Partir

Kristin Scott Thomas has tended to play hard-ass women who keep their emotions in check, but in LEAVING the ice-princess doesn't just melt, she gives off steam! The sex scenes between Suzanne, the bored Parisian housewife, and her beefy Spanish builder are fairly bracing; it's clearly not his intellect that she's fallen for. Swapping her sterile modern house (irony here: her dull husband's a surgeon) for a seedy suburban apartment doesn't seem to faze her, but drama - indeed, melodrama - is lurking on the horizon. The director gives most of the ending away at the beginning (echoes of Sunset Boulevard), which I thought was a mistake.

Wife takes lover, tragedy ensues: it's a hoary old plot that shouldn't work but it does, thanks entirely to Scott Thomas's incandescent performance. Hopefully, she'll win awards for this.

I enjoyed several aspects to the film, Partir. The opening scene catches the audience's attention by showing two of the main characters and an unexplained gunshot. The entire film keeps you intrigued and on your toes wondering what will happen next all leading up to that mysterious gunshot from the beginning. The director, Catherine Corsini , was born and 1956 and is a French director and screenwriter. She has directed 15 films since 1982, her latest being Partir, and her most famous La repetition was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. One idea found in the film is the determination to find true love and happiness. Suzanne is unhappy with her husband and children and she falls for a man, Ivan, which she eventually will do anything for. Another important idea in the film is marital problems. Suzanne falls in love with another man, confesses her affair but finds out she can no longer love her husband regardless of the money and housing her husband had provided her. An aspect of the film I noticed was that there was barely any music. The silence between scenes and conversations created more suspense and wonderment. For example, the scene when Suzanne tells her husband about the affair is completely silent throughout the conversation, which causes to you really engage in the scene. A second aspect to the film I enjoyed was the symbolism of the two houses Suzanne is torn between. There is her husband's house that is large, spacious, and dark, whereas Ivan's home is small, but is bright and welcoming. I recommend this film if you enjoy drama, suspense, and unexpected twists.

Leaving (2009)

A very dry slice of life, and a common and awful slice of life--the breakup of a seemingly okay marriage. It's a very modern, well off, pan European series of events, mostly taking place in the south of France. There is devastation, violence, sex, hurt children, hurt friends, and mostly a lot of pain between the ecstasies. And I suppose that's how it really goes down. Fair enough.

But not necessarily the most engaging movie. I'm not talking about being entertained, but about being lifted, or made to rethink something serious, or maybe even be swept away in something lyrical. Not so. This is deliberately (or not) a study in realism, and yet a glossy one, with some neat ends tied up here and there. I mean, it may be a series of fairly realistic events, but this is a simplified, "nice" world.

The one really solid reason to watch this is the stellar, nuanced, deeply felt performance by British actress Kristin Scott Thomas. The range of moods is amazing, and moving, if you can get absorbed otherwise.

The upper middle-class lady meets worker and a passionate affair takes place. That's not an uncommon theme in our hemisphere, but it's very easy to parodize. Not at least when it's taken so seriously as here.

Of course the subject is a serious one, like all love stories are, both on film and in reality. But on film the rules are fairly known. We are aware of the signs, we expect a certain plot and certain things to happen and I'm sorry to say that this film doesn't make us disappointed, Or perhaps that's exactly what we are supposed to be and also are.

Don't give us another southern French passion story, until the genre is renewed.

Director Catherine Corsini doesn't pull any punch depicting a love triangle of sort in Partir. Suzanne is a typical bourgeois wife of Samuel, a well-connected doctor. Children, big house, steady comfort, Suzanne has everything she could want, except passion. One day, she meets Ivan who make ends-meet working odd jobs and something clicks.

This very simple, very classic story is made worthwhile for several reasons. The main one being Kristin Scott Thomas delivering yet again a masterful performance. The role is tailor- made for this actress who knows how to subtly let us share the confused state of mind her character is in. Sergi Lopez and Yvan Attal are also good, although their roles are understandably much less challenging.

Where the screenplay shines is by not spoon-feeding us with justifications or condemnations for the characters. Suzanne's husband does seem somewhat boring, but he's not some evil one-dimensional character. And her new romantic interest Yvan is not an adventurous "alpha male". In fact, although Yvan does represent the freedom Suzanne never had thanks to his bohemian lifestyle, he seems like a somewhat vulnerable man and not terribly versed in "romancing" a woman. She seems more like the one pursuing him to enter this relationship.

Speaking of relationships, this is also where the movie shines. We're never entirely sure if what Suzanne is experiencing is true love, or rather if she's just looking for a way out from her husband and lifestyle. The director doesn't hold anything back, showing the vulnerability of each of the three character, how selfish they can be, discarding their responsibilities, lying and justifying reprehensible acts against each others.

This film is fascinating because, in the true tradition of French cinema, it goes for realism. You've seen some of these things happen around you, you may have lived through them. Watch this movie with a few people and you're likely to find people split. Some might sympathize with Suzanne, others with her husband, others with her lover. Yet others might sympathize with all three or none of them.

In short, Catherine Corsini is not trying to tell you what you should think and lets you make your own impressions throughout the events depicted. There is joy and pain in relationships because relationships, like us, aren't perfect. This is one such story, showcasing the imperfections.

My rating would be higher had we been provided with more context. We barely get a glimpse of Suzanne before she meets Yvan. As well, the conclusion did seem sudden and over-the- top to me. Lastly, I feel the husband and children could have used a few more minutes of screen time.