Un poison violent

In 'Love Like Poison', a schoolgirl returns home from boarding school, to face her depressed mother (who advises her, not to never doubt her beauty but rather, that when she doubts her beauty, never to tell a man!), her peripatetic father, a boy who fancies her, her ailing grandfather (who might do the same), and the local parish priest. It's not badly done, but there doesn't seem much point to the story: life (and death) happens, but nothing seems more dramatic or pointed than any particular sequence of real life where you can't quite get everything you want. The use of music in the soundtrack is also overdone, as it seems to be punching at a higher emotional weight than the underlying film. This is not a long film, but it feels more like opening scenes from a real story, over-extended, than a movie in itself.

Love Like Poison is a fascinating little film. I viewed it at a small French Film Festival (in South Africa no less), and did not expect too much. And honestly, that is what I received - not too much, but brilliantly presented and charmingly executed.

Following the story of young Anna as she struggles with becoming a woman, her grandfather's mortality and a young boy's affection, Love Like Poison captured me from the start. The film plays with the idea of childhood innocence and the fragility of adulthood. It delves deep into the flaws of every human being, but accentuates the beauty of its naivety. It does all this with a wonderful charm about it.

Many of the scenes might make certain viewers slightly uncomfortable, but that is where the film succeeds, and where it needs to go in order to explore the themes that it presents. Furthermore, it does not place judgment on the actions and conversations of the characters as they reflect what is in all of us.

Lastly, I will mention that the film would never have succeeded as it did, without its subtle hint of comedy. These very subtle bits are sometimes, in fact, laugh-out-loud, regardless of the circumstances. All the more reason to take life less seriously, and be able to laugh at the perfections and flaws of the human condition. The speech by Anna near the end in particular is beautiful and laugh-out-loud hilarious.

8/10 I loved it...

At one level, this is a typical French coming-of-age film, with a religious theme and a small-town-in-the-country context.

However, there are also some nice quirks which a) set it apart from the norm and b) made me realise about half-way through that I'd seen it years ago without really knowing what I was watching but perhaps glad to find a French film among the dross on some hotel TV. The young Clara Augarde well handles the central role and its various emotional tones and there are also nice turns from the tortured priest and the lecherous grandfather.

Worth a look but don't expect tons of action.

I would have been so much happier without all the rubbish that is religion banging, crashing, looming and forcing itself on the viewer like a mangled corpse that you can't escape the stench of.

However, having said that, that is exactly what the point of the movie is about... the distortion of religion... how it forces young children to make decisions about their future opinions, thoughts and ideologies, way before they are even at an age where those decisions should be made... where nothing is left to choice, that most important of all human aspects.

How a young teenage girl must deal with a mother who's husband has left her for another woman, how she herself must deal with a father who has upped and gone, how her rather thought-provoking grandfather dies and how to deal with her first love and feelings of awakening sexuality. All very important and real aspects piling on to a young girl's life... but where she is also valiantly struggling to retain that all important 'choice.'

Interesting. I would have rated it higher except for having to sit through two sermons and listen to the wailing of communion.

A young girl comes home from school to find her father has left.

Starring Clara Augarde, Lio and Michel Galabru

Written by Mariette Desert and Katell Quillevere

Directed by Katell Quillevere

I am really falling in love with these French subtitled films.

This is a coming of age tale. A battle between religion and lust. It's quirky, dark and funny in places. It starts off slow but slowly creeps in and captivates you. It is well acted and it's one of those movies that makes you think about life and all kinds of stuff. It's packed full of symbolism and meaning.

I love it!

10/10