Class, choice, guilt and circumstance: Catherine Corsini's rich THREE WORLDS; plus a short Q&A with filmmaker and star

How rare it is to find a film -- these days, even a foreign one -- with a meaningful and important theme, let alone several of them. Catherine Corsini, a filmmaker who ought to be better known worldwide and certainly here in the USA, has done all this in her newest movie, THREE WORLDS, and managed it so well that her themes and seams blend effortlessly into a brilliant whole. In preparation for this review, I watched the film a second time the other evening with a couple of friends who had not seen it. We were all impressed; I even more so on this repeat viewing.

Ms Corsini, shown at right, who directed and co-wrote this original screenplay, has imagined an event -- an accident that turns into a hit-and-run -- the ramifications of which bring to the surface issues of immigration, class, money, love, guilt (in several forms) and commitment (I may have left out a few other themes) involving nearly a dozen characters -- all of whom get their time in the sun to become fully understandable people, complete with needs and desires, often counter to those of others in this mix. The fact that Corsini achieves all this succinctly and economically within a time frame of 101 minutes is impressive. That we don't in any way feel short-changed is even more so.

Primarily, we have the driver of the car, Al, played by up-and-comer Raphaël Personnaz (above, right), who was so good in last week's The Stroller Strategy and is ever better here, as the pivotal character around whom all else revolves. This would include his fiancee (Adèle Haenel, above, left, also excellent in another of last week's openers, Aliyah) and her father, M. Testard (Jean-Pierre Malo, below, left), who owns the automobile dealership where Al works and is about to gift his new son-in-law-to-be with the title to the firm.

Also in the mix are a couple of Al's co-worker pals, who are with him at the time of the accident; his mom, who for years worked as a cleaning woman at the company; the young woman who witnessed the accident but could not identify the driver (played by Clothilde Hesme, below) and her boyfriend.

Finally there's the victim himself (an illegal immigrant, who remains initially comatose), his wife (Arta Dobroshi, below), family and friends. These people are not connected in the currently popular happenstance manner of movies like the witless and overdone Crash or the recent and much better Disconnect. No -- the connections here are immediate and profound for everyone concerned, and the movie is all the stronger because of this.

Once our protagonist begins having trouble living with himself and what he has done, these connections light up and begin firing on all cylinders. As usual, the less said about plot so as not to spoil surprises, the better -- but the fact that it all hinges not only on unfolding events but on character is paramount.

Ms Corsini also manages to avoid melodrama, no mean feat in a tale like this one. As sad and surprising as the movie becomes, what happens always seems real and understandable, given the people with whom we are dealing.

Performances are everything they need to be from every actor, leads on down. Details are exhibited smartly, too: they register but are never hammered home. (Note the final scene between Al and his father-in-law: heated and angry but with a very sudden and moving moment.) Corsini -- who has already given us the excellent Leaving, Les ambitieux, La répétition and The New Eve -- is a smart and graceful filmmaker, and Three Worlds is her best I've seen to date.

The movie, another very fine one from Film Movement, opens this Friday, June 21, in New York City at the Quad Cinema and at the Sacramento French Film Festival (who knew?!) and in the month following on July 28 at the Laemmle Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills. To see currently scheduled playdates, click here and scroll down a bit.

PERSONAL APPEARANCE! One of the film's stars, 

Arta Dobroshi, will be present for Q&A's on Friday 6/21 

and Saturday 6/22 following the 7:15 show.

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When, last March during Rendez-vous With French Cinema,  TrustMovies met with both Catherine Corsini and Raphaël Personnaz, I recorded the conversation (some of which was offered last week, with my reviews of The Stroller Strategy). This week, because I'm away from home with only my laptop and not my trusty desktop, on which that interview is stored, I must simply recall the highlight with both the filmmaker and her star.

My biggest question for Corsini, above, having now seen five of her films and having liked them all was: What is it, aside from each film's strong interest in the lives of women (Three Worlds is different by virtue of its male protagonist) that links your films? Or is there anything specific?  To which the filmmaker immediately replied, Yes: in each, the character is trying to find his or her place, his or her identity, within the world that he or she inhabits.

I thought about this, recalling the various films, and sure enough, they all have this feature in common -- and yet so subtle but incisive a filmmaker is Ms Corsini that this does not jump out at you as you watch. Her films are filled with interesting people and ideas and situations, and so you're pretty much enveloped in all of this as you watch.

For M. Personnaz, at right and below, after the rest of our talk (which you can find at the end of the former post here), I wondered aloud if I could ask a somewhat personal question that would involve his past history. A very likeable and gracious guy, he immediately smiled and said, "Of course."

Of these three worlds that the film depicts -- that very fragile world of the illegal immigrant, the lower/working class world of his best pals, and the haute bourgeoisie to which his character aspires -- into which one does he place himself most securely? Obviously, I tell him, you're not an illegal immigrant (at this point, he outright laughs), so which of the other two?

Personnaz smiles again (and what a smile he has!) and tells me that he has actually been pretty firmly embedded in both those worlds. He was a kid from a lower-middle class family in which his dad labored (I believe he said) in the construction industry. After awhile, the family made some money and found themselves living in a higher class in a very different world. But then, he shrugged and grew a bit philosophical, things changed once again. Times grew difficult, the economy suffered, and the family was back again in a less good place.

It was very interesting, noted the now quite successful actor, to see which of his so-called friends stuck with him. Many simply bailed. "We call these "fair-weather friends'," I told him. The actor thought about this phrase for a moment, then smiled again.

"Exactly."

THE STROLLER STRATEGY: Smart, funny, sweet French rom-com opens; plus a quick Q&A with its star, Raphaël Personnaz

Ah, those French: They're at it again, giving the world another fine romantic comedy that offers the usual fun, class and pizzazz, but also a little more charm and melancholy than this genre often brings us. The movie is THE STROLLER STRATEGY (La stratégie de la poussette), the first full-lengther from co-writer (with Louis-Paul Desanges) and director Clément Michel, a fellow who, I am told by the movie's star, comes from more than a decade laboring as a well-regarded writer and director in the legitimate theater. (The movie also inaugurates a new series, Rialto Premieres, from that company, Rialto Pictures, that has long given us some of the great film classics. Now, it seems, they're also premiering new -- and if this film is any indication -- smart, art-house/mainstream movies.)

M. Michel, shown at right, appears to have done his homework regarding movies vs. theater and has either himself mastered the necessary pacing, visuals, editing and so on (or has surrounded himself with all the right people) to concoct and execute a first-rate rom-com. From the start, he manages to do something that I don't recall seeing before (or certainly not done this well): presenting us with an entire history of a relationship -- first meeting to the break-up -- within the film's first half-dozen minutes. This is clever, engrossing, funny, full-bodied stuff, and it is but a taste of what's to come.

To come is the story of how this young man, Thomas (shown above), partly by chance and partly via the strategy of the title, hopes to win back his beloved, who had parted ways with him in part due to his lack of interest in their having a child together. The ins-and-outs of all this are more fun to see and be surprised at than to be told about here. Suffice it to say that Michel and Desanges know how to keep their plot hopping and their laughs coming, while never allowing their characters to stray too far from the humanity that keeps us firmly on their side.

Comparisons have been made to Three Men and A Baby, both the French and Hollywood versions, but this film is infinitely more interesting and nuanced than was that crass concoction that cashed in on the supposedly new-found connection between men and babies. As if. The Stroller Strategy cast helps enormously, too. The lovers are played by Raphaël Personnaz (above and below) and Charlotte Lebon (below, right), and both provide more than enough sex appeal, charm, humor and intelligence to make ideal rom-com headliners.

The Stroller Strategy, running just 90 minutes, opens in Manhattan this Friday, June 14, at the Angelika Film Center, and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 on June 28. As new playdates appear, they'll be posted here: click, and then click on IN THEATERS.

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Back in March of this year, during Rendez-vous With French Cinema, TrustMovies (whose words are in boldface, below) got to meet and spend a few minutes with the movie's gifted, extremely attractive and fluent-in-English star Raphaël Personnaz, at right, whose words are shown below in standard type). The first thing we want to know is the pronunciation of his name and what those two little dots over the "e" mean. Raphaël laughs and explains that they have to do with pronunciation: 

When you have those two dots in French, it means that you have to pronounce that letter. So then, it is Ra-pha-el, rather than only Raphal, which it would be without those dots.

Gotcha. It turns out that I have seen you in a lot more movies than I had realized. But I didn't remember you in all of them.

The Princess of Montpensier?

Yes, but I would certainly remember you in that! Your character (seen in the photo below) was the one I found the most interesting in the film because he seems particularly intelligent and careful. And of course he later becomes ever more important. He seems to understand better than anyone else what is happening and what he himself wants out of it all.

Yes -- and so he becomes the King! In the script he has this irony about things, too, which was interesting to play. Because of his young age, I think this was the strength of the movie --

They were ALL so young! --

Yes and this is important. At around this same time there was this other movie, with Russell Crowe in it -- Robin Hood -- in which the characters were all so old!

In reality most of them would have been dead by that age.

Of course.

Oh -- and you were in one of my favorite films, Blame it on Fidel, but I didn't even see you in that one.

(He laughs) It was such a small role!

Ah, and also you were in another movie I loved but I didn't realize it: Housewarming (Travaux) with Carole Bouquet.

Yes, and in another very small role.

Ah, but you have now just finished working with Daniel Auteuil? And as one of the stars.

Yes, in his new films Fanny and Marius (shown below)

And Cesar?

Yes, but we have not filmed that yet. Maybe in about one year.

Did you see The Well-Digger's Daughter?

Yes, yes.

Is this one in that same wonderful style. I just loved that film.

Yes, it is. It is the same author, Marcel Pagnol.

It's so French. French countryside!

Of course, and it is from the south of France. Daniel Auteuil is from that same area.

Really? And are you, as well?
I am from the other side of the south: the Southwest. Daniel is from the Southeast.

What role do you play? 

I play Marius, the son of Cesar.

So you are the young leading man, the same character as played by Horst Buchholz in the Joshua Logan film, I think.

Yes, the guy who wants to leave.

So tell me about The Stroller Strategy -- which is a film I just learned of and so have not been able to see yet.

This is real kind of comedy. Not so commercial because in a way the characters in this movie are not freaks, they don't have so much the perspective of the future. It is more about the situation. I think this movie is really of its time, and in a way I think this character is a little bit like Charlie Chaplin. We laugh about him but he also have something sad in him.

This will be very interesting to see.

Yes, and it is the first movie of this director, who is really talented. He comes from legitimate theater, after fifteen years of writing and directing plays. When I first met him, he told me that his reference for this film was Garden State.

Hmmm...  I didn't like that movie all that much.

No, no, me too. But what was interesting was not to have all these stylish shots. Instead you have to have, as the Portuguese say, something melancholic.

Ah -- all this sounds pretty interesting, so I will look forward to seeing The Stroller Strategy as soon as I can. And thank you so much for your time, Raphaël!

Editor's note: There's more here, but we'll 

get the rest of the interview up in the next week or so, 

once Raphaël's other new film, Three Worlds, opens.