17 fois Cécile Cassard (2002)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Christophe Honoré

Writer:

Christophe Honoré (scenario)

Release Date:

10 July 2002 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A portrait of a woman, composed of 17 moments from her life. |

Cast

Béatrice Dalle	...	Cécile Cassard
Romain Duris	...	Matthieu
Jeanne Balibar	...	Edith
Ange Ruzé	...	Erwan
Johan Oderio-Robles	...	Lucas
Tiago Manaïa	...	Tiago
Jérôme Kircher	...	Thierry
Julien Collet	...	Stéphane
Jérémy Sanguinetti	...	Julien
Marie Bunel	...	L'institutrice
Fabio Zenoni	...	L'homme du porche
Robert Cantarella	...	L'homme du cimetière
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Assaad Bouab	...	Le serveur
Lisa Lacroix	...	Natacha
Marie Laudes Emond	...	La boulangère
Pierre Mignard	...	Léo

Also Known As:

Dix-sept fois Cécile Cassard (France) (alternative spelling)
Seventeen Times Cecile Cassard (International: English title)

Runtime:

105 min (Cannes Film Festival)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Hong Kong:III | Singapore:R21

Filming Locations:

Amboise, Indre-et-Loire, France

Company:

ARP Sélection

Movie Connections:

References Lola (1961)

Soundtrack:

Lola

Rather boring, but two wonderful scenes worth seeing

After the death of her husband, Cecile Cassard (Beatrice Dalle) seems unable to cope with her everyday life and fears to be harmful for her young son. She settles down in another town (Toulouse) while the little boy is raised by a woman friend of Cecile. The movie shows "moments" (17, hence the title) in her life. Scene after scene, as she goes along, she comes back to life.

The movie is slow paced, too slow most of the time, and relies on moods created by colors, sets and anecdotes chosen by French director Christophe Honore. The overall atmosphere is rather dark with some touches of bright colors. Dialogue is poor.

Beatrice Dalle, once a sex symbol (37.2 Degrees in the Morning - 1986), was disappointing in her acting and her look didn't help. She was boring to watch and she had a lot of screen time.

Two wonderful scenes were worth seeing though: they were both infused with the talent of Romain Duris, who stole the show each time. The first one was the Merry Christmas scene, when Matthieu (Romain Duris) shows up at Cecile Cassard's new home and offers her to make three wishes; the second one was when he sang "Lola" at the picnic party. Cinematography was absolutely beautiful and Romain Duris so mesmerizing. (5/10).