Sport de filles

Character development. Any US series is better at that than most French movies. With audiences now educated to the level of quality found in the scripts written for TV shows, how long will there be money wasted on subsidised half-baked movies like that one? Basically 'Sport de Filles' feels like a TV-movie of the 80s. The title is pretty bad (it suggests nothing close to an interesting/intriguing premise), the main character is dull dull dull and the supporting cast is made of flimsy types, except for Bruno Ganz who does a good job with the only solid property of the lot. The story is dully linear without the glimmer of a sense of rhythm. Dialogue is on the nose and, worst of all, the music is bad and its mixing to cap longer sequences only serves to make the continuity painfully duller.

The only good point, beyond Bruno Ganz's scenes (most notably facing his English-American horse-love-interest) is that you can feel what is the passion for horses. Since it's the only redeeming point in the whole venture it's pretty clear this was the selling point. Sad to say it doesn't take much to green-light a euro co-production: a vaguely original idea is all it takes. Austerity and the confidence fairy, again?

I'm not a true horse person but do love riding them and being around them. I think Winston Churchill said something like "There is something about the outside of a horse which is good for the inside of a man" (sexist, yes). This film, whatever its faults may be in the nitty gritty of horse training and dressage, conveys some of the wonder that one can experience with a horse.

Marina Hands who plays the main character is a bit wooden in the role and at times strikes me as perhaps on the autism spectrum. Bruno Ganz gives another remarkable performance on fairly slender material. If you are not familiar with his work you may enjoy "Bread and Tulips" and "Wings of Desire."