Partir

'Partir' (2009) is my first encounter with a film by the French director Catherine Corsini. The impression is mostly positive. Corsini (who is also the main author of the film's script) seems to me to be a mature filmmaker, master of her means of cinematic expression and well focused on the feminist thematics. She's also the type of director who knows how to choose the actors who fit her vision of the roles, letting them chose how they see the characters. In the case of this film, the lead role is played by the excellent Kristin Scott Thomas. The presence of this actress whom I appreciate a lot was the main reason why I chose to see the film. I was not wrong.

Suzanne, the film's heroine, seems to have everything she could wish in life. She is married to a wealthy doctor, lives in a sumptuous villa in the south of France decorated with modern works of art, has two teenage children who don't seem to cause any trouble. Looking for more interest in life, she plans to resume her occupation as a physiotherapist interrupted by the time she had to take care of the children. When she meets Ivan, a renovation tradesman, immigrant from Spain, who seems to have had problems with justice, what the French call 'coup de foudre' happens between the two. Does Suzanne and Ivan's relationship have any chance of being more than a simple extramarital affair? Everything seems to be against them - the husband's refusal to accept that he is losing his wife, economic conditions, social status. The price of fulfilling love seems to be huge.

I liked the directorial approach. Catherine Corsini doesn't judge her characters or condition her viewers to how they should feel. What happens between Suzanne and Ivan seems neither obvious nor inevitable. Nor is Samuel, the husband, an obnoxious figure, justifying feelings other than, perhaps, boredom. Kristin Scott Thomas has a complex and interesting role. Her Suzanne seems to be overwhelmed by feelings that erupt late in life. Attempts to control them rationally fail repeatedly in the face of emotions, and the woman herself seems bewildered by what is happening to her. Fighting the system and the people around has little chance of success. The two men in Suzanne's life are played by Sergi López and Yvan Attal. Both are excellent actors, although their roles are not as plentiful. 'Partir' manages to overcome the limits of a routine family drama and gives viewers a taste of true life and genuine feelings.

Kristin Scott Thomas has tended to play hard-ass women who keep their emotions in check, but in LEAVING the ice-princess doesn't just melt, she gives off steam! The sex scenes between Suzanne, the bored Parisian housewife, and her beefy Spanish builder are fairly bracing; it's clearly not his intellect that she's fallen for. Swapping her sterile modern house (irony here: her dull husband's a surgeon) for a seedy suburban apartment doesn't seem to faze her, but drama - indeed, melodrama - is lurking on the horizon. The director gives most of the ending away at the beginning (echoes of Sunset Boulevard), which I thought was a mistake.

Wife takes lover, tragedy ensues: it's a hoary old plot that shouldn't work but it does, thanks entirely to Scott Thomas's incandescent performance. Hopefully, she'll win awards for this.

The upper middle-class lady meets worker and a passionate affair takes place. That's not an uncommon theme in our hemisphere, but it's very easy to parodize. Not at least when it's taken so seriously as here.

Of course the subject is a serious one, like all love stories are, both on film and in reality. But on film the rules are fairly known. We are aware of the signs, we expect a certain plot and certain things to happen and I'm sorry to say that this film doesn't make us disappointed, Or perhaps that's exactly what we are supposed to be and also are.

Don't give us another southern French passion story, until the genre is renewed.

Leaving (2009)

A very dry slice of life, and a common and awful slice of life--the breakup of a seemingly okay marriage. It's a very modern, well off, pan European series of events, mostly taking place in the south of France. There is devastation, violence, sex, hurt children, hurt friends, and mostly a lot of pain between the ecstasies. And I suppose that's how it really goes down. Fair enough.

But not necessarily the most engaging movie. I'm not talking about being entertained, but about being lifted, or made to rethink something serious, or maybe even be swept away in something lyrical. Not so. This is deliberately (or not) a study in realism, and yet a glossy one, with some neat ends tied up here and there. I mean, it may be a series of fairly realistic events, but this is a simplified, "nice" world.

The one really solid reason to watch this is the stellar, nuanced, deeply felt performance by British actress Kristin Scott Thomas. The range of moods is amazing, and moving, if you can get absorbed otherwise.

I enjoyed several aspects to the film, Partir. The opening scene catches the audience's attention by showing two of the main characters and an unexplained gunshot. The entire film keeps you intrigued and on your toes wondering what will happen next all leading up to that mysterious gunshot from the beginning. The director, Catherine Corsini , was born and 1956 and is a French director and screenwriter. She has directed 15 films since 1982, her latest being Partir, and her most famous La repetition was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. One idea found in the film is the determination to find true love and happiness. Suzanne is unhappy with her husband and children and she falls for a man, Ivan, which she eventually will do anything for. Another important idea in the film is marital problems. Suzanne falls in love with another man, confesses her affair but finds out she can no longer love her husband regardless of the money and housing her husband had provided her. An aspect of the film I noticed was that there was barely any music. The silence between scenes and conversations created more suspense and wonderment. For example, the scene when Suzanne tells her husband about the affair is completely silent throughout the conversation, which causes to you really engage in the scene. A second aspect to the film I enjoyed was the symbolism of the two houses Suzanne is torn between. There is her husband's house that is large, spacious, and dark, whereas Ivan's home is small, but is bright and welcoming. I recommend this film if you enjoy drama, suspense, and unexpected twists.