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It seems ages since a French film was reviewed here..!

Fabienne Godet comes across as a seasoned observer of human psychology - her drama "Une place sur la Terre" [Eng. Title: A Place on Earth] explores with authority friendship and love between a disillusioned middle aged photographer and a budding marine archaeologist - both going through depression.


Antoine (Benoît Poelvoorde) considers himself a failure, and when he's not trying to mask his sadness through dry humour, is seeking solace in alcohol. His close (and only) friend is six year old neighbour Matéo (Max Baissette de Malglaive) whose mother is away most of the time. When twenty-something Elena (Ariane Labed) moves into the neighbourhood, across his courtyard, Antoine first becomes aware of her presence only through the piano music coming from her apartment - it's not so much the music, but the way she played it that stood out.


His curiosity will take a voyeuristic turn when he begins to watch her through his camera, and takes pictures unbeknown to her. It is during one of his curiosity-satiating moments that she throws herself off the roof - and Antoine had captured it all with his camera. He rushes her to hospital, taking care not to utter a word to anyone about her attempted suicide. Lucky not to have suffered spinal injury, Elena recovers in full, and a tentative friendship develops between the two.


Antoine will soon start feeling more 'alive' than he'd ever before - there is after all a new purpose to his life now - make Elena smile. He falls in love, even if that's not the way she feels, for she is herself a lost soul barely hanging on - we're not given reasons for either's mental illness, but Elena's way of coping is through volunteering as a youth worker - helping those who'd lost their way in drugs, whilst she prepared for her doctorate. Elena isn't pleased to discover Antoine's pictures of her, and when she moves to Alexandria to pursue her career, they depart under a cloud of mixed feelings. Antoine will now have to overcome her absence and find a new purpose in life - this time, his own...


The storyline might sound depressing, but the film certainly isn't - Ms. Godet has handled the subject with a great deal of skill, subtlety and humour, because of which characters thoroughly engage by taking us along with them in their search for happiness - we smile with them just as much as we feel their loss. The performances are heartfelt; Benoît Poelvoorde convincingly gets into his character - perhaps drawing from his own personal experience of depression, and beautiful Ariane Labed is able to project her character's sadness and joy through her trademark gaze alone, and the camera is unashamedly (justifiably too) obsessed with her just as we, looking through Antoine's eyes. Well edited and put together, the cinematography is slick and stylish. It's also the most impressive new French film I'd seen so far this year, and Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.fr DVD Link [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Ariane Labed
There is brief nudity in a couple of scenes when Ariane Labed's character is in a bath, and during a sex scene. She may not be showing much of her body in this film, but the Attenberg star has us transfixed nevertheless whenever she appears on screen.



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"Attenberg" [2010 Greece] - a brief review

Multifaceted Athina Rachel Tsangari belongs to a unique group of talented artists who apparently enjoy working on each other's film projects in different capacities. Her 2010 film "Attenberg" has an actor who was the director of the acclaimed "Dogtooth" (Giorgos Lanthimos) - a film in which Tsangari was the associate producer. She is also a writer, editor, and cinematographer, and has even appeared in front of the camera on occasion. Her film's title refers to a character's mispronunciation of the famed wildlife documentary filmmaker and presenter Sir David Attenborough.

Marina (Ariane Labed) is twenty three, living with her widowed dad Spyros (Vangelis Mourikis) in a monotonous factory-township that he originally helped build. For Marina, peculiar circumstances have prevented her from maturing normally like other women of her age. She has never kissed a man, nor experienced the joy of sex, even if she is aware, in theory, of the sexual act in itself and the mating rituals involved - she simply hasn't felt the desire to meet and socialise people at a sexual-level. Marina's life-lessons have been gathered mainly in the process of watching wildlife documentaries, and the occasional advice and coaching from her only friend Bella (Evangelia Randou), who works at a nearby canteen and gets to meet men more often.

Spyros is also terminally ill, and a lot of the father and daughter's time together is spent on visits to the clinic. Spyros is a worried man - he cares about Marina and dearly wishes she were better prepared for life after him. "I leave you in the hands of a new century without having taught you anything", he bemoans. Marina, for her part, is determined to prove to her dad that she can survive on her own, and meet and have a boyfriend before his passing. She sets her eyes on a newly joined engineer whom she had been ferrying to and from work in her taxi, and they manage to start a tentative relationship. It will require patience, perseverance, and understanding on each other's part before she could loose her virginity...

Tsangari's film is an intense observation of a father and daughter's 'natural' relationship, explored in their isolation and mutual self-confinement. Spyros hasn't married since his wife died, and he is now bedridden, while Marina doesn't want to move away from a setting and landscape she's quite familiar with - she prefers the town's conformity and uniformity to anything else. It is the private and deeply moving exchanges between the daughter and ailing father that propel their characters and the film.

We sense that Marina should after all be able to make it on her own - she is intelligent, inquisitive, and always keen to learn. This is made obvious through her love-hate relationship with Bella, a childhood friend, from whom she tries to sponge off as much 'worldly' advice as she can, including wet French-kissing lessons, to try out with the engineer later.

 

Physical theatre:
Marina and Bella's coaching or favour-seeking sessions are often followed or preceded by their eccentric and amusing contests that could give Monty Python's 'Ministry of Silly Walks' a run for their money - the trained dancers that they both obviously are, Ariane Labed and Evangelia Randou add a new dimension to the characters through their physical theatre that only they could achieve.

The film, while being totally frank and open about everything under the sun, never sets out to provoke or shock its audience - the matter-of-fact narrative is allowed to play itself logically, and it doesn't linger on aspects of the characters' behaviour or idiosyncrasies for longer than necessary. The performance by all in the small cast is convincing, and the cinematography by Thimios Bakatakis is beautiful, alongside his preference for long takes with minimal camera movement. This is an original, moving, and thoroughly satisfying film that is Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Ariane Labed, Evangelia Randou, and Giorgos Lanthimos
There are at least six scenes of nudity, and most of these feature the rather good-looking Ariane Labed. While all of these relate to Marina's sexual exploration, there is only one that is effectively a sex scene, between Ms. Labed and Mr. Lanthimos.



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