Souvenir

Liliane (Isabelle Huppert) has a very dull life. She works at the pate factory, eats meals by herself and watches television quiz shows. It's been like this for many years and what her co-workers don't know is that she used to be 'Laura'...France's Eurovision* music contest winner. Unfortunately, she was in the contest the same year as ABBA and so much for that! But a new co-worker, young Jean recognizes her as his father is a HUGE Laura fan. So he works on her to try to get her to agree to a benefit concert...which isn't easy because she's determined not to return to her old life. What's next? See this nice little romance and find out for yourself.

While Huppert is no great singer, she does a nice job with the songs written by Pink Martini--an amazing American group that sings in dozens of different languages and styles. They are the reason I was eager to see the film and while she's not even close to the quality of the lead, China Forbes, she is believable. A cute May-December romance that manages to have many of the usual clichés for the genre...but also manages to be just a bit better. Well worth seeing--especially with a loved one.

By the way, if you like this film you may also like "Iris Blonde", an Italian film about a man who was a Eurovision performer in his past as well.

*By the way, you don't hear them call the contest 'Eurovision' and I can only assume it has something to do with trademarks or the like. You also cannot use 'Olympic' for similar reasons.

It's always a pleasure to watch Isabelle Huppert on screen and take the cinematic risks she does. Here she portrays Laura, a noted singer some thirty years before. But after the breakup with her husband and manager (Johan Leysen) she has chosen to isolate herself and work a humdrum job at a pate factory.

Along comes Jean, a new employee at the factory, who recognizes her right away mainly because his father is a big fan. Kevin Azais ably portrays Jean a boxer and some 40 years her junior. There is an instant attraction between the two and a May-December romance will blossom.

Jean begins to push Laura to make a comeback, whereby he will be her manager. Things will get complicated when Laura turns to her ex-husband for help.

As I see it, this is a rather simple and sweet story but it never really rings completely true. Having Laura as a torch singer was the right choice, mainly because Huppert's voice is pleasing but not particularly strong.

Overall, the movie, directed by Belgian filmmaker Bavo Defurne, is watchable thanks to the amazing Huppert, but I could never really buy completely into its characters.

This is an unabashed vehicle for French star Isabelle Huppert, who gets to sing a lot -though her voice is weak and her stage persona with arms flailing about looks like an audition for the lead in a French touring company of the Broadway hit musical "The Band's Visit". It doesn't matter -her name is all that matters on such a project (even earning a token U.S. release by Strand Releasing).

But Bulle Ogier created the germ of a character way back in 1971, with her classic "La Salamandre", echoed (if not ripped off) in the initial scene establishing Huppert as a lowly assembly-line worker, monotonously adding garnishes to an endless line of pates.

The extremely corny script goes to all the expected places in this tale of a would-be comeback 30 years after for a girl who lost out in the European Song Contest to ABBA. She was a one-hit wonder, and just like in a sports movie (I've seen this ploy a hundred times, just recently even in a new Stormy Daniels horse-riding movie!) has to get back together with the evil manager who ruined her life way back when, just to get a second shot at the Show Biz brass ring.

For me it is especially sad how movies have taken the wrong turn in recent decades, suffering from the foolish notion that "Independent" production magically countervails the horrible trend toward commercial blockbuster domination of production (e.g., the endless Marvel crap). Just as American "indies" tend to be boring and precious, so too is the Euro model, with dozens of co-producers and subsidizers, backing a vanity production like this on an amateur level. And casting Huppert is ultimately ludicrous: as the longest-running superstar from France she is hardly the choice for "comeback" role; check out Gloria Swanson in Wilder's "Sunset Blvd." -perfect matching for a "comeback", as opposed to hiring a then (1950) current superstar to play Norma Desmond.

And that is what matters.

This is an unapologetic 'feel good' film, which could fall into being saccharine but for Isabelle Huppert's fine performance as actress and chanteuse. The film wishes to recall the musicals from Hollywood's classic era in a decidedly modern way. e.g. with mobile telephones.

The premise is that Liliane (Huppert) was once a rising singer, whose stage name was Laura, until her marriage to her manager fell apart. Afterwards she withdrew into such obscurity that no one would guess a pate packer was once a rising star who represented France in the Eurovision song contest.

Enter a young man, Jean, who is considerably younger than Lilian but who remembers Laura because his dad was a devotee and Jean knows all her songs. When he confronts Liliane she denies being Laura initially but eventually she admits her former existence. After a one-off performance for Jean's boxing club, Liliane - and Jean - find it hard to return Laura to obscurity and so begins a tale of desire, unlikely love and lost ambition.

The story all makes sense when viewed through the eyes of a 1930's audience whose desire for wish fulfilment would be unconcerned with plausibility. To enjoy the film it helps to place realism to one side and follow fantasy and yearning especially when it beckons in the form of Huppert singing love songs with specific hand/arm choreography and costumed in resplendent dresses.

Isabelle Huppert did her own singing to music from Pink Martini and lyrics co-written by the director and producer. Her moments on screen singing are some of the best. Is there nothing this woman cannot do? The best way to enjoy this film is when you need a tonic, a pick me up because life is being punchy. It is, as the director said, a "Sunday afternoon" film.

'Souvenir' is the name of the song that propelled French singer Liliane to second place behind Abba in the 'European Song Contest' ("Those Swedes cheated for sure"). (Trivia fact: In real life, when Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, 1974, France did not enter. The actual runner-up was Italy's former winner Gigliola Cinquetti with the evocative 'Sì' ('Yes'), which Italian television refused to broadcast live in case it was seen as trying to influence the following month's divorce referendum.) Like so many Eurovision - sorry, Euro*pean* Song Contest entrants, Liliane's career failed to blossom and decades later she is holding down a dull job in a pâté factory. She finds herself attracted (despite his awful yellow moustache) to wannabe boxer Jean, 22 and still living with his parents. As their relationship develops, Jean coaxes Liliane into relaunching her career. Can she once again represent France on the international stage?

As Liliane, Isabelle Huppert does not have a marvellous singing voice and is rather stiff in executing the stage performances that were, apparently, choreographed for her. But she leaves behind the usual ice maiden, wafting-through-scenes-as-if-she-is-not-really-in-them shtick used in so many of her other films to make Liliane a sympathetic character who is hesitant to set herself up for another failure but sorely tempted by the lure of the stage. Kévin Azaïs, as Jean, is not stretched by the script but is perfectly competent.

"I wanted to make a movie for Sunday afternoons" said director Bavo Defurne when he introduced the film at the 2016 London Film Festival. The amount of shagging - albeit without nudity - it contains means 'Souvenir' is unlikely to turn up in BBC2's Sunday PM schedules, and I fear the cheesy song with which Liliane once more attempts Eurovision glory is likely to end up on the right-hand side of the scoreboard - whoever wrote it obviously has not watched the Contest since the 1970s! But this feel-good film, with its central characters for whom the viewer really does want the best, is itself a sweet-natured winner.