To celebrate the return of Sophie to Melbs after the absence of a year (to study Law in London!), we decided to get back into the spirit by having dinner on Lygon St. (where I randomly spoke Italian - yes, I'm a tool) followed a French movie. And our movie of choice was The Hedgehog. Based on the bestseller The Elegance of The Hedgehog (which I haven't read because I was stopping myself from reading and dreaming about life in Paris - boohooo!) The Hedgehog is about finding the little things that make life worth living.
In a rich apartment building in Paris, precocious 11 year old Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) has decided through years of observing her bourgeois family that she would rather die on her 12th birthday than grow up to be cold and self-absorbed like her sister or psychoanalysed and medicated like her mother. Meanwhile, the concierge of her building, Renee (Josiane Balasko) lives a life being overlooked by her rich inhabitants except for when they want something - like the sweeping up cigarette butts from the communal hallway or taking reception of a package. She fits the idea of what a concierge should be like - middle aged, poor, fat, ugly, etc, but is ultimately unconcerned with getting more. Paloma and Renee's lives and plans are disrupted by the arrival of a third outsider, the japanese widower Kakuro Ozu (Togo Igawa), to the apartment building. He recognises that both are not as they seem - Paloma speaks Japanese, and Renee can quote Tolstoy?!
This is a nice movie. It's nice seeing Renee and Paloma develop. Paloma learns that not all the adults around her are self-deluded in the pursuit of comfort and that life is worth living, and Renee doesn't have to hide herself and her intelligence away for fear of making her employers believe she's overreaching. But the really great thing about this movie is that we don't see all the characters suddenly become awesome. Paloma is still misunderstood by her family, and the tenants still don't know who Renee is behind her cranky veneer.
The acting is great with Balasko and Igawa getting across the characters with great economy of gesture but the outstanding one is Le Guillermic who comes across as the oldest 11 year old in the world - right down to the way she looks! And it's a big role too with lots of voice overs and scenes on her own. It's hard to comment on others as no one else has a role of note other than Anne Brochet as Paloma's mother, and she's more of a quasi-comic relief to show how absurd she is talking to plants but completely uncomprehending of her daughter.
The only things I'd really complain about are the subtitles calling Renee the building's janitor - puh-lease, a concierge is more than just a cleaner! Also, despite the movie being set in Paris, we see very little of Paris. Maybe it's a cliche but I wanted some of that Paris magic! It might also seem a bit slow to people as it's mostly talking rather than doing.
A sweet and interesting little movie.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment