Alias Betty (2001)
"Betty Fisher et autres histoires" (original title)

Grieving after the death of her young son Joseph, novelist Betty Fisher enters a dark depression. Hoping to bring her out of it, her mother Margot arranges to kidnap another child, Jose, to... See full summary »

Director:

Claude Miller

Writers:

Claude Miller, Ruth Rendell (novel)

Stars:

Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia, Mathilde Seigner

5 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sandrine Kiberlain	...	Betty Fisher
Nicole Garcia	...	Margot Fisher
Mathilde Seigner	...	Carole Novacki
Luck Mervil	...	François Diembele
Edouard Baer	...	Alex Basato (as Édouard Baer)
Stéphane Freiss	...	Edouard
Yves Jacques	...	René the Canadian
Roschdy Zem	...	Dr. Jerome Castang
Consuelo De Haviland	...	Madame Barsky
Yves Verhoeven	...	Martinaud
Annie Mercier	...	Jacqueline
Alexis Chatrian	...	Jose Novacki
Enzo Crebessegues	...	Child
Arthur Setbon	...	Joseph Fisher
Réva Rothstein	...	Child

Storyline

Grieving after the death of her young son Joseph, novelist Betty Fisher enters a dark depression. Hoping to bring her out of it, her mother Margot arranges to kidnap another child, Jose, to replace the son Betty lost. Although she knows it's wrong, Betty accepts Jose as her new son. Meanwhile, Jose's mother Carole is looking for her son with the help of her boyfriend Francois and some of his criminal cohorts.

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Plot Keywords:

death | criminal | depression | novelist | bath | 

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Taglines:

Crimes of passion are not always between lovers.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

France Canada

Language:

French

Release Date:

13 September 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alias Betty

Box Office

Budget:

FRF 50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$23,929 (USA) (13 September 2002)

Gross:

$206,400 (USA) (21 March 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+, France 2 Cinéma, Go Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the scene in which Alex goes to the bookshelf and pulls down a book in which some money is hidden, all the books on that shelf are by Ruth Rendell, who wrote the book this film was based on. The cover of the French version of that book, entitled 'Jeux des Mains', is prominently displayed when he pulls down the book.

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Connections

Version of Innocent Victim (1989)

User Reviews

Leaves you wanting to find out more

Sometimes the hardest things are so simple. A lost child is surely irreplaceable, isn't it? Well, that depends on how unconventional you're prepared to be. And if you've got no money but you're left looking after your sugar mommy's house, how to make ends meet? Depends how good a con artist you are. And if your mother presents you with a horribly unwanted gift which you can't return without getting you or her into deep, deep trouble? Maybe it will grow on you. Point of view is everything.

Three people with three problems. But that's just scratching the surface. Mothers, daughters, lovers, husbands, doctors, policemen, smugglers: all of life is here.

Adapted from Ruth Rendell's book "The Tree Of Hands", this French film presents lives less as part of a tree and more as a spider's web. A little tug here leaves a permanent distortion over there and a gap on the far side. Rarely can cinema have produced such a dramatic, amusing yet tense demonstration of the old saw "No man is an island" (though since most of the central protagonists here are female, the well-meaning but philologically-challenged PC lobby might wish for a slight re-phrasing).

With all these "Other Stories" around, there are two obvious potential pitfalls. Switch from story to story too quickly and you just confuse your audience; do it too slowly and they might fail to see the connections. Fortunately this film strikes the perfect balance; admittedly it does this by sacrificing a certain depth of character in some cases, but this simply leaves us wishing this were merely the first installment of a trilogy, or rather, chronologically speaking, the second. It would be interesting to find out how these characters got to where they are now, and, given the way that their actions have such dramatic effects on each others' lives, equally interesting to see how that spider's web changes shape in the future. Given that Betty Fisher herself ends the film about to start a completely new life, anything could happen. 8/10.