| À tout de suite |
Director Benoît Jacquot has been a favorite at the "Rendez-Vous with French Cinema," so it’s no surprise that the 2005 edition included his recent drama À TOUT DE SUITE. The film is set in 1975 and shot in luscious black and white on digital video (partly to incorporate period documentary footage). It centers on a disaffected young art student named Lili(Isild Le Besco) who falls in love with a Morrocan immigrant. Not long after she begins a relationship with this charismatic stranger, she learns he and some friends have participated in a bank robbery in which someone was killed. Soon, he and his accomplice are hiding out in her room while they plot their next moves. When asked to join the thieves on the lam, the young girl quickly assents and they head off to a country house before they flee to Madrid, then Tangiers and eventually to Greece. Lili is detained in the airport in Athens (in a sequence that was better handled in the superior drama MARIA FULL OF GRACE), she is separated from the others. Since she and her lover have previously discussed what she should do if they ever were to land apart – which was for her to remain in one place – she becomes determined to establish a new life for herself, finding work and waiting for a reunion. Jacquot previously has shown himself a capable handler of actresses (see A SINGLE WOMAN with Virginie Ledoyen), but with À TOUT DE SUITE, he’s come a cropper. The early sequences have a documentary-like feel to them but as the story progresses and the characters leave France, the movie becomes unmoored as well. The sequences of the lovers on the lam, first in the French countryside and later wandering through Europe and North Africa meander and become repetitive. In my opinion (which I’m aware I may not share with some of my more esteemed colleagues), the major flaw of À TOUT DE SUITE is the casting of Isild Le Besco in the leading role. While not conventionally beautiful by Hollywood standards, the actress possesses an intriguing “look,” and previously proved her abilities in Jacquot's SADE and other films. Here though, for whatever reason, she appears devoid of any thespian skills. She has opted (or has been directed) to remain remote and inexpressive – almost to the point that it becomes painful to watch her. She is passable in the early half of the film as her character moves from frustrated teenager to fugitive on the lam, but once her character becomes separated from the others, Le Besco becomes so impassive that audience members will begin to lose interest (I know I did). Despite having incredible luck and literally depending on the kindness of strangers, she offers nothing in return. When she finally utters a wan, weak “Merci,” it’s too little, too late. Jacquot has based this film on the memoirs of Elizabeth Fanger’s memoir When I Was 19. On the page, one can have a passive heroine, but in the movies (so-called because, well, they move), it can be a deadly choice. The fragmented narrative (meant to convey the heroine’s emotional frame of mind) becomes tedious. Although the film is shot in beautiful black and white by Caroline Champetier, À TOUT DE SUITE lacks a coherent narrative drive. Some may find the tale engrossing and impressive, and more power to them. For my tastes, it was dull and empty. Chacun à son goût! Rating: C MPAA Rating: None (nudity, sexual situations, violence) Viewed at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center 2005 Rendez-vous with French Cinema |
 |  |