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TagsBY MIRIAM RINN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
MOVIE REVIEW
In its quiet restraint, its concentration on familial ties and class and region, its view of art as the ultimate means of communication, "Mademoiselle Chambon" is quintessentially French. Yet the story it tells of two shy people who miraculously find in each other passion and understanding is universal, and the film delivers big both to romantics and to those viewers attuned to deeper sociological themes.
Set in a small French coastal town, the movie follows the blossoming relationship between a builder, Jean, and his son's substitute schoolteacher, the eponymous Mademoiselle. They meet when Jean comes to pick up the boy, and the teacher impulsively asks him to fill in on an upcoming career day and tell the children about his work. Playing Mademoiselle, Sandrine Kiberlain radiates lonely vulnerability. Her thin, watchful, not-quite-pretty face lights up on those rare occasions when she smiles, and her blonde delicacy seems the perfect complement to her co-star Vincent Lindon's sturdy materiality.
After some hesitation, Jean obliges, and Lindon brilliantly shows how the burly construction worker slowly begins to enjoy his turn in the spotlight, telling the class about the importance of establishing a firm foundation for a house. How long do his houses last? a student asks. If they're well built, they last a lifetime, Jean answers, laying out one of the film's motifs.
Everything we see of Jean's life, work, and family speaks to structure, stability, and tradition. He tells the children how he began to work with his father as a boy, looking at his own son. He regularly visits his father to wash the old man's feet (this must be a French symbol for filial duty, since we saw the same scene in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), and when they go together to arrange for his father's funeral, Jean listens as the older man decisively chooses internment rather than cremation. These people belong to this land, and have no intention of drifting off into the wind.The classroom visit leads to Mademoiselle hiring Jean to repair a window in her home, where he learns that she plays the violin. He asks her to play him a tune, first making sure that "tune" is the appropriate word. She agrees only if she can play with her back to him, and we realize what her shyness has cost her. The music, achingly beautiful, transforms both of them. Jean, a solid working-class guy, glimpses a world of beauty and emotional expression that he hasn't known before, and playing enables the teacher to communicate all the feeling that she can't express in words.
Mademoiselle Chambon explains to Jean that she enjoys substitute teaching because she's free to leave any school that doesn't suit her. As Jean is tied to his community by bonds of affection and responsibility, so she is unencumbered by family or obligation. The price she pays for her freedom is loneliness as his is a narrowing of experience. We see her social discomfort in a marvelous scene at Jean's father's birthday party. The old man is surrounded by his children and grandchildren, and he welcomes the teacher graciously. She's so uncomfortable that she can barely make the necessary small talk, but when she stands to play her violin, all her secrets are revealed.
Director/writer Stephane Brize keeps his camera very still, adding to the film's mood of constriction and reserve. There are long takes of the characters with no dialogue. Yet, the actors are so fine that they tell us everything through their faces and bodies, and these scenes, which might easily have been static, become deeply moving. We see Jean lose his enjoyment in the work he loves as he falls more deeply in love with the teacher and everything she represents. We understand that his guilt makes him lash out at his comrades and his wife. Mademoiselle's yearning for him is almost palpable.
Kiberlain and Brize won awards in France for best acting and writing, and American viewers will be just as appreciative of this simple but powerful romance. Bring a date, and plenty of tissues.
Once you've sampled current French film, go to the Film Forum to watch one of the classics, Jean Luc Godard's "Breathless," with a sparkling new print and updated subtitles. Although it's 50 years old, this movie feels totally fresh. It's funny, sexy, gorgeously mysterious, and the embodiment of cool.
