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MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS – Review

*Lesley Manville stars as Mrs. Harris in director Tony Fabian’s MRS.HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Dávid Lukács / © 2021 Ada Films Ltd – Harris Squared Kft*. *Courtesy of Focus Features*

Mid-century high fashion and an irresistibly charming Lesley Manville add sparkle to the sweet, light-as-air MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, an uplifting tale in which an older British house cleaner falls in love with a Dior dress and decides she must have one of her own. It is a grown-up fairy-tale that fits neatly into a familiar genre of British films dealing with the divide between the working class and the aristocratic one. Set in 1957, MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS also showcases mid-century couture fashion, with recreations of actual Christian Dior period dress designs, with other visual delights by costume designer Jenny Beavan, the creative force behind the fashions in last year’s CRUELLA.

An outstanding and nuanced performance by Lesley Manville lifts this film, and along with the wonderful mid-century period fashions, is the major enjoyment and reason to see this film, which is a sweet but unsurprising feel-good fantasy, despite a team of writers who tried to interject a little reality, with mixed results. Fans of Mike Leigh’s films and British dramas already know how excellent the talented Lesley Manville is, but she gained some wider recognition for her Oscar-nominated turn in PHANTON THREAD and hopefully with this film, that rise in recognition will continue.

In 1957 London, Ada Harris (Lesley Manville) has been waiting for her beloved husband Eddie to return from WWII, ever since the plane he was flying was shot down. Twelve years later, he still is listed as missing-in-action and Mrs Harris continues to hope for his return, as she ekes out a living by cheerfully cleaning the homes of more affluent people who hardly have any awareness of her beyond her job. The days of this sweet, kindly, unassuming working-class woman revolve around her work and life in her tiny basement apartment, although her lively best friend, neighbor and fellow cleaner Vi (Ellen Thomas) tries to draw her out.

One day, while cleaning the home of an aristocratic but cash-strapped client, the wife (Anna Chancellor) shows Mrs. Harris a beautiful Dior dress she just bought for an upcoming social event, despite being several weeks in arrears to her cleaner, a 500-pound purchase she plans to conceal from her husband. Instantly, Mrs Harris is smitten by the dazzling dress, and despite the high price, she determines to buy one for herself, as her one splurge in her drab life.

That she has nowhere to wear such a fancy dress does not matter to Mrs Harris. She sets out to scrimp and scrub to raise the money to buy her own Dior couture dress, despite the absurdity of a working-class cleaner spending her money to own such a expensive frock. That she has nowhere to wear a couture dress is brought up to her over and over again as she shares her dream, but it does nothing to dampen her ambition or ardor. With help from with her friend Vi (Ellen Thomas) and a roguish Irish bookie named Archie (Jason Isaacs), Mrs Harris finds a way to try to make her dream come through. After a few set-backs and some strokes of good luck, Mrs Harris does head for Paris and the House of Dior.

There is a lot of wish-fulfillment fantasy in director Anthony Fabian’s tale of later-life dreams, based on the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico. This is not the first filmed adaptation of Gallico’s story – in fact, it is one of several tellings of this working-class, middle-age fantasy. However, co-writers Carroll Cartwright, Olivia Hetreed and Keith Thompson worked on the script to inject some surprising, even sobering, moments of reality into the fairy tale sweetness, although with mixed results.

One of the refreshing parts of this story is Mrs. Harris’ single ambition. The down-to-earth Londoner only dreams of owning a fabulous dress, not remaking her life, social-climbing or finding late-life love. This gives her a freshness and grounding that Manville uses to give the character depth as well as making her lovable and inspirational. Of course, some of those other possibilities are raised along the way, but Manville’s performance elevates the character above the script.

Once in Paris, some of the script’s mix of reality and fantasy crops up, with the clueless, optimistic Mrs. Harris having no idea how to even get to House of Dior, much less any awareness of the audacity of her plan to simply walk in. But Manville ensures we can’t help both believe what happens and be charmed and amused by her character’s pluck, as her good-natured directness and kindness win her allies to help her to do just that.

But there are obstacles to overcome. Isabelle Huppert plays Dior’s stern manager and gatekeeper, Claudine Colbert, who tries to head off the working-class widow when Ada Harris tries to sit in on a showing of the new Dior collection. Huppert’s gatekeeper is overruled by a wealthy patron, the Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson), an Anglophile widower, who offers Mrs. Harris a spot as his plus-one as well as his arm, and by the surprising fact that the charwoman is planning to pay with cash – and flashes the bills to prove it – which persuades Dior’s accountant Andre (Lucas Bravo, EMILY IN PARIS) and even the designer himself (Philippe Bertin) to let her in, as cash-flow has been a bit of an issue of late.

Of course, we get a fashion show, and here costume designer Jenny Beavan gets to shine as audiences are treated to eye-candy in the form of diverse and gorgeous models in flood of beautiful period Dior couture, dresses recreated with the cooperation of House of Dior from their archival collections. Beavan supplements those visual delights with her own luscious designs, making the whole Paris sequence particularly colorful and visually pleasing.

Mrs. Harris expected she could pick out her couture frock and then zip back home, clueless about the need for fittings for the custom dress. But like in any good fairy tale, she gets help. Accountant Andre who offers her the use of his absent sister’s room in the Montmartre apartment they share, and she gets a ride there from model Natasha (Alba Baptista), whom the kindly Englishwoman helped when the model stumbled while rushing into the design house entrance, and who it turns out is the “face of Dior.” While arriving for daily fittings, Mrs. Harris endears herself to the Dior staff, particularly the seamstresses and ordinary workers (and being handy with a needle herself, even helps out a bit), becoming a kind of folk hero to them. However, the top tailor, Monsieur Carré (Bertrand Poncet), is less taken with the frank British cleaner, who makes no attempt to conceal her working class background, but Mrs. Harris is aided by showroom assistant Marguerite (Roxane Duran) who sees the positive effect the unstoppable Ada Harris has on the staff, and intercedes between the haughty master fitter and the working-class client.

Isabelle Huppert’s character is Mrs Harris’ nemesis but ironically, Manville nabbed her Oscar nom for her performance as a similarly chilly gatekeeper to a house of fashion in PHANTOM THREAD. An indication of Manville’s remarkable level of acting skill is in the smooth ease with which she fits into each role. While some have long been well aware of Manville’s considerable talents, PHANTOM THREAD raised the underappreciated Manville’s profile more generally, and hopefully she will at some point gain the same kind of recognition given similar talents like Judi Dench and Helen Mirren. In fact Manville’s performance far exceeds the film she’s in, exploring nuances and aspects of that character well beyond the simple plot.

All the supporting cast are good, although Huppert’s character is so brittle that she does not work as well as a foil for Manville as might be hoped. Lambert Wilson’s Marquis offers a hint of romantic possibility for Mrs Harris, and Lucas Bravo as shy accountant Andre and Alba Baptista as model Natasha offer a little budding romance, although their discussions of Sartre veer rather towards cringe-worthy. Ellen Thomas as Ada’s Caribbean-born pal and Jason Isaacs as an Irish charmer do well as Ada’s friends, although hampered by some unfortunate datedness in the characters.

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS is a feel-good, all-ages tale with an uplifting and inspiring message, that might be too saccharine for some but which is elevated tremendously by a wonderful performance by Lesley Manville and also is filled with gorgeous delights for fashionistas.

MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS opens in theaters on Friday, July 15.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

Win Passes To The St. Louis Advance Screening Of MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS is the enchanting tale of a seemingly ordinary British housekeeper whose dream to own a couture Christian Dior gown takes her on an extraordinary adventure to Paris. The film stars Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, Ellen Thomas and Lucas Bravo.

Directed and written by Anthony Fabian, Focus Features will release MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS in theaters on Friday, July 15, 2022

Enter to win passes for you and a guest to attend the Advance Screening.

DATE AND TIME:
July 13, 2022 at 7:00pm at 7pm at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac

The screening will be filled on a first come first served basis, so we encourage you to arrive early. Seats will not be guaranteed. Rated PG.

Enter here: https://focusfeaturesscreenings.com/main/sweepstakes/qxbmN03989

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS New Poster And Trailer Features Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert And Jason Isaacs

Focus Features has released the delightful poster and trailer for MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, the enchanting tale of a seemingly ordinary British housekeeper whose dream to own a couture Christian Dior gown takes her on an extraordinary adventure to Paris.

From Writer and Director Anthony Fabian, check out the preview now.

Starring Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, Anna Chancellor, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Rose William, Focus Features will release MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS in theaters on Friday, July 15, 2022.

https://www.focusfeatures.com/mrs-harris-goes-to-paris

Actor Lucas Bravo, director Tony Fabian and actor Lesley Manville on the set of MRS.HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Liam Daniel / © 2021 Ada Films Ltd – Harris Squared Kft

Lesley Manville stars as Mrs. Harris in director Tony Fabian’s MRS.HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Liam Daniel / © 2021 Ada Films Ltd – Harris Squared Kft

FRANKIE (2019)- Review

With the first of the big year-end holidays less than a week away, those anxieties about huge family gatherings start to kick in. You know, the old conflicts, the scandals, past injustices. We’d repeat that old phrase, “Save the drama for your mama”, but she’s right in the thick of it. Or in the case of this new film, she’s the orchestrator. Like the ensemble cast holiday flicks, she’s setting the stage for some pre-July Fourth fireworks. But in this one, it’s not a major holiday, and it’s far from the old family home and hearth. So, there’s that “travelogue” element to the tale. Literally this family and a couple of friends come from different ends of the Earth at the request (more than a whim) of the matriarch named FRANKIE.

The title’s actually a nickname for the celebrated international star of stage, screen, and TV, Francoise Cremont (Isabelle Huppert). As the story begins, she’s taking a morning dip in the pool of a swanky exclusive spa/hotel in sunny Portugal. One of her daughters has already checked in, Sylvia (Vinette Robinson), along with hubby Ian (Ariyon Bakare) and teenage daughter Maya (Sennia Nanua). Of course, Frankie doesn’t know that their union has “hit the skids”, much to the annoyance of Maya. They’re soon joined by another grown child from another marriage of Frankie’s (you know those “movie folk”), aimless thirty-something Paul (Jeremie Renner), who may be relocating to NYC after his latest romantic break-up. Down in the nearby village, Frankie’s current husband (maybe #3 or #4) Jimmy (Brendon Gleeson) runs into ex-husband #1 Michel (Pascal Greggory), who has also been summoned to the big family gathering. Ditto for Frankie’s friend from the states, movie star hair-stylist Ilene (Marisa Tomei) who, with her long-time beau, cinematographer Gary (Greg Kinnear), also encounters the two men on the street. The plan is for all of them to join Frankie to watch the sunset from a breathtaking view atop a fabled hill later that day. But in the hours leading up to that viewing, everyone must come to terms with past indiscretions, romantic futures, and (in the case of one person), imminent mortality.

As the main character (hey, she’s in the title) Huppert, with little effort, makes Frankie a most believable “mega-star”, adored by the masses. Guess it helps that she’s been one for the past five decades or so. Mainly, Huppert makes her a tad aloof and distracted as she seems confused about her surroundings. It’s quite different when she’s in full mastermind mold, trying to orchestrate everyone’s lives. Still, we’re asked to endure too many scenes of Frankie doing a riff on “Camille” (yes, we see a full “swoon”). Still, she has more to do than Gleeson who mainly lumbers down the cobblestone streets and dirt trails, his head lowered. His strolling is only interrupted by a clumsy “afternoon delight” sequence. As for the “yanks”, the usually dazzling Tomei is unable to make many of the script’s tired bits of whimsy work (really, a Farrah Fawcett gag). Luckily she must “shift gears” at a pivotal script point, which causes her Ilene to shamble about the greenery with a pained expression while behaving like a selfish toddler. It makes you wonder about the affection Kinnear’s Gary has for her. He’s saddled with the “goofy tourist” bits (we know he loves cameras, but how many shoulder bags must he own), until he’s dismissed as though he’s the “Baxter” in a mawkish “rom-com” (Mr. Kinnear should not have to play the good “bland” boyfriend anymore). Renier as Paul has some of the most cringe-worthy monologues, not helped by his think accent (luckily he speaks with Huppert in subtitled French). And I could have used some of those subtitles for the arguments between Robinson and Bakare as the bickering Brits. At least the radiant Nanua as their daughter brings a bit of life to their tense family dramatics.

With his last two family comedy-dramas, LOVE IS STRANGE and LITTLE MEN, director Ira Sachs proved to have a great year for relationships against a colorful Big Apple backdrop. Now, across the pond, he stumbles with a collision of dull characters who seem to spend most of their screen time walking and talking, when not staring into the horizon with great intent. When they’re not “in motion” the script, which Sachs wrote with Mauricio Zacharias, wraps up the talented cast in a web of ludicrous, pretentious exchanges. Before Ilene behaves like a taunting grade-schooler, Gary does some strained pop-culture name dropping. He says he’s just been in Spain working on STAR WARS (not the “next” STAR WARS or the “new” STAR WARS), then tosses off a bit about how George Lucas will “take him out” if he reveals anything (yes, this film is set in the modern-day). Long sequences don’t “pay off”. Frankie wanders into an outdoor family birthday party, only to sit uncomfortably as the Granny smothers her with praise. Maya meets a local boy and goes with him to the beach as he relates trite bits of his family’s history. But the topper is when two characters meet and just minutes later, one tells the story of his borderline horrific first sexual experience (at least the listener looks as dumbfounded as the audience). Portugal looks lovely even as the cast wrestles with this meandering mopey mess of a movie. Frankly, FRANKIE flops.

1 Out of 4

FRANKIE opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas

GRETA – Review

Though headlined by a pair of actresses one would hope could elevate familiar material, GRETA is at its core a lurid B-movie dressed in art-house clothing, poorly-written trash that ultimately bears more than a passing resemblance to the many disposable psychological thrillers it pilfers from. GRETA tells of 20-ish waitress Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz) who’s recently moved into a lavish Manhattan loft with roomie Erica (Maika Monroe) after the death of her mother. Frances finds an abandoned purse on the subway and kindly walks to the owner’s home to return it. There lives Greta (Isabelle Huppert), a sad and fragile 60-ish French woman so thankful to Frances that she invites her inside for coffee and conversation. The women at first make a connection and Greta, who claims to have a mysterious daughter about that age, provides Frances a motherly presence. The friendship doesn’t last long. After a trip to the dog pound to get Greta a new pet, the pair head back to the older woman’s home for dinner. There Frances finds a cabinet full of purses identical to the one she had discovered on the subway! Frances tries to break things off but Greta’s psychotic streak has been exposed, the ominous horror chords on the soundtrack have been cued, and the balance of GRETA becomes standard cat-and-mouse shenanigans.

It’s a fairly irresistible premise that’s employed to laughable effect by trotting out every cliché in the book for this type of slasher/stalker ‘bunny-boiler’. GRETA was supposed to be a comeback of sorts for once-hot director Neil Jordan, who won a writing Oscar for THE CRYING GAME but hasn’t had a mainstream hit since INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE in 1994. With GRETA, Jordan pays a lot of attention to style. He and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey employ atmospheric lighting, striking camera angles, and carefully-designed art direction for Greta’s apartment, all to ensure an unnerving vibe. But Jordan’s direction merely plays up the melodramatic aspects of the lousy script where dumb people keep doing dumb things for the sake of the plot. Sure, the audience is well-aware that Greta is bat-poop nuts. We can tell by the way she phones her young friend all day long, stares at her from the street for hours while she’s trying to serve customers, pursues the roommate through the subway while surreptitiously photographing her, flips over restaurant tables while smashing wine glasses, and spits gum in Frances’ hair! The problem with GRETA is that all of this happens in the film’s first 25 minutes, so there’s still over an hour left for the audience to endure Greta’s tiresome, increasingly over-the-top lunacy. Perhaps suspense could have been built had the script spent more time on psychological character study and saved the slasher-film stylistics for the final act, but GRETA goes off the rails quickly. For a movie meant for believability, it gets too stupid too fast and just stays there. The script never addresses exactly how Greta got so nutty. How does she afford this Manhattan townhouse that doesn’t seem to have neighbors close enough to hear Frances’ screaming? Would Frances’ boss really make her wait on a woman he knew was stalking her? Would the police really refuse to investigate this stalking? Why, when Erica is stalked in the subway and turns her head to look behind her, is Greta magically nowhere in sight even though she has nothing to hide behind? The contrivances, coincidences, and plot holes here are far too high a hurdle.

Huppert is usually such a terrific and daring actress (her startlingly casual rape victim/avenger in ELLE was sublime), I had hoped she would elevate this character beyond the stereotypes often associated with films of this ilk. The 66-year old actress has such compelling presence, and is still as stunning as she was when she co-starred in HEAVEN’S GATE 40 years ago, but she does nothing here Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, and Shelly Winters weren’t doing during their COH (Crazy Old Hag) periods in the 1960s. Moretz drips with doe-eyed innocence but one dumb decision after another made by Frances (at one point she’s stalking Greta back out of concern for that pooch) will mostly cause audiences to react with an exasperated “Oh, come on!”, though she does wield a mean cookie cutter in the film’s one truly shocking moment!

GRETA is cheesy, but at a breezy 96 minutes, not totally unwatchable. It’s a somewhat entertaining absurdity if you are willing to check all logic at the door. I almost wish GRETA had been even worse and played up the camp to the point of parody (some may argue it’s already there). Then we could have had a gloriously bad guilty pleasure instead of just a bad movie

1 1/2 of 5 Stars

Here’s the Official Trailer & Teaser Poster for GRETA Starring Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz

Focus Features will release GRETA in theaters on March 1, 2019. Check out the trailer:

GRETA is the story of a sweet, naïve young woman trying to make it on her own in New York City, Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) doesn’t think twice about returning the handbag she finds on the subway to its rightful owner. That owner is Greta (Isabelle Huppert), an eccentric French piano teacher with a love for classical music and an aching loneliness. Having recently lost her mother, Frances quickly grows closer to widowed Greta. The two become fast friends — but Greta’s maternal charms begin to dissolve and grow increasingly disturbing as Frances discovers that nothing in Greta’s life is what it seems in this suspense thriller from Academy Award^®-winning director Neil Jordan.

GRETA stars Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Colm Feore, and Stephen Rea and is directed by Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”)

HAPPY END – Review

The family dynamic has provided inspiration to countless film makers over the years, working in almost every genre, from horror to comedy. Now acclaimed director Michael Haneke has returned to the big screen after nearly five years, with his own view of a family in crisis. With this group, financial strife is not a source of conflict as they would definitely be considered as part of the “one percenters”, proving once again that money certainly never guarantees happiness. Toss in a few well deserved jabs at current use of tech and social media, and Haneke offers his take on a clan that may not achieve a HAPPY END.

Speaking of tech, the first scenes of this story unfold on a “top of the line” cell phone, as pre-teen Eve Laurent (Fantine Harduin) records the nightly rituals of her mother (brushes teeth, combs hair, etc.) will sending snarky comments in texts to a friend. When mom is hospitalized after a mistaken anti-depressive dosage, Eve is sent off to live with her father Thomas (Mathieu Kassovitz), a successful doctor, and his new, much younger wife Anais (Laura Verlinden). They all meet weekly for Dinner at the home of matriarch Georges Laurent (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a widowed octogenarian slowly slipping into dementia. Also attending is Thomas’s divorced driven older sister Anne (Isabelle Huppert) who runs the family oil empire. She’s grooming her twenty-something son, angry, hard-drinking Pierre (Franz Rogowski) to run the day-to-day operations of the company, when they finalize its sale to a banking conglomerate run by Brit Lawrence Bradshaw (Toby Jones), who is also engaged to Anne. Unfortunately an accident at a new oil tanker facility may jeopardize the sale (along with Pierre’s hot-tempered response). While exploring her new home, Eve hacks into her father’s laptop and discovers lots of passionate social network messages between him and another woman. All this happens as both siblings must deal with father Georges as he fumbles several attempts to end his own life. The many simmering conflicts come to a boil at the wedding of Anne and Lawrence.

Frequent Haneke collaborator Trintignant heads the fictional family and the cast, delivering a sensitive performance echoing themes of their last work, AMOUR. We feel Georges’s frustration as the march of time robs him of his mental and physical abilities. At he big dinner get-togethers, he’s a fuzzy, unfocused shadow, drifting in and out of conversations. This adds great power to his more lucid moments, as when he relates to his troubled granddaughter. Huppert’s Anne is full of stern determination as she readies herself to steer the family fortunes into the future. We see how the constant “juggling” of her private and business affairs takes a dizzying toll on her psyche. She’s now a parent to her own father, while trying to keep her own son on the right road to responsibility. Rogowski as Pierre is fighting her early every step of the way, bristling at her every objection and suggestion. His only joy seems to come from releasing his inhibitions at the local karaoke club, gyrating all over the stage and up the walls. As Annie’s brother Thomas, Karrovitz is a man who continues to get by on his charm, blinding everyone, including his new wife, with his dazzling smile. But beneath the mask, he can barely conceal his indiscretions and infidelity. But Harduin, as the wise beyond her years Eve, will not stand for his “act” as she chips away at his outer easy-going shell. She may be the most emotionally complex of the group, able to switch off her emotions in order to be a passive video witness to all the chaos around her. Harduin is a most compelling screen presence. As for the non-family roles, Jones is superb as the “outsider” who doesn’t quite grasp the fractured family dynamics (the language barrier just helps keep him in the dark).

Haneke, filming his own screenplay, shines a bright, unblinking light on the cracks in this dynasty’s public persona, while also delivering a blistering commentary on tech obsession. Eve, in particular, is more interested in recording and observing life than participating, her handheld device becomes both window and shield from reality. The switching from screens to regular narrative lets Haneke draw us in, while keeping us a tad “off-kilter”, wondering what’s going on at the keyboard or behind the cell phone. And for a few scenes, we’re looking at the action from a distance, without sound, as we try to interpret an incident through facial expressions and gestures , when Georges accosts several young men on a busy street. This all works to draw us further into the world of the Laurents, heightening the sense of isolation and alienation. Despite the promise of its title, HAPPY END is a tough, unsentimental look at a familial structure that may not survive the shifts of modern society.

3.5 Out of 5

HAPPY END opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre

FALSE CONFESSIONS – Review

Louis Garrel as Dorante and Isabelle Huppert as Araminte, in FALSE CONFESSIONS, director Luc Bondy’s French-language adaption of Marivaux’s play “Les Fausses Confidences.” Photo courtesy of Big World Pictures ©

Romantic comedy with a French accent and a love letter to theater both describe the French-language FALSE CONFESSIONS (Les Fausses Confidences), the last film by Swiss film, theater and opera director Luc Bondy. Bondy re-sets Marivaux’s 18th century classical play about love, “Les Fausses Confidences,” in modern-day Paris, and stars Oscar-nominee Isabelle Huppert (ELLE) and Louis Garrel as the would-be lovers at the center of all the twists and deceits.

Fans of director Bondy, writer Marivaux, the film’s star Isabelle Huppert or just theater in general, will find much to like in this enjoyable, clever film adaption. Passions, doubts, jealousies and tempers are all aroused in this dizzy, funny tale, in a production that blends film and theater in a creative fashion.

In the U.S., Moliere is better known but in France, playwright/novelist/essayist Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux is both famous and popular. The play “Les Fausses Confidences” is a favorite among the French, along with “The Triumph of Love” (a Broadway play and a 2001 American movie) and “Games of Love and Chance.” This is the third film version of “Les Fausses Confidences,” the others being in 1984 and 2010. Bondy’s FALSE CONFESSIONS opens July 14 in New York, July 21 in Los Angeles, and a national release is planned as well.

Bondy, a renowned Swiss director of films, theater and opera, directed both this film and a stage production of the play concurrently, at Paris’ famed Odeon theater. The same cast, which includes the incomparable Huppert, iconic actress Bulle Ogier and hot young French heart-throb Louis Garrel, performed Marivaux’s play on stage at night and shot the film in the theater at night. Unfortunately, Bondy died in November 2015 before the film was complete. It was finished in 2016 with the assistance of his widow Marie-Louise Bischofberger.

Marivaux, who also wrote the novel “The Life of Marianne,” is famous for his playful use of language. The title of Marivaux’s play can be translated as either “false confessions” or “false secrets,” and there are plenty of both in Marivaux’s twisty play about love and its inner and outer complications.

Isabelle Huppert plays kind-hearted, wealthy Araminte, who lives in a Paris mansion with her prickly mother, Madame Argante (Bulle Ogier), and her lady’s companion Marton (Manon Combes) and servants Dubois (Yves Jacques) and Arlequin (Fred Ulysse). Dorante (Louis Garrel), a handsome but poor young man of good family, comes to apply for a position as Araminte’s new secretary. But the young man’s real purpose is love – Dorante is secretly in love with Araminte, and his presence in her household is part of a scheme devised by Dubois, Dorante’s former servant, to win her heart and hand in marriage.

Dorante is also the nephew of Monsieur Remy (Bernard Verley), Madame Argante’s close friend, but Remy is unaware of Dubois’s plan to help Dorante woo Araminte. In fact, Argante and Remy are pressuring Araminte to marry Count Dorimont (Jean Pierre Malo), as a way to settle a lawsuit over a land dispute between them. The slightly shabby Count has a title but is neither young nor handsome, and Araminte is not too keen on the match. Araminte’s companion Marton is immediately smitten with Dorante, and Dubois encourages the young man to flirt with her as part of his romantic scheme. Araminte likes Dorante’s looks too and hires him, setting him up in the mansion and reassigning Arlequin as Dorante’s manservant, which sends the befuddled servant into a comic-relief tizzy.

The story opens with Isabelle Huppert in pure white practicing tai chi on balcony of her character’s luxurious Paris home, one of the many little visual delights of this polished film for Huppert fans, along with another scene where she run on a treadmill in a gold lame track suit. The acting is one of the major pleasures of this film, although like most films finished after a director’s passing, it is not a flawless work. Still, Huppert is charming and sexy as kind but cautious Araminte, while Louis Garrel is charmingly befuddled as the love-smitten Dorante.

Supporting roles carry a lot of the humor. Bulle Ogier is wonderful as the forceful, demanding Argante, determined to bend her daughter to her will. Ogier’s Argante is the kind of fire-spitting character that can melt lesser souls with a glance, and when Dorante faces her and his domineering uncle (wonderfully played by Verley) he is clearly outmatched. However, Huppert’s Araminte is no push-over to her mother’s wishes, long used to her tantrums. The major teller of false confessions is Dubois, slyly played by Yves Jacques, whose complex plan involves telling different things to everyone, and keeping everyone – including Dorante – in a state of romantic confusion. Her romantic longings bring out an aggression and cunning in Araminte’s companion Marton, while Arlequin exists mainly as a purely comic character.

The film is shot in the theater where Bondy staged the play with the same cast, but the story is not on stage but around the theater space, which works surprisingly well. While the play was performed by night at the Odeon Theatre of Europe, the same cast and director shot the film during the day. Some exteriors were shot at Luxembourg Gardens, and both settings give the film a delightful visual beauty. As the film unfolds, we get more scenes in the backstage areas of the theater, reminding us of the theatrical basis, revealed in a wonderful fashion.

All this is good for fans of Bondy or Marivaux, but the unsuspecting viewer who comes into this film without knowledge of either may find this film a bit strange. Although it is set in the present, one will immediately be aware this is an adaptation of an old play, and even a 18th century one at that, with its dialog about arranged marriages and convoluted plot spiked with servants and nobles. Modern audience are likely to wonder why they don’t just say what they feel, and save all that time.

Non-French speakers also miss out, as one of the signature appeals of Marivaux for his fans is in his use of language, with unexpected juxtapositions of words. All that “Marivaudage,” as it is called, is lost in translation into English subtitles. Bondy is clearly aware that not everything about this 18th comedy translates to the modern setting, so he plays with that by making the film both a production that straddles film and theater, and a showcase for both the fine cast and the theater where it was filmed.

If one is a fan of director Luc Bondy, author Marivaux, fans of French theater or even just Isabelle Huppert, FALSE CONFESSIONS is a worthwhile, even charming, film experience. Not everyone is a fan of 18th century theater and not everyone loves Marivaux, whose plays critics describe as style over substance, so this is not a film for everyone. It is just a little bit of theater-and-film crossover fun for Francophiles.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Isabelle Huppert in ELLE Debuting on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital March 14

“Shame isn’t a strong enough emotion to stop us from doing anything at all. Believe me.”

The Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and Certified Fresh (89% on Rotten Tomatoes), Sony Pictures Classics’ ELLE debuts on Blu-ray, DVD and digital March 14 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Acclaimed international actress Isabelle Huppert also won a Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama) for her role in the film, one of the best of her career. Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct), ELLE is the compelling story of Michèle (Huppert), a woman who brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to her business. After an unknown assailant attacks her in her home, Michèle’s life changes forever. Consumed with the need for revenge, she hunts down her assailant drawing both into a curious and thrilling game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control. ELLE also stars Laurent Lafitte de la Comédie Française (Daddy or Mommy), Anne Consigny (History’s Future), Charles Berling (Le Coeur en Braille) and Virginie Efira (Victoria).

In addition to her Golden Globe win and current Academy Awards nomination, Isabelle Huppert was named Best Actress by the National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle, Gotham Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Boston Film Critics Society, Boston Online Film Critics Association, San Francisco Film Critics Circle, St. Louis Film Critics, Austin Film Critics and Florida Film Critics Circle.

Bonus materials on the Blu-ray, DVD and digital versions of ELLE include two featurettes. In “Tale of Empowerment: Making Elle,” Director Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert discuss their collaboration on the fascinating and compelling story. And fans of Isabelle Huppert will have a front row seat at the American Film Institute’s tribute to the iconic actress as she reflects on her craft and career in “Celebrating an Icon: AFI’s Tribute to Isabelle Huppert.”

Synopsis:

Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a leading video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes Michèle’s life forever. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game – a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven from a screenplay by David Birke and based on the novel by Philippe Djian, ELLE was produced by Said Ben Said and Michel Merkt.

Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Special Features Include:

“A Tale of Empowerment: Making Elle”
“Celebrating an Icon: AFI’s Tribute to Isabelle Huppert”

ELLE has an approximate runtime of 130 minutes and is rated R for violence involving sexual assault, disturbing sexual content, some grisly images, brief graphic nudity and language.

ELLE – Review

Revenge, cleverly achieved by a woman, is the theme of the twisty, sometimes disturbing, and often darkly humorous French thriller ELLE. Audiences expecting art house fare may be surprised to find director Paul Verhoeven’s film so entertaining, particularly since it is about a woman avenging a rape. But many things are surprising about ELLE – its complexity, its family drama, its compassion, and most of all, its complicated heroine Michele LeBlanc, played by Isabelle Huppert in an Oscar-worthy performance.

ELLE opens with a shocking scene, of a rape, but what happens afterwards is shocking too. The scene is presented in a detached manner but we are surprised by the woman’s reaction after her assailant departs. She scolds her cat, who is the sole witness to the attack, for not protecting her, and then cleans up. She does not call the police. Is it shock? Did we misunderstand what we saw? We are immediately filled with questions, and hooked on the story.

This may be the most unpredictable film you see this year. Director Paul Verhoeven may be best known to American audiences for ROBOCOP but his European films have generally been more complex. There is a feminist streak to this film but even that is not simple and straightforward. Verhoeven certainly knows how to craft a film to grip and entertain an audience, but the lurid subject, the film’s unconventional central character, its ambiguity and inky dark, biting humor give that entertainment an unsettling edge. All assumptions are overturned and nothing is what you expect, least of all the complicated human character at the center.

Much of what makes this film so riveting is the astounding Isabelle Huppert, who is on-screen through most of the film. Michele is seeking revenge for rape but she is no ordinary helpless victim. She has a shadowy past, and as the head of a successful company that designs violent video games, she is skilled at constructing violent scenarios. And she has her own history with violence, the child of a serial killer. Her revenge is constructed with the same exacting precision as the company’s games.

Many viewers are likely to feel uneasy about seeing a film that includes a rape but the theme of revenge and Michele’s own quirks quickly turn the tables on who is the final victim. After its shocking start, the film moves on to Michele’s life, professional and personal, and her past. Just as the rape begins to recede in theaudience’s minds, Verhoeven returns to it, and keeps up this back-and-forth throughout the film. Michele runs her video game company with her business partner and best friend Anna (Anne Consigny). At work, Michele is a woman of steely resolve and focus, who is dealing with rebellious employees while pressing them to up the shock value in the newest game they are working on. Many of her employees are men who resent having a female boss, but Michele handles that deftly, in a nice feminist touch.

In her personal life, she copes with her odd mother (Judith Magre), a self-absorbed woman decked out in finery and battling time with the help of a boy toy, and her feelings about her father. Michele also is having an affair with Robert (Christian Berkel), Anna’s husband, and dealing with her own ex-husband Richard (Charles Berling) as well as their grown but immature son Vincent (Jonas Bloquet). Vincent has the girlfriend from hell (Alice Isaaz), who is a pregnant, self-centered tyrant who abuses him. When a handsome neighbor, Patrick (Laurent Lafitte), moves in, he seems to offer a rare bit of male competence in this scenario.

Of course, none of that is quite what it seems nor turns out as we expect, and it is all liberally salted with darkest humor as well as a touching humanity. The film periodically revisits the rape scene at the beginning, and the rapist returns as well, but the focus is always on Michele. That she is plotting revenge is not surprising but how that comes about is. Michele’s cool response after the attack is odd, but we learn there is a reason for her distrust of police and news media. Beside the jarring start, the film has disturbing references to rough sex and violence. But make no mistake, this is not misogyny – this woman is definitely in charge.

Verhoeven proves himself a master of suspense and clever plotting in ELLE, and sets out to keep the audience on edge. The director is greatly aided by Huppert’s remarkable performance. Huppert plays a woman ten years younger than her actual age of 61 but looks younger still. Although we are fascinated by Michele and root for her, there is little that is sweet about this complicated character. Both the rape and her tragic childhood (which we learn about in the film) make her a sympathetic figure but she is still a fearsome force rather than anything cuddly. She certainly can take care of herself, and everyone around her for that matter.

ELLE is the kind of film that sticks in your mind, something you admire for its brilliant construction yet may struggle to say you enjoyed. It certainly provokes thought. The revenge Michele exacts at the end is plotted as carefully and precisely as one of her games, and resolves not only the matter of the rapist but several matters in her personal life. ELLE is an amazing clockwork construction that will leave audiences in a quandary, wanting to cheer for her revenge while squirming with discomfort at the whole process and wondering about what they just experienced.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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