En face (2000/I)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Mathias Ledoux

Writer:

Valérie Guignabodet (writer)

Release Date:

9 February 2000 (France)

Genre:

Thriller

Cast

Jean-Hugues Anglade	...	Jean
Clotilde Courau	...	Michelle
Christine Boisson	...	Clémence
José Garcia	...	Hugo
Danièle Lebrun	...	Woman in red
Jean Benguigui	...	Henri de Villard
Emmanuel Salinger	...	Inspector Ruault
Laurence Février	...	Ghislaine de Villard
Daniel Dublet	...	Notary
Ariel Wizman	...	Vet
Anne Loiret	...	Victoria
Gérard Bôle du Chaumont	...	Inspector assistant
Jérôme George	...	Video technician
Hélène Rodier	...	Janitor
Frédéric Norbert	...	Flowershop manager

Also Known As:

3 (France) (working title)
Across the Road (UK)
Facing (Australia)

Runtime:

90 min | Argentina:127 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | France:U | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Argentina:18

Company:

Carrère Groupe

across the street, nothing new

The outset of this would-be creepy thriller starts under auspicious skies. A poor couple, Jean (Jean-Hugues Anglade) who is a writer, Michelle (Clothilde Courau), a florist inherit as if by magic of an imposing hotel that their generous neighbor, Jean-Eudes Guillemet bequeathed them so long as they must keep the housekeeper Clémence (Christine Boisson). So, they happily settle down there and of course, this gift is too good to be true. Clémence is a shady housekeeper who seems to be infatuated to Jean. The latter while searching in the murky past of the one-time owner seems to find inspiration again and becomes increasingly ominous. The frail Michelle doesn't feel reassured in this eerie mansion, doesn't trust Clémence and things get dark when her boyfriend suspects her of having deceiving him with Guillemet...

The usual ingredients of the ominous house were unearthed again by the scriptwriter Valérie Guignabodet and it's no-use enumerating them again. From them, the director Mathias Ledoux shrouds the mansion and his film of an unsettling aura and that's all. It's well known that if the movie isn't solidly structured with a stringent, painstaking scenario and if the director lazily taps again corny directing tricks for a topic like this one, this disquieting aura may bore the average viewer and make him take to one's heels. It is sadly the case here. What doesn't redeem the minor asset I quoted earlier is that Valérie Guignabodet unlike Jean in the film seems to have faced a block to pen her script. There are snatches of "Pacific Heights" (1990), "Rebecca" (1940) and even "the Shining" (1980) and some filler to try to stretch the movie just to make a one hour and a half film. Thus, the film fills its quota of sex. There is also a deep mystery in the story but sadly several plot holes aren't filled in a satisfying way. The whole even appears desultory and is often given a couldn't-care-less treatment by the director whom the degree of implication, here is minimal. He seems to have left the building (you said it!) as soon as his two unfortunate heroes settle in their new housing. This weak degree of implication is confirmed by annoying fade-outs. They often close sequences which are with difficulty dovetailed.

And the end is baffling and frustrating. It seems that the authors wanted to insert an unexpected twist because "c'est à la mode" and to show off people but it seems so far-fetched that it makes the story null. Worse, in the final sequences when José Garcia watches the video, the sound is so execrable that it is virtually impossible to catch what the two characters say to each other. Anyway, the last five minutes ruin the whole venture by an incessant flashy editing which is unsatisfying because it doesn't quite clarify the story in its entirety. Maybe the director opted for this irritating scheme to conceal the fact that this unexpected twist was perhaps void and if so, he doesn't show respect for the audience and the viewer leaves the projection with his unanswered questions.

Jean Hugues Anglade and Clothilde Courau do what they can to try to save something from the wreckage, their efforts are vain. I don't know what has become of the director after this vehicle and as for Valérie Guignabodet, she was to have a stab at directing for her quirky "Monique" two years later with rather gratifying results this time.