17 fois Cécile Cassard (2002)

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:

Pretty Killer

a work of beauty

a portrait of a woman in 17 fragments, a woman who has just lost her husband, a woman who leaves behind her a life in the provincial city of Tours where every person, every object and every gesture holds memory of a love she cannot bear to have lost, a woman who proceeds forward, a bit blindly, as she essays to remove a great distance that has between her and her heart, which has become, in her mind, an unsafe place. beatrice dalle incarnates this woman, cecile cassard, giving a beautiful performance worthy of recompensation. perhaps even the cesar for best performance for this year. she doesn't merely act well, she inhabits this woman: dalle doesn't lie when she tells us, as she often does, that she lives a character while she is making a film.

the director, christophe honore, not forgetting that it is he who illicits dalle's wonderful performance, demonstrates a masterful command of visual storytelling in remembering that, in film, pictures have a more important weight than words in advancing a narrative story-line. much is heard in the french press and on television that this is an experimental film, a film without a linear narrative. no, in fact, the film is a conventional narrative at heart for it follows a linear journey of a woman as she strives to refind herself. and it is a beautiful story, mixing pain and loss with laughter and love. i look forward to more films by him in the future.

also of note is a good soundtrack by alex beaupain and les lily-margot and the beautiful cinematography by remy chevrin: they achieve a perfect symbiosis, such as in the opening sequence, the scenes at the abatoir-factory in Toulouse, and the dancing scene between dalle & romain duris, who plays the director's alter-ego of sorts, in the hotel where cecile first stays in Toulouse.