André Téchiné's new jewel, BEING 17, may mark the top of his illustrious career -- with some help from Céline Sciamma

A great, unfolding love story, as well as a wondrous coming-of-age film, BEING 17 is the latest addition to the oeuvre of one of France's gifts to cinema, André Téchiné. Working steadily for over fifty years, Téchiné, shown below, is now 73 years old and his abilities only seem to grow stronger and more assured. Even what may look, upon initial viewing, like a misstep usually prove better with an additional watch. His are some of the best coming-of-age movies ever made: rich, wise and bone-deep. This filmmaker offers behavior above all, then lets us, along with his characters, struggle with the meaning of that behavior until it is somehow sorted out. Not always to the best ends. But always with truth, feeling and even, sometimes, humor.

In his latest film two boys, toward the end of their school years and on the cusp on young adulthood, find themselves engaged in angry competition and even physical fighting. This is brought on more by one -- Tomas, the mixed-race, adopted son of a kindly, hard-working farm family in the mountains -- than by the other, Damien, who is the son of the town's doctor mom and soldier father, the latter most often found abroad in some area of conflict.

Téchiné usually works with some of his country's best and most iconic actors -- from Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche to André Dussollier and Gérard Depardieu, as well as discovering and making the most of young talent that then goes on to find its own impressive career (Gaël Morel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet and Roschdy Zem, among many others).

So it is again, as one of France's finest and most versatile actresses, Sandrine Kiberlain stars here as that doctor mom (the still boyish and beautiful Alexis Loret, above, right, of Alice and Martin, plays the soldier dad). Ms Kiberlain (two photos up and above, center) is as eloquent, exotically lovely and engulfing as ever, but the movie belong rightly to its two young stars: Kacey Mottet Klein (above, left, who already has a major resumé behind him, including Sister, Home and Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life) playing Damien, and newcomer Corentin Fila (below), who plays Tomas.

These two young men are terrific actors, representing that oh-so-tricky age of 17 to alternately ferocious and moving affect. There is not a false moment in any of their work nor in any of Téchiné's -- along with Ms Sciamma's who collaborated on the sensitive but never too-explanatory screenplay. Where these feelings of anger are coming from and why are the questions that keep arising, and the filmmaker lets the answers come haltingly and very believably.

I am not certain there is another movie-maker who understands any better how character-building is a thing that goes on and on, revealing itself in small increments along with the growth and change that occurs. And he has found two young actors who can embody this halting growth and change quite splendidly -- coming as it does at the most pivotal and difficult time of life. The two young actors keep us with them, held in an alternately angry and loving embrace, through events minor and major.

The film takes place over four seasons at school, in the home, on the farm and throughout the countryside. Being 17 is a visually beautiful movie (could there be a more gorgeous place to live than here?) but also an equally intelligent one. And it takes its place -- along with an earlier film this year, Summertime -- as one of, maybe the finest of dramas/earned-love-stories of our new millennium.

The movie -- from Strand Releasing and running a just-about-perfect 116 minutes (In French with English subtitles) -- opens this Friday, October 7, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the IFC Center, and in Los Angeles on Friday, October 14, at Laemmle's Royal and Playhouse 7. Here in the South Florida area it will open on Friday, October 21,at the Bill Cosford Cinema in Coral Gables, the Tower Theater in Miami, the Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale, and at the Lake Worth Playhouse in Lake Worth.  Click here, then scroll down to click on Screenings, to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters across the country where the movie will be shown over the next few weeks.

Maïwenn's MY KING explores amour fou from a female viewpoint -- less crazy, more loving

The movies of French film-maker Maïwenn keep getting better and stronger. From Pardonnez-moi through All About Actresses to Polisse and now MY KING (Mon roi), she seems to have become more disciplined as she has grown more mature. Her films have always been fun -- their overwrought moments often their most enjoyable -- but in her latest she tackles the subject of amour fou with a directness and clarity that is at once sad and bracing.

The filmmaker, shown at left, has cast her two leads actors about as well as you could want. Her leading lady, Emmanuelle Bercot, who won a deserved Best Actress award at this past year's Cannes fest, is herself a fine film director (Standing Tall, On My Way, Student Services, Backstage), while her leading man, Vincent Cassel (below), always sexy and charismatic, simply tops himself here. He's phenomenal: glowing, growing, then exploding with energy and charm beyond measure. Our king, indeed. (He actually played one in another of his recent films, Tales of Tales.)

Maïwenn's film begins with a mother named Tony (short for Marie-Antoinette: royalty is all over the place here) about to ski downhill. The next scene takes us to the office of physical therapist who offers up some holistic-sounding psycho-babble that might send some of us out the door. But mom has had a bad injury, the healing of which will take us right through to the end of the film, as she (and we) think back to earlier days and how she met and stuck with and by the guy who will become the love of her life.

The filmmaker does her back-and-forth between the past and present quite gracefully, so that we're never jarred and easily know where we are. We meet the group of injured young people with whom Tony will rehab, and we also meet the most important people in her circle as she negotiates the trying and tricky years with Georgio (Cassel).

These include her brother, who, regarding the great love of his sister's life, seems the most rational in the bunch -- and as he is played by the usually quite irrational, Louis Garrel (above), you've got to credit Maïwenn's ability to bring out surprising new layers in her actors.

What makes My King succeed especially well is that the entire viewpoint and attitude are coming to us via the character of Tony -- who is, given all that she's going through, pretty rational herself. (She is certainly more so than Georgio.) We understand her and root for her, even when her decisions are the wrong ones.

For his part Cassel simply makes his character everything Tony wants -- and more (and finally less), with such sex appeal, charm and often great good humor that there is no question why these two keep trying to make it work. Even when Georgio cannot let go of an old model-gorgeous but unhealthily-clinging girlfriend (Chrystèle Saint Louis Augustin, below, right) who seems constantly in need of his help, Tony tries to look the other way.

How things resolve themselves -- and they do -- proves bittersweet and quite real, leaving us feeling the same caring for both these characters as we've felt all along, watching them change and grow, try and fail, and now maybe even succeed. But in a different configuration.

Thanks to the director, the writers (Maïwenn and Etienne Comar) and the performers, the movie works on all kinds of levels. It will stand the test of time, I suspect, as a simultaneous love story and cautionary tale, a character study, and a look at the way the French well-to-do lived and behaved at a certain point in human history. (Were the film to have dealt with the working class or the poor, I doubt it would have been made.)

From Film Movement and running a long but never boring 124 minutes, My King opens this Friday, August 12, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and in Los Angeles on Friday, August 26, at Laemmle's Royal. Here in South Florida it opens in Miami at the Tower Theater, also on August 26, and in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters on Friday, September 9. Elsewhere? Absolutely. Click here and scroll down to see currently scheduled playdates, arranged alphabetically by state.

See Isabelle Huppert in all her glory (and more!) in Catherine Breillat's ABUSE OF WEAKNESS

When is not Isabelle Huppert a wonder to watch perform? Nowhere that I can recall. Now, in the new film by Catherine Breillat entitled ABUSE OF WEAK-NESS, Ms Hupert is everything we've come to expect -- and even more. Here she is, as usual, moment-to-moment real and speci-fic and spellbinding. This time, there's an overlay to it all. She is playing a stroke victim who only in degrees wins back the use of her body, and even then, not completely. I'd call Huppert a revelation, except that she always is. Here, she is simply more so.

Ms Breillat, for her part, is a past master at offering up challenging, often politically incorrect movies. With her latest she seems to be pulling back a bit by giving us an easier-to-digest woman-in-trouble tale. But probably not. If the film's title seems, to this American, at least, a play on the popular phrase "abuse of power," it turns out that Abus de faiblesse (the film's French title) doubles as an article of French law (L 122-8 in the Consumer Code,  223-15-2 in the Criminal Code) in which, if one person abuses another who is weak, sick, ignorant or what have you, s/he can be prosecuted. (We could certainly have used something like this in the USA, regarding those crap sub-prime loans from Countrywide and other mortgage lenders that helped bring down our economy, while cheating folk out of their abodes.)

The players here are Maud Shainberg (Ms Huppert, above), a film director somewhat on the cold side and clearly used to having her own way (based on Breillat, perhaps?), and Vilko Piran (an actor who goes by the odd moniker of Kool Shen, below), who, when we and Maud first see him, is chatting away on a TV talk show, telling tales of his time as a con man who cheated the rich out of millions and the poor out of whatever he could get. "This guy is perfect for the lead in my new film," says Maud, and soon they are meeting, and he is charming the director out of lots and lots of Euros.

But who is taking advantage of whom? Both it would seem, though no matter how charming and sexy our Vilko might be (and he's plenty), Maud lets him nowhere near her bed. Yet he is attentive and uber-helpful to this woman, who actually needs all the help she can get. She still has trouble walking and standing and keeping her balance, so Vilko is there for her, tying her shoes and taking her out to eat -- despite what her friends and family have to say about it all. To top it all off, Maud has not yet filmed even a single scene using this guy.

The two leads could hardly be better, often keeping us as off-balance as is Maud herself. And then the film is finished, and we are left wondering if we have simply been watching a case study in how one very smart and successful women gives over completely to a con man who has "abused her weakness," as it were.

Maybe. But thanks to these very fine performances, there just might be more. Even so, this story, as Breillat films it and Huppert and Shen act it, is for me enough. Simply watching Huppert struggle to use her limbs properly or ask the speech therapist how she can come to "laugh" again is worth the price of admission.

From Strand Releasing and running 105 minutes, Abuse of Weakness, opens this Friday, August 15, in New York City at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. In Los Angeles, look for it at Laemmle's Royal, opening Aguust 22. Elsewhere? Hope so. In any case, as the distributor is Strand, we can eventually expect a DVD and perhaps streaming to various digital venues.

Rendez-vous closes with the Foenkinos' DELICACY, opening theatrically next week

The French, bless 'em, have always been best at love stories. Love, after all, is their genre, and it seems, as well, to be their game. As good as the French can be at many other types of films, I don't know that any other country's love stories surpass theirs. Maybe you'll find an odd one from elsewhere now and then that does it. But before you know it, they have sent over yet another strong love story -- comedic, dramatic, quirky, hallucinatory, philosophic and sometimes an odd mash-up. All this is in preparation for telling you that they've just sent us yet another one named DELICACY (La délicatesse) that closes this year's Rendez-vous With French Cinema tomorrow evening and then opens theatrically a mere few days later. Whatever your final judgment on this movie, you will not want to miss it, for it is, I believe, among the most original love stories ever made.

The product, first, of a novel by a widely-praised and internationally-published French author David Foenkinos (above, right) and now brought to the screen by that author and his brother Stéphane Foenkinos (above, left, and a well-known French casting director), the film is the first full-length movie from both of them. It is too unusual, too special, too good, for all tastes, but for mine, it's a strike. And I mean bowling, not baseball (or unions).

As filmmakers, the brothers know how to reel us in with charm and style. The beginning of the movie is simply delightful. As it deepens and expands, the style remains appropriate. Speaking of casting, the brothers have chosen an actress who is indisputably the queen of French romance (these days doubling as the face of Chanel No. 5, after playing Coco in one of the two movies about the designer): Audrey Tautou (above).

The other half of the equation is brought to (somewhat bizarre but absolutely right) life by the French comedian François Damiens, below, who Americans will have seen as the star of The Wolberg Family (if they were lucky and frequented one of the festivals at which it was shown) or the more mainstream Heartbreaker, the Dujardin vehicle OSS 117: Cario, Nest of Spies, and the slightly uncategorizable van Damme "rebirth," JCVD. M. Damiens is a funnyman, visually and physically about as far from a romantic leading man as could be found, but he is also, as The Wolberg Family proves, a disciplined, intuitive and remarkably versatile actor.

The story told by the two brothers is one of true love (above), found and kept completely and beautifully -- until life intrudes. Natalie's (the character played by Tautou) first love is essayed by an actor named Pio Marmaï (foreground, left, whom you may have seen as last years Rendez-vous in Living On Love Alone), a looker who can match his gorgeous visage with a good performance.

To take Natalie from Marmaï to Damiens, and to make this work in every way, would seem no small task. This involves subver-ting audience expec-tations regarding physical appearance, bringing into play the thoughts and feelings of Natalie's friends and co-workers (of which Markus, the character played by Damiens, is one), and even finally involving Natalie's smart, sexy, slightly sleazy boss (a nice turn by Bruno Todeschini, below, left). The entire cast, very well-chosen, delivers the goods. M. Damiens continues to impress and surprise, and Miss Tautou offers a wonderful picture of a smart, autonomous woman, doing her best to cope and then to grow. She's as lovely as ever, but keeps that "gamine charm" to a minimum; consequently, this is one of her finest performances to date.

The movie, just as do the lead characters, hesitates, contemplates, then bounds ahead--sometimes blithely, sometimes crazily. There's one hell of a "kiss" mid-way along that for some may be a deal-breaker. Don't let it, for it is just this sudden, off-the-wall behavior that can set the stage for serious things to come. Delicacy implicitly asks us, What is love? -- a question that has come up often enough in movies. The Foenkinos offer us a genuinely new and complicated view of the answer. For this, we should be very grateful.

The movie, with a running time of 108 minutes, plays at the Walter Reade tomorrow evening, Saturday, March 10, at 6 and 9pm. Both Rendez-vous screenings are sold out, but as I mentioned earlier, it will open theatrically in New York, via Cohen Media Group, this coming Wednesday, March 14, at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and Landmark's Sunshine Cinema.  To see further cities and theaters, click here and then click on Delicacy and then on Theaters and Playdates (right now the Cohen web site has nothing posted, but it assure us that, eventually, information will appear).

Stéphane Brizé's MLLE. CHAMBON opens; Q&A with one of its stars, Vincent Lindon

The exquisite new French film MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON has been co-adapted (with Florence Vignon, from the novel by Eric Holder) and directed by Stéphane Brizé, who a few years ago, gave us the quietly entran-
cing Not Here to Be Loved.  M. Brizé has given us an ever better, though just as quietly entrancing, film -- this time using two of France's best actors at the very top of their form: Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain. A movie with minimal dialog, but never obviously so, it relies on the moment-to-moment response of the two actors, who are simply marvelous at expressing their inner selves while appearing to camouflage their feelings.

This deeply-felt film -- about a maybe/almost/not-quite/OK-then affair between two people we come to care about very much --  is filled with widescreen images of both nature (including us humans) and commerce, life at home and at school -- all of it full of the occas-
ional jogs of surprise that reality, when captured in a good enough approximation, will offer. Other than what he shows us moment-to-
moment, Brizé, seen at right, drops only the barest hints of any background (the title character's family, for instance) but those few prove quite enough to help create a full character who, as portrayed by Ms Kiberlain, remains as vulnerable as she is mysterious, right through to the very end.

One of the most precious gifts of Mademoiselle Chambon is the way in which it rises above conventional morality and traditional values by first honoring these quite genuinely but then giving priority to the individuals and their humanity. Post-press screening, I -- and it seemed, many of my peers -- found the film particularly worthwhile. I think you will, too. We can all be grateful to Lorber Films for picking this one up for distribution.  It opens this Friday, May 28, at New York’s Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Cinema Village.

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TrustMovies was able to interview Vincent Lindon during his time in New York for the FSLC's annual Rendez-vous With French Cinema this past March.  Portions of this interview were posted last month when Lindon's film WELCOME opened in New York.  But as much of the talk centered around Mademoiselle Chambon, it seems appropriate to run these again, along with the new material.  Below, TrustMovies' questions appear in boldface, while M. Lindon's answers are in standard type.

I’ve seen about 15 of your films over the years -- I know you’ve made a lot more than, but I don’t think we’ve been able to see them over here – and one thing that has impressed me about Mademoiselle Chambon is how little dialog you sometimes have. So much is expressed via face and hands and movement. And even though you often play a working man, you show amazing delicacy.

Yes! But have you noticed how, in real life, when you are in love, or when you are very angry with someone, there are no words. I remember – and I suppose it is the same for me and you and a lot of the people on the planet: After the first kiss, it happens that you feel like you are going to fall in love. Afterward, we want to put our head on the shoulder of each other. We can sit like that a long time because we, we really don’t know what to say. It is as if we do not know the words, so we just want to stay close like that. Until we know what to say, the longer we are like this, the better it is.

When we are doing an angry scene, it is the same. We may go two or three minutes between the same sentence. We may shout, but we also can sit very still, and angry, or we stand up and walk and we pick something up from the desk and (Lindon begins giving me a visual demonstration of all this) and we just do this, all without words. In movies, sometimes -- say a movie is 1 hour and 45 minutes – well, we cannot stretch the time, because if we do it as in real life, that scene is going to take 25 minutes.

And it would bore us to death.

Yes! So very often we don’t speak. Sometimes, in a restaurant, two persons don’t say anything for even two or three minutes. And that is what the director wanted to do in the movie. I remember when the director told me at the beginning of the movie: Imagine she is Russian and your are Swedish. And the only three words you know together are yes, no, and thank you.

So you did this going into the movie?

Yes, and so everything then goes by the eyes, and by how you move, because there is no language.

But you are also very good when you have to use words. I’ve seen you in several movies where you use a lot of words.

Yes, but I prefer now, getting older and older, I prefer not to speak. Just to be. I don’t know the word in English: In France, we say Incarner. (To embody, to incarnate)

As to “incarnate” the role?

Maybe, yes! I don’t like to play a role. I like to be the role.

I am probably not the first to say this, actually the NY Times said it, too. -- but I said it first on my blog! -- (Lindon laughs) You seem to me to be the one actor who could take on the mantel of Jean Gabin. Do they say that in France?

Yes

So I am not the first.

But in the United States, you are the first!  And I very proud to do this. I love Jean Gabin. I love him. I love Robert Mitchum. There are very few that I am crazy about. James Cagney! I love him, too!

Oh, yes, you do remind me of Cagney! I wonder, do you sing and dance, as well -- like he did?

No. But I do love James Cagney. And I hate Humphrey Bogart.
I hate him. I know him, and I do not like his movies. The real one for me is James Cagney, then Edward G. Robinson. But Humphrey Bogart is very far away from them. I also love Cary Grant. …. There is not so many actors that I dream to be like.

That’s plenty – you’ve named a lot of good actors.
When you read a script and then you actually film the movie, are you often surprised at the result on the screen.

No. It is very often exactly that, with a little bit plus or less. But it is what I expect.

I am probably guessing here, but is this because the French film industry is more closely knit, with a little bit better communication between actors and between actors and directors?

Yes, Oh yes. We speak a lot. We get lunch and dinner together and speak on the phone and go with the children on Sunday for a walk -- for three, four five months before shooting. And the director is on the set and not in some van with 25 screens. No, it is very human. We don’t even have the money to have a big van with 25 screens. Sometimes we go in the same car to go back in the house. Sometimes we even drive each other. Or I say, can you drop me at my house? It’s very…

Close?

Yes, and when I go back to my house, and if I want to call the director at night at 10pm, then I call the director. It’s not like here in American: We only have 12 hours to play and if you want to tell me something, you have to call my manager. I am not saying that it’s better or not better. But it is more… French.

For example, I met Ridley Scott in Cannes, when he was about to do a new movie: Last Year in Provence with Russell Crowe. I did not want to do this movie, but after we spoke for half an hour, I really liked Ridley Scott. So I went up to the office, where the casting director said to me, “Oh, Vincent, can you read the script quite rapidly, and then you call me back and tell me if you like it, or if you have some things you don’t feel good with, and then I will say this to Ridley. I will give him a report. And I said, What? You will speak to Ridley for me. I cannot talk to him myself? So she tell me, No. But before the shooting in Provence we will make a big reading, and then after, Ridley can see each actor for 15 minutes, in which to talk. I thought, you are fucking crazy: I get 15 minutes with my director? No, no: If I do a movie with Ridley Scott, I want to speak with my director when I need to do this. I want to speak with him, I want to know about his wife and children. I want to know if he prefer red wine or white. If not, I don’t do that job. I prefer to be baker or lawyer. I don’t care. And Russell Crowe: I will see him for just ten second before action, and five seconds after the cut. Russell Crowe in the US is not more than I am in France. You put me in the United States and I will be Russell Crowe.

Now, I love American movies, but what I think it that it is too difficult for me, a European guy to work in the U.S.

Maybe this is why most European stars do not translate to American films that well?

To make an American film, you are obliged to speak English very well. Even then, the most you can hope for is to get a part where you play the lead and must play a Frenchman. You do this once, and then you go back. I would like to be able to speak English like an American guy because there are a lot – a lot – of American directors I would like to work with: Scorsese, Woody Allen.

In looking through all the movies of yours I have seen, one that impressed me a lot was Chaos.

Yes.

In that one you play a villain role, but you never really play a villain role because you always make the man better than that. And when you play a hero, he’s is never quite a hero, because you always make him less, and more real. (Lindon nods, yes) Also, La Moustache, too. Was that a difficult film to make. Did you know what was going on in that movie?

No. Nobody did.

Good, because we didn’t either. But we enjoyed it.

I loved the script, but I am not able to tell you something about that script. Just, just that I know I like it. It is like when you are standing in front of a painting, and you like it, but maybe you don’t know why.

You have worked with Emmanuelle Devos several times, too. Those Who Remain, the film you did with her, was another really, deeply- felt movie

Ahhhh. Yes, and I go back to Paris tomorrow night, and I start shooting another movie with Emmanuelle!  My third one. I love her!

All photos in this post (except that of M. Brizé) 

are from the film Mademoiselle Chambon.