Mademoiselle Chambon

Jean is a construction worker,who is invited by his son,Jeremy,to speak at his school on what he does for a living. While there,he is somewhat taken by Jeremy's pretty (and younger)school teacher,Vernonique Chambon, who after is thankful for Jean's speech on building. When Jean discovers that Veronique is a one time musician,specializing in the violin,he is further smitten with her,to the point of stalking her via daily telephone calls & parking outside of her flat and just waiting & hoping she will make an appearance. This may sound like the trapping for a psycho killer horror film,but goes in a totally different direction. Up to now,Jean & Veronique were both emotionally distant people,even to their individual families. Will they find one another,or will they merely drift apart? That's for you to find out. Stephanie Brize (Entre Adultes,Le Bleu Des Villes)directs & co writes the screen play,with the assistance of Florence Vignon,from the novel by Eric Holder. The film's striking cinematography is by Antoine Heberle,with editing by Anne Klotz. The cast includes the great Vincent Linden (Betty Blue,Welcome,School Of Flesh),as Jean,Sandrine Kiberlain,as Vernonique Chambon,Aure Atika,as Jean's loving wife,Anne Marie,Arthur Le Houerou as their son,Jeremy,and Jean Marc Thibault as Jean's Father. With Bruno Lochet,Michelle Gaddet,Anne Houdy & Jean Francois Molet. This is a film that is in no hurry to tell it's story,as it's pacing is V-E-R-Y slow (take note any & all fans of Michael Bay,or any other director of over the top bombast:you will be bored out of your skulls,so steer clear of this one,for both your benefit,as well as movie goers that have no issues regarding slowly paced films). Spoken in French with English subtitles. Not rated by the MPAA,this film serves up a few outbursts of rude language & some brief adult content (but nothing too graphic & explicit)

I am not a romance films lover. I prefer brutal, thrilled and action movies; not for the squeamish. But this one, totally different, is a masterpiece for me. A real monument of fineness, sensibility and emotion. Kiberlain and Lindon were, not so long ago, a couple in real life. That explains everything on the screen. Some sequences are outsanding.

When shy Lindon asks shy Kiberlain to play a disc of HER music, and when they listen to it, side by side, I felt warmth under my skin. An unforgettable moment. Pure emotion. At one hundred per cent.

And the sequence at Lindon's father's anniversary, when Kiberlain plays violin, her eyes closed, plunged into her music, her world, her soul. At this moment, Lindon's wife stares at her husband's face, and Kiberlain's one. And she understands. Everything. But keeps this for her.

I won't spoil the end of this real gem. But, believe me, all long this story, I felt my eyes wet.

MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON is a delicate, quiet interlude in the life of a construction worker in a little village whose gentle life is momentarily disrupted by the awakening of feelings of infatuation and the aftermath. Based on the novel by Eric Holder and adapted for the screen by Florence Vignon and director Stéphane Brizé, this little miracle of a movie is what the French do best - understated appreciation for passing passion in a world of ordinary days.

Jean (Vincent Lindon) is a construction worker happily married to Anne-Marie (Aure Atika) and adoring father of young son Jérémy (Arthur Le Houérou) and loving son of his retired builder father (Jean-Marc Thibault): he spends his hours away from his work tutoring his son with his wife and bathing his father's feet. Jérémy's new schoolteacher is the very reserved but kind Véronique Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain, in life the wife of Vincent Lindon!) who requests that Jean speak to her class about his occupation as a builder - an assignment Jean is flattered to accept. The presentation goes well and Véronique hesitantly asks Jean to repair a window in her home. Jean accepts the job (Anne-Marie thinks it is such a kind gesture that she asks Jean to invite Véronique to lunch). Jean replaces the window for the quietly reserved and anxious Véronique, and afterward Jean, noticing that Véronique plays the violin, requests she play for him a 'tune'. It is obvious that the peripatetic teacher is lonely, and it is also obvious that Jean is struck by the fact that a woman of education and musical talent would pay attention to a simple construction worker. In a weak moment the two exchange a kiss and that kiss alters the manner in which each of these two gentle people react to life. The results of this chance encounter play out in the conclusion of the story, a story so tender and yet so grounded in the realities of life that it takes the viewer by the heart and doesn't let go.

The many varying moments of intimacy, whether those moments are between Jean and his son, Jean and his father, Jean and his wife, and Jean with Mademoiselle Chambon, are photographed like paintings by cinematographer Antoine Héberlé. The entire cast is excellent and the performances by the five leading actors are superb. The musical score consists of original music by Ange Ghinozzi with a generous sampling of music by Sir Edward Elgar and others. This frail bouquet of a film appreciates silence, the unspoken word, and the natural emotions of ordinary people living ordinary lives. It is a multifaceted treasure.

Grady Harp

One of the highest compliments I can pay a movie is that, after watching it, I find it hard to watch other movies. I am a huge movie fan and such films are rare. "Mademoiselle Chambon" is that kind of a movie. After watching it, I couldn't watch any other film, so I just watched "Mademoiselle Chambon" again. "Mademoiselle Chambon" does the best job of any film I've ever seen at capturing one particular life experience.

Some loves make sense and fit neatly into our life narratives. We fall in love with a person because we've had extended contact with that person. We know that he is of an appropriate age, social class, belief system, and occupation. We agree with this person on politics, music, and food. We have long talks with these rational loves, and share life events.

Other loves are wildly irrational; they're like being overwhelmed by an invisible wind. We look across a crowded room, catch the eye of a complete stranger, and, within moments or hours, we know we are as in love as we will ever be. We're not in love because we've had a long conversation with this person and gotten to know them; we haven't. We're not in love because we've shared key life events; we have not. We don't decide on this type of love. It decides on us.

With this love, every tiny detail, every evanescent nuance, silent moments when nothing is said, take on thunderous impact: her eyes move from the floor to his shoulder; her knees swing three inches toward his, his lips slightly part. Our hearts pound. We surrender to the full thrust of love, all of its physical and spiritual manifestations, and yet we know next to nothing concrete about the other person. Perhaps we never see that person again. Perhaps we exchange a few stolen kisses, or an afternoon of passion. Perhaps we connect forever; perhaps we say a heart-wrenching goodbye. "Mademoiselle Chambon" captures wordless, irrational love.

Jean (Vincent Lindon) is a rumpled, paunchy, middle-aged construction worker. He is married to Anne-Marie, a factory worker. They have one son, Jeremy. Anne-Marie is hurt on the job and can't pick up Jeremy from school. Jean must go. There he encounters Mademoiselle Veronique Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain) Jeremy's teacher. And Jean will never be the same.

Jean and Anne-Marie have a few other meetings. Not much is said. Not much happens. A passer-by, carefully observing their encounters, would have no idea that he or she was witnessing an event that neither Jean nor Veronique will ever forget.

Many "slow" movies bore me to tears. "Mademoiselle Chambon" is a "slow" movie and it never bored me. I came to understand that every line of dialogue, every apparently casual scene, is a minefield packed with meaning. In the opening scenes, Jean reveals his awkward inability to help his son with his homework. This prepares us for the story of an inarticulate construction worker who falls in love with a school teacher. The topic of his son's homework is the direct object – the object acted upon by the noun – or by fate. In a couple of scenes of Veronique's apartment, the viewer catches a glimpse of Bernini's statue of a helpless St. Teresa of Avila being pierced with an arrow of passion by a smiling cherub. St. Teresa is very much the direct object of that arrow, as are Jean and Veronique. Passion is beautiful and painful, life affirming and life threatening. Passion is both sexual and sacred. Jean is shown both tearing down, and putting up, walls. These walls are metaphorical as well as actual.

Three scenes in this movie are as definitive a treatment of their subject matter as any scene in any film. In one, a musician plays music with her back to her audience. Before she begins, she turns around with a luminous look of vulnerability. In another, two people listen to a piece of music. I won't describe the third scene to you, because I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but if you see the film, you'll know what I mean.

"Mademoiselle Chambon" is not perfect. It is under-produced, in Dogme-95 style. Actors don't wear make-up; there's no professional lighting to speak of. "Mademoiselle Chambon" would have worked better for me with higher production values.

I got to know Jean, but I was never sure of Veronique. I wanted to like her more than I did, to understand her very hard choices better, and to respect her choices more. Aure Atika is miscast. I never believed her as a factory worker, or as Jean's wife. And the ending struck me as incomplete and unsatisfying. I think the filmmaker wanted to make a movie that would ravish audiences emotionally. That he did. I wanted to have an intellectual understanding of how these events would play out in the future of the characters. I didn't get that from this movie, and I left it feeling that a sequel is necessary.

Finally, of course this film is like the classic David Lean film, "Brief Encounter" starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. I think that film gives the viewer more of a sense of the fullness of all the characters, and how the events shown during the film will play out in the characters' lives in the future. In short, to me, "Brief Encounter" felt more like a complete work of art.

This movie is deliciously silent, bursting with tension at every take. Against the backdrop of parochial France, two apparently incongruous beings find respite in each other in spite of an excruciating difficulty: schoolteacher v parent. Amidst the trial and tribulations, however, two souls delight in a certain serenity, calling into question our feelings about relationships which cross boundaries.

The father of a primary school boy meets and warms to his son's teacher, Mademoiselle Chambon. She is delicate, warm but uncertain of her future. A tender, insightful look into the nature of human relations.