I presume that my readers are familiar with Audrey Tautou from that gem of a film Amélie. (If not, then why not?) Well, in À la folie... pas du tout Tautou subverts the delightful naiveity of Amélie for a much darker character. She plays Angelique who is besotted with Loïc, a married doctor whose wife is 5 months pregnant. We see their affair develop from Angelique's point of view and chart her increasing agitation and despair as he seems to spurn her advances. Then we see the whole story again from his point of view.
This is not a feelgood movie, though it is very pleasant to watch. It is shot beautifully, taking full of Tautou's talent for facial expression. The film also makes a nice change from the usual approach to adultery (It's alright if they love eachother enough), though it's not a simple morality play. The English title for the film is He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. It seems that the French title (which I would translate as 'Madly... Not at All') is a reference to a game played with a flower similar to our 'Loves me, loves me not'. However, when a Frenchgirl is plucking petals, she doesn't alternate between 'loves me', 'loves me not'. Instead she goes:
Il m'aime un peu, beaucoup, à la folie,pas du tout, etc...which probably says a lot about the French.
i.e. He loves me a little, a lot, madly, not at all...
No comments:
Post a Comment