A Girl and a Gun: Among the Literati

May 25, 2005

Among the Literati

I return from more than two weeks of torment at the hands of those living dead ISPs, Earthlink and Verizon. I left the former after some years, dissatisfied with price and service, for the latter; the Big E unhooked me on the 10th but would not clear the line until the 16th, and my new provider refused to provide: while waiting for Earthlink to do its thing clearing the line, they "lost" my installation order, and when I replaced it, informed me it would take a week to be processed once more.

During the hiatus, I finally caught up with Agnès Jouai's wondrous new film, Look at Me (Comme un image, 2004). It's only her second feature, but a huge leap forward from the promising but somewhat uncertain The Taste of Others (2000). Its milieu is the Parisian literary and intellectual set, both elite and aspirant, and the portrait drawn would be devastating were it not also large-hearted, funny, and even-handed. No character, with one exception, comes off as without flaws, even the most sympathetic ones.

The central relationship is between Etienne Cassard and his daughter, Lolita. Cassard is a writer and publisher with enormous prestige and influence, the sort of man everyone in the literati wants to meet. Lolita, early twentyish, is pretty, a talented soprano, and distinctly on the chunky side. She tortures herself looking at magazines with photos of slender, stylish Parisiennes, the sort of models who exist on coffee, cigarettes, and one spinach salad (without dressing) every two days. Women, that is to say, like her step-mother, Dad's trophy number two. (The French title of the film, which I think of as "Like a Picture," refers to Lolita's addiction to these images.) She is of course ravenous for her father's love and attention, with both of which he is brutally sparing, except to remark on her weight and to concede that he has yet to the listen to the demo tape she has made for him. Lolita is compulsively self-critical, can't hear an honest compliment on the rare occasions when one is delivered, and is grinding herself into a seriously depressed pile of dust.

Other relationships swirl around this one: Lolita and her voice teacher, Sylvia, who is about to dump her as too much trouble when she learns who Lolita's father is, whereupon she is intrigued by the girl's talent; Sylvia and her novelist husband, whom Etienne helps out; Sebastien, the one blameless innocent of them all, who is attracted to Lolita although she refuses to believe it; and others. Still, Jouai keeps them under control, whereas the multiple relationships in The Taste of Others always verged on going nowhere in particular. It all builds toward a climax of a concert which Lolita has persuaded her father to attend, and in its aftermath Lolita sees herself clearly--at least through Sebastien's eyes--and Sylvia sees Etienne for what he really is. Etienne is right where we found him, mesmerized by himself.

Jouai wrote the script, which won the prize last year at Cannes, with Jean-Pierre Bacri, various described in the press as her husband and her ex-husband. She also plays Sylvia, while Bacri plays Etienne--a juicy role but not easy to make credible. Bacri makes us accept Etienne's monumental self-assurance with his own conviction. Informed at a party that the buyer of his publishing house wishes to meet him, he nods and does not move an inch; the intermediary returns and repeats the buyer's wishes. "Yes," says Bacri, just slightly annoyed at the need to clarify that he is the mountain, not Mohammed, "and I am right here." As Lolita, Marilou Berry is effective, funny, grating when Jouai needs her to be, also able to command our pity.

Look at Me is on the art house circuit, whence it will doubtless go to DVD in a few months. If you like smart, intelligent humor--the word "sophisticated" is not out of place here--you won't want to miss it. If you're leaning but aren't sure, let me add that Jouai has just about the best music in movies today; The Taste of Others has a gorgeous track, with a lovely surprise woodwind band at the end playing the most popular of all French rousing anthems, Je ne regrette rien, and great music not only serves as aural wallpaper for Look at Me, it is a central part of the story.

May 25, 2005 at 02:25 PM | Permalink

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A Girl and a Gun

May 25, 2005

Among the Literati

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