Seattle Sightings (review)

Reviews 247 in Akerman’s cinematic palimpsest, Schmid initiates helpful ways of including an exceptional filmography in a variety of university courses. Meredith College (NC) Véronique Machelidon Seattle Sightings: The Seattle International Film Festival, 2013. Reporting on the presence of “French film” in Seattle’s annual spring cinematic extravaganza (447 films representing 85 countries) proved tricky this year due to the number of trans-national projects. French companies helped fund some eighteen features ranging in origin from Iran to Serbia to Hungary to Colombia and even China. Representation of French-speaking countries in the program was strong, although the number of films from France itself was diminished from years past— undoubtedly due to SIFF’s separate French festival. However, incorporating movies with connections to France (language, location, actors) made the total “French” presence quite robust. Love Is in the Air (Amour et turbulences, dir.Alexandre Castagnetti), Low Profile (Je me suis fait tout petit, dir. Cécilia Rouaud), and Populaire (dir. Régis Roinsard)—a trio of well-wrought romantic comedies (all debut features)—delighted audiences with fresh takes on traditional themes. My favorite, Populaire, a well-paced traditional screwball comedy, gently spoofs late 1950s French provincial bourgeois society and attitudes, occasionally lofting a soft dart in the direction of the Amerlos. Filmed in a Fifties style and color palette (la “Populaire” is a pink typewriter), Roinsard posits speed-typing as a competitive sport. Watching Romain Duris as a self-absorbed businessman train Déborah François, as a country girl who taught herself (twofingered ) typing to get a city job and escape marrying a local beau, offers laughs aplenty. Four noteworthy pictures from France per se contained more serious views on life. Marcel Carné’s classic 1938 Quai des brumes with Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan needs no introduction; a newly restored and freshly subtitled version played in SIFF’s archival program. Christian Vincent’s Haute Cuisine (Les saveurs du palais), inspired by real life, features the unusual story of a woman who was François Mitterrand’s personal chef for two years. The title’s double-entendre hints at the two domains in which this gifted, no-nonsense person prepared her mouth-watering cuisine de terroir: the gilded Élysée Palace (filmed in situ) with its fonctionnaires, bureaucracy, dieticians, and snickering sexism from the entirely male main kitchen staff; and, after her rather summary dismissal, the informal mess hall of an Antarctic naval station where her talent is sincerely feted as her job ends. Catherine Frot is perfect as the débrouillarde et exigeante chef, and Jean d’Ormesson acquits himself well in the role of a president he often critiqued. Gilles Legrand crafts engrossing drama with You Will Be My Son (Tu seras mon fils). Niels Arestrup acts his villainous best as the imperious scion of a venerable winemaking family who decides to dismiss his own lackluster son and designate as heir his manager’s son—a young man with California experience and an excellent nose. Jealousy, intrigue, and betrayal abound. Thérèse (Thérèse Desqueyroux), Claude Miller’s final film, adapts François Mauriac’s novel to the screen—a visually sumptuous example of the heritage genre. Adaptation always involves a degree of recasting an original through another creator’s eyes: Miller keeps the pines and waters of the Landes; he augments the Sapphic nature of the relationship between Thérèse and her sister-in-law; he reorders events along a chronological line, eliminating the flash-back structure, along with its revelations concerning Thérèse’s state of mind. In this critic’s opinion, Georges Franju’s 1962 version offered a more satisfying and convincing interpretation of Thérèse and her mal de vivre, due in great part to the credibility of Emmanuelle Riva’s acting. In contrast, the rearranged chronology and Audrey Tautou’s dour, austerely restrained performance create a distant, impenetrable Thérèse, inexplicable in the end, and not so interesting as either her namesake or Riva’s more expressive heroine. Teachers who use films for language learning and culture should consider Ernest and Célestine (dirs.Benjamin Renner,Stéphane Aubier,Vincent Patar) and After...