Le chignon d'Olga

Julien and Emma are brother and sister, living in rural France with their father, who writes children's books. Julien is a gifted pianist but the loss of his mother has sucked the joie de vivre out of him; his best friend Alice knows it although their platonic relationship is more about him supporting her in bad relationship choices than anything else. When he sees a beautiful woman called Olga in a bookstore, Julien is smitten and sets about to set up someway of impressing her and winning her affection. Emma meanwhile is a bit lost – looking after her father, experimenting with lesbianism and wondering where her career will go. Meanwhile their father has to look after a young nephew and deal with advances from the wife of his local pub landlord.

With a lightness and charm running throughout it, many viewers will be able to forgive this film for having a rather thin narrative. The plot is a gentle look at the lovelife of each character, not in too much detail but giving us enough to be interested in each person. By doing this it does limit the impact it can have, because this is like a character study without a great deal of depth and it relies very much on us getting into the mood to be taken along with the air of comic romance that it has. This is quite easy to do though, because the film is sweet and charming throughout; the writing is nothing special but it is natural enough to create reasonably real people for us to get into.

This is helped by the cast doing roundly good jobs. Benhamdine is a bit wishy-washy and perhaps a bit like a moody teen but interesting nonetheless and still someone I came to like. Boutefeu plays a known role of "friend whom it has never gotten on with" but she is sweet enough to make you believe that the two friends are platonic but yet that something more is possible – this dynamic can easily look forced but Boutefeu and Benhamdine make it work. Loiret is good and I would have liked the film to do more with her than it did; although I think that the minor story of their father was enough to add depth, even if it was basic. Despite being the title character Rollin has little to do, but the camera makes good use of her by showing how the little things can make a woman seem magical – in Olga's case it is the soft fabric she wears that appears to slide over silky skin with each movement. This observation is one of many nice touches by Bonnell as director; he moves the camera naturally and frames his shots well.

Overall there is not much to this film and much of it you will have seen in other mainstream romantic comedies. However what makes this worth seeing is that it manage to make this formula work on someone as jaded as me – it is sweet, unassuming, charming and as gentle as a kiss on the cheek; hardly cutting edge writing but I imagine it will win over most viewers quite easily.

It's unfortunate that Jerome Bonnell saddled his film with a title that calls to mind Eric Rohmer's 'Claire's Knee' because having done so he is doomed to suffer comparisons with the veteran film maker. It's true that the film itself, light as a soufflé, fragile as a soap bubble, is working the same side of the street as Rohmer but this is a wonderful, charming film in its own right. I saw it on its initial release knowing nothing about it or anyone associated with it on either side of the camera and I rejoiced in its freshness, pain, laughter and tears. I now know, having just acquired the DVD that it is the work of a 23 year old writer director, Jerome Bonnell, which makes it all the more admirable. I was recently reminded elsewhere on the IMDb site that not all French films are masterpieces, during the same debate an avid supporter of the New Wave spoke of the Godards and Truffauts of this world wanting to write with a camera. To the first I would reply that of course not all French films are masterpieces but you'll wait a long time before the accountants who run Hollywood would even consider putting two cents into a story as fragile as this and to the second I would reply forget trying to write with the camera give me a guy who writes with his heart a la Bonnell. You can't spoil this film by discussing the plot, you can only enhance it and whet the discerning appetite, nevertheless I'm about to give the plot a once-over-lightly so look away now if you must. Siblings Julien and Emma have recently lost their mother and live with their father, who writes children's fiction, in rural France. Julien is a gifted pianist but has lost the taste for music in his grief. He enjoys a platonic relationship with Alice, five years older, who he has known all his life and does his best to be supportive in her lifelong quest to keep choosing the wrong men. One day he sees a young woman, Olga, working in a bookstore and is instantly smitten. Throughout the summer he fantasizes about winning her even going so far as to engage in a gauche plot to impress her. Meanwhile Emma is torn between her instinct to look after her widowed father, experiment with lesbianism - which she gives up as a bad job - and earn some money. All of these events, inconsequential as they are take place towards the end of summer and long before halfway we are praying that eventually Julien and Alice will see what we, the audience, have seen almost from the word go, that they belong together. And that's about it with the possible exception of the odd bit of business involving minor characters; no high-speed car chases, no crack houses, no teenage cannibals, just quiet, gentle observation of the Human Condition. A MINOR masterpiece certainly. 10/10

I almost gave up on Le Chignon d'Olga. It was late and i was tired. The film started with an endless array of characters all being introduced within a short space of time. Quite frankly, i was lost and couldn't figure out who was who.

Glad i stuck with it tho cos, once i got a handle on the characters, i found the film thoroughly enjoyable.

I can see why director Jérôme Bonnell is compared to Eric Rohmer. They seemingly both like to concentrate on the small nuances of peoples everyday lives, and as another reviewer mentioned, these type of films never get made in Hollywood. I, for one, hope the French never stop making these small intriguing films (this one was shot for under 1,000,000).

I will be watching for further offerings from Jérôme Bonnell. French cinema seems to be in safe hands.

Recommended.

zzzz..

Julien and Emma have lost their mother a year ago and live with their father. He is in love with the beautiful Olga who works in a bookstore. Too shy to approach her he dreams of caressing her and even gets a friend to assist in an elaborate (and rather amusing) subterfuge to win her. The characters try to rebuild themselves through a series of mistakes where the nuances of everyday language and gesture is misunderstood and moral high grounds challenged. A beautiful, subtle and altogether charming and delightful film.

Hubert Benhamdine has a distinctive presence in this rather inconsequential film but promising though his performance is it did not save the film from teetering on the edge of boredom. He plays Julien, a young man who becomes attracted to a young woman in a French provincial bookshop, Olga, and as the poster tells us she has a chignon. End of Olga more or less, which was a pity as I would have probably found her life more interesting than Julien's family. There is also a tedious repetition of a Charlie Chaplin film which probably meant to show the pratfalls of life, and in this film there are plenty of them and none produced a smile on my face. Rohmer has been mentioned but I am afraid that is as misleading as the title of the film. Rohmer would have observed more lightly his characters, and this film does not. It maybe me as others seem to find its charm. I saw it years ago, forgot it and watched it again, and probably it will be forgotten again. I will miss Olga though and the opening promised something it did not deliver.