Partir (2009)

Director:

Catherine Corsini

Writers:

Catherine Corsini (screenplay)
Gaëlle Macé (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 August 2009 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Suzanne is a well to do married woman and mother in the south of France. Her idle bourgeois lifestyle...

Plot Keywords:

Infidelity | Male Nudity | Arrest | Sex Scene | Adultery

Cast

Kristin Scott Thomas	...	Suzanne
Sergi López	...	Ivan
Yvan Attal	...	Samuel
Bernard Blancan	...	Rémi
Aladin Reibel	...	Dubreuil
Alexandre Vidal	...	David
Daisy Broom	...	Marion
Berta Esquirol	...	Berta
Gérard Lartigau	...	Lagache
Geneviève Casile	...	La mère de Samuel
Philippe Laudenbach	...	Le père de Samuel
Michèle Ernou	...	Mme Aubouy
Jonathan Cohen	...	Le banquier
Hélène Babu	...	Dorothée
Sali Cervià	...	La fille de la station-service

Also Known As:

Leaving (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:85 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

UK:15

Company:

Pyramide Productions

Give love it's due, or else!

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I saw this at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and I can say now, even with half the festival still to go, this will be the best film I'll see. In fact, I think it could be my favourite film all year

Kristin Scott Thomas plays a well-to-do-wife, Suzanne, with a happy home life who falls in love with a handyman, Ivan, and gives up everything for him. It's the quality of the movie that makes it outstanding. This is a movie without a single clichéd or false emotion.

There's a scene where Suzanne is with her lover, I think the first time, but she has been with him too long and needs to return home to her family. She says, "I think you'll have to order me to leave." He then, half-jokingly, says, "Leave." I'm no expert on acting, but as a viewer I knew exactly what Suzanne was thinking at that moment. I could see that it hurt her to hear him telling her to leave, even in jest. And then she suddenly realizes, at that moment, that the reason it hurt was that she was in love with him. I'm sure I saw all this in Ms. Thomas' face and that has to be great acting.

But the entire movie felt absolutely real. The husband acted typically possessive, but in the case of this movie, it wasn't exaggerated for effect and I even felt some sympathy for him. The husband's lawyer confesses discomfort at how the husband wants to proceed against her and says, "She's my friend too." You wouldn't hear a lawyer say that in any Hollywood movie. Even the love scenes, which were still sexy, but were realistic.

More importantly, Suzanne's obsession isn't handled in any typical, clichéd manner. You're never entirely certain if she's in love or just in lust. You're never entirely sure if she's not just in the middle of a mid-life crisis and slightly unstable. I think the movie is saying that it doesn't really matter.

Catherine Corsini directed and wrote the movie. A male director, like the doomed husband in the movie, might not have understood that love is love, regardless of the cause.