Sagan

It seems to be a trend in French mainstream movies nowadays, to film the story of celebrities' lives. "Sagan" is just another example.

This author lived a quite unhappy life, being used but also letting herself be used by flatterers and others. They all disappeared and betrayed her, like she betrayed many people, including her son.

But this story is told in such a common way. The main character is complex, but still made very easy to understand. It's all simplified in a moralizing way. Not that you can object much about moralizing over this destructive life and surely, this is entertaining and absolutely not stupid. But Sagan deserves better.

Why another biopic? Why biopics at all? Writer-director Diane Kurys doesn't know. Perhaps so you have something to take your mother to. But chances are she'd fall asleep. Francoise Sagan may have had an exciting life, but you certainly wouldn't know from this movie. It feels like the entire cast and crew were high on 875, that mysterious morphine Sagan was a slave to half her life. Because nothing ever happens, you will quickly find your mind wandering to the fringes of the screen. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's even a cinematic strategy, but I wouldn't bet on it. Take Florence Malraux, the eminent writer's daughter. Played by Margot Abascal, she is so much more vibrant and adorable than everybody else you wonder why the movie isn't about her. Or take the shady guy: When Francoise and Peggy, drunk as hell, check into the Hotel Raphael for a little lesbian loving, they pass a nameless stranger walking the other way. I wonder what his story is. Where is he going, wearing giant shades, in the middle of the night? Perhaps I should have followed him.

Diane Kury's has achieved the impossible, and that is recreating Francoise Sagan's life to the screen. I have not seen the telefilm, but the shortened version for the cinemas. At first I thought Sylvie Testrud would not be able to remain in character for all the different visual and voice changes in this extraordinary woman's life, but achieve it she does, and magnificently. I am not going into the details of this life, but one of the many relationships Sagan had really stood out; the relationship with Peggy Roche and their love for each other. Jeanne Balibor played her to perfection, and in this film it is essentially the women in her life that interested me most. The latter relationship with a woman called Astrid was equally well portrayed by Arielle Dombasle and her ( perhaps ) fickle nature was in total contrast to that of Peggy Roche. I agree with some reviewers that too much is played out in too little time, and the film itself is slightly flawed because of that. But I do not think it could have been otherwise. Sagan was a brilliant writer and a complex woman, and personally I would have liked Kurys to have drawn more attention to her as a dramatist as well as a fine author. And yet I feel the essential is there, and that is of a life obsessed with a sad joy of life while realising that all ends in people dying, or leaving and that solitude is too often the final feeling that most people know. It is a hard film to watch, and despite a certain softening of her political involvements it appears as accurate as it could possibly be. I hope that those who see this film will return to her books, and read her plays if they want to see how fully she was involved in that sad passion which is life itself.

Sagan's charisma lies in two elements: her intelligence and sincerity. She is apt at using simple but touching words and phrases, for example, the monologue on the first page of Bonjour, Tristesse. Her legendary life, full of inspiration, enthusiasm, caprice, sometimes looks like an enigma, mysterious and compellent,even her unconventional behavior looks acceptable. Though the film seems to be a little bit insipid, or rather dull, lacking passion and elegancy;the final scene her unreal talk to his son is truly moving. Sylvie Testud's casting is admirable, and i think she wears a unique temperament, close to a temperament of a poet and aristocratic temperament.

This film started as a TV miniseries; it was chopped down to feature length for general release. I don't think it is an important film, being rushed and skimpy on character development. Guy Schoeller meets Francoise at a book signing and ten seconds later, they're getting wed, and shortly after that, divorced.

It was very hard to keep track of the many characters who drop in to the story, then abruptly exit. Just when did Mme. Lebreton enter Francoise's life anyway? Sylvie Testud does a tremendous job of playing Francoise Sagan; she must have been a sort of Rimbaud of the moneyed class, and Testud captures all the wild, impulsive, spendthrift behavior Sagan was noted for. Pierre Palmade as Chazot walks through an underwritten part (all the supporting parts are underwritten) but is interesting to look at.