Les soeurs fâchées

Fantastic acting, very entertaining. Though the things which happen in the movie are not always nice, it has been long since I have followed a movie with so much enjoyment from the first to its last minute. Not having read anything about the movie before, I was open to let the action surprise me. I recommend anyone not to read to much about the storyline before watching it, but just go and watch. To answer one of the comments above, yes, the movie is also interesting for people not familiar with the Paris-Countryside clinch (such as me). I think it is because the feelings/situations transported in it, though set in a French framework, are universal. There have been situations in my life when I have felt more like the one or like the other sister. Different as they are, the reactions of all characters are completely understandable. The movie does the trick to combine affectionate caricature and merciless realism. This is why the movie is catching and moving, while at the same time you are observing and enjoying from a kind of layd-back perspective. I just realize that might be the reason why the action never made me feel embarrassed, and allowed me to watch at times with some voyeuristic indulgence. Yes, the movie does not condemn any character, but brings affection for human imperfection. If you like the taste of film food which is a quite perfect dish of different flavours, go watch.

First of all, the DVD of this film is now available in France ( Sept 10th 2005 ) It contains both French and English subtitles ( wonders will never cease !! ) plus numerous boni which are subtitled in French only !

Although French cinema had a heyday in the thirties, forties and even the beginning of the nineteen fifties, the general criticism applied to it at the end of the twentieth and first years of the twenty first century is that the films are "mou" or flabby. There may be a good idea now and then in the initial premise, but that doesn't necessarily make for viewer satisfaction in the "salles de cinéma" if the film itself is not carried out in a vivacious and lively way.

Happily, there are exceptions that confirm the general rule and "Les Soeurs Fâchées" is one of them. With a very limited plot ( one lady from the provinces making a visit to Paris and staying with her sister there ) the director has given us 90 minutes of excellent character study and percussive, cutting dialogue !! Both Catherine Frot and Isabelle Huppert put in truly magnificent performances in this film and let me assure the would-be spectator that there is not one boring moment ! Isabelle Huppert, beautifully freckly and good looking though she is has always had a tendency to interpret twisted, unhealthy or perverted characters in her films ... and this film is no exception. Her character is very unpleasant, intolerant, "coincée" or sexually repressed, impatient and unbearably snobbish .... I can confirm this is typical of a majority of Parisians to a greater or lesser degree !! Enter Catherine Frot, "la provinciale" adorable, friendly,spontaneous, natural, "naive" by Parisian standards, who has written a book and hopes to have it published by the parisian editor Grasset. Catherine Frot represents the simple, good-natured and uncomplicated, and unsophisticated person from the French provinces who is totally removed from the world of Isabelle Huppert but brings a breath of Fresh air into her stressed parisian life.

This difference between Paris and the provinces really does exist and although the characteristics are exaggerated in the film, I found it to be not that far removed from reality. There are moments when Huppert DOES realise she has an awful character, and repents but a few minutes later, this is forgotten and she's on the warpath again ! I am not sure whether the film would be that interesting for someone who does not live in France and does not know this profound difference between the parisian and provincial mentalities. When you have witnessed this first hand, the film with its dialogues takes on all its importance. The humour ( as such - as I don't know whether one can really call it humour - though there are a few moments where you smile ) vaguely recollects that distilled by the film "Tatie Danielle". If you've seen and appreciated the humour of the latter, then there are chances that you will appreciate this effort.

The dialogues of the film are surprisingly violent at certain stages and the spectator may be surprised or even shocked !! An excellent actors' performance in my opinion - and I would love to know how the film will go down in other countries !!!

Huppert plays a monster. Well not a villain, but there are actual villains in the movies that I've found easier to watch. Only the light French-style early Modern musical score tips the viewer that this story won't end in tragedy (a murder or suicide, say). So the viewer indeed knows where the movie is going from the music, that self-awareness will ultimately blossom and this beast will finally humanize herself.

But that said, I felt that the ending wasn't earned. Did they tack on a happy ending for improved world-of-mouth just to sell tickets? It comes so out-of-nowhere that you can't even call it a deus ex machina. In real life you don't get to cross the bridges you burn just because you have had a change of heart. Hurting people matters It's not just not realism, the ending is sugar-coated wish-fulfillment for audience approval.

The script is mostly very light on back story, but there is an emphasis on the unseen mother's alcoholism, Martine's intension of abstinence, and what a mean drunk she turns into when she falls off the wagon. So I read this as one of the movie's themes, namely the perpetual anger of recovering alcoholic, so, jilted by the lover alcohol and now unable to feel human love (whether for spouse, child, sister or mother). This may seem like a very narrow reading, but the script supports it, and if you buy my reading, you can use it as handle for finding some sympathy for the otherwise utterly irredeemable Martine.

Catherine Frot really steals the picture. Just what she does with her face alone to show her connection to the music while listening ,at the theater, to the first few bars of an opera is acting gold of the highest merit.

Well I have not seen the movie yet and will have to wait 10 hours for this to happen. My point to come here is to talk about the lack of thinking behind the tittling in English. "My sister and I" is not even search able for this film and returns an Italian film. I had to look at Isabelle Huppert's credit to find it and had to be or at least understand french to get the right movie. I wish original tittles were also given in reviews. I will not suggest a more appropriate tittle although i could think of a couple and have to admit that literal translation does not work too well here. I did like what other have written about it and am looking forward for a spicy time tonight :) and will come back to put my five cents of thoughts on it. MB

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June 2008!I'm not permitted to make another entry so I added this here. I'm quite surprised on two counts, 1) My 2004 comment came up with the main page! and 2) There are so few entries for this tittle, it really deserves better. "Me and My Sister" (In French "the sisters crossed with each others")was screened on our Sydney TV last Sunday. I had an idea I saw it before! But decided to watch it again. I can't remember exactly my feelings about it when I first saw it at the cinema (that I was supposed to report on!). However I did enjoy very much the second viewing. The contrast of these two characters is so well exposed and acted out. The provincial sister is actually quite thick and although the Parisian resort to extreme nastiness you can't help to feel for her who lives so much in such a superficial world, yes she's only a facade of success. She's pitiful but fits well this superficial world. But she's not naive or stupid and so get much hurt from her "Simple Simone" sister oozing with goodness and who turns into a high achiever. I thought it was an interesting ride and not boring in the least. The ending tries to tell you that blood is thicker than high emotions - So be it. Thank you for some much better written entries I read a while ago and to which I can well associate with and would have like to write myself as an ex Parisian but who spent more time in rural regions I have experienced a little of both "status"!- Even during my military service, and here obviously talking about men, the Parisian snobbery was still apparent and sometimes subject of "down to earth" reactions! But here no such a thing, yet it's riveting at times. MM

Despite occasional overacting, this movie contains some interesting psychological and sociological insights. Most of the situations are plausible, even when they contain stereotypes. Although Martine's character could be construed as vicious and riddled with over-the-top intolerance, in the end she arouses more pity than contempt. Her younger sister Louise, fresh from the provinces and utterly devoid of sophistication and savoir-faire, in the end turns up trumps, a modern version of Andersen's ugly duckling. All the minor characters appear credible, as they witness with patient puzzlement the increasingly hysterical outbursts of the Parisian sister. A subtle touch is provided by Martine's unprepossessing little boy, who should be, but isn't, the logical comfort to his mother's depressive condition. If there is a moral to this fast-paced middle-class comedy, it is that no intelligent woman should sentence herself to merely being a wife and mother. Louise, on the other hand, has twigged this, and triumphs in the end.