portraying a weird persona , not the first time she achieved this. She is unsurpassable in acting out emotional developments within a story. Her meeting with her small son, she did not see for years, towards the end of the story, is gripping. It is not often cinema brings tears to me... Pascal Gregory is better than many middle of the road Hollywood actors, we see every night on TV (commercial TV in Holland at least). Our minds having been spoiled by too many cheap US products, thanks to TV, this French film is refreshing in its camera shooting. After so many road movies in the US Far West, who would believe similar shots may be made in the French "corn deserts" north of Paris? (Just get off, anywhere, from the A-1 auto route, between Paris and Lille, and see what I mean). Once again good use is made of the French richness in "patrimoine', meaning old village locations, and, as a peak, the old country farm house, the main character grew up in. What a great ruin, an ideal Parisians holiday home!! The weak points, I think at least, are mainly in the script, and casting. Sylvia's daughter, is partly miscasted, as she is the opposite to Sylvia, in looks and character. The storyline resembles a cheap love-novel sometimes, in its sentimentality. Nevertheless, a fine example of French "authors'" film making, in a natural style only the French can make.

LA VIE PROMISE is one of those films that begs multiple viewings: the cinematography is truly an art form here, the story though incredibly well told (written by director/ co-author Olivier Dahan with Agnès Fustier-Dahan) requires integration of the viewer's thinking to capture the interstices of understated depth of the tale, an the acting of Isabelle Huppert is simply one of the finest moment on film. Rave review? Yes, and well deserved! Sylvia (Huppert, who has never been more beautiful before the camera) is a prostitute with an edge in Nice: she accepts her profession but acts with the elements of a seasoned streetwalker, always fully in charge of any situation. She is a woman with a past. She was once married to Piotr (Andre Marcon) in northern France (Viale) but had a nervous breakdown eight years ago concurrent with the birth of her son, the apparent reason for her fleeing to Nice. Now her teenage epileptic daughter Laurence (Maud Forget) appears, having been scattered through foster homes because her mother doesn't want her around, and Sylvia once again throws her out. But Laurence is hiding in Sylvia's flat when her pimp visits demanding money, and Laurence kills him. The mother and daughter then flee Nice afraid of the murder consequences and travel toward northern France by walking hitchhiking, bus - any means possible to avoid the police. Sylvia has decided to search for her eight-year old son and for Piotr, hoping they may afford them protection. Along the way they meet Joshua (Pascal Greggory), an escaped convict who befriends them and encourages the growing bond between mother and daughter and eventually provides their arrival at their destination. The concluding moments of the story are the stuff of great drama and should not be revealed to the viewer.

Throughout the film the integration of art photography and music enhances the mood of the story: Bach, Mendelssohn, Debussy and mixed with contemporary American blues and the mixture deserves a CD release. But the overriding star of this entire production is the radiant Isabelle Huppert, one of our finest actresses of today, in a role that, though nearly impossible to make credible, in Huppert's hands becomes a woman whose damaged psyche becomes permanently imprinted on our memories. It is a tour de force of acting of the highest caliber. Highly Recommended to lovers of Art Films. Grady Harp

Like a lot of contemporary French cinema, this film doesn't lack ideas, however, the execution and finished product sometimes make no sense, or illuminate the story. It's not for a lack of styles that Olivier Dahan can be blamed on what we are seeing. He has a lot of different methods about how he wants to present them, but it only adds to the confusion, as things happen unexpectedly. He never bothers to explain why they got that way.

First of all, it is very strange that Sylvia's teen age daughter, Laurence, suddenly pops up in her mother's life. Sylvia could not care less about the girl. The accidental killing of one of Sylvia's pimps, make mother and daughter flee the scene of the crime and take to the back roads of Southern France. This is a case where crime, even if involuntary, does pay. The end of the story feels false, as we watch the three principals going into the sunset. Could this trio have found the secret for happiness? Stay tuned, or better yet, smell the flowers!

The acting is fine. Isabelle Huppert shows her usual intensity and is convincing as the prostitute. Maud Forget, as the teen age daughter does her part well and Pascal Greggory, as the man that enters into both mother and daughter's lives is effective as the man who seems to bring peace between both.