Voleur de vie (1998)

Alda, her sister Olga, and the latter's daughter Sigga live together in an old house facing a cemetery by the sea. Self-assured Alda collects men; Olga shuns them, but cannot help following... See full summary »

Director:

Yves Angelo

Writers:

Yves Angelo, Nancy Huston

Stars:

Emmanuelle Béart, Sandrine Bonnaire, André Dussollier

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Emmanuelle Béart	...	Alda
Sandrine Bonnaire	...	Olga
André Dussollier	...	Jakob
Vahina Giocante	...	Sigga
Eric Ruf	...	Yann
André Marcon	...	Steindor
Bulle Ogier	...	Dame cimetière
François Chattot	...	Le père
Rudi Rosenberg	...	Peter
Nathalie Richard	...	La femme de Yann
Françoise Le Treut	...	La laborantine
Geneviève Robin-Treguer	...	Femme de Steindor
Julien Simon	...	Le recteur
Erika Vandelet	...	Professeur blonde
Émile Morel	...	L'élève de Beckett

Storyline

Alda, her sister Olga, and the latter's daughter Sigga live together in an old house facing a cemetery by the sea. Self-assured Alda collects men; Olga shuns them, but cannot help following the activities of Alda (who receives her lovers in the sisters' house) with some envy. In their own way, both women refuse any emotional ties with other people, while keeping a strange attachment to their family's past, their deceased parents, and a third, deceased, sister. Will they, and will Sigga, be able to escape that environment imbued by the presence of death and find their way to a true life ?

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Plot Keywords:

sister | f rated | based on novel | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

9 September 1998 (France)

Also Known As:

Kvinnorna från Bretagne

Company Credits

Production Co:

Film Par Film,France 3 Cinéma,TPS Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

User Reviews

Comes close to pure cliche

Ultimately, the movie seems to lack ambition - coming close to the kind of cliched French movie that's ridiculed for consisting mainly of a lot of musing in attractive settings, but that ultimately fails to deliver anything new (apart maybe from the slightly Gothic setting of the old house overlooking the cemetery) or insightful. The structure involves a dead sister whose birthday is celebrated on Beart's own (and who shares the same name); one surviving sister who is self-servingly promiscuous and another who verges on being a recluse (but who had a child at sixteen, entailing that perhaps her passion was spent thereafter, leaving only the possibility of an early death) and the teenage daughter whose outlook is forged by a synthesis of these two role models - there are plenty of vague ideas there about influences and parallels and transference (Beart having stolen perhaps not only the dead girl's life but also much of Bonnaire's, and that of the teacher who kills himself near the start after she rejects him, and bits and pieces of her lovers') but it never coalesces into anything worthwhile. The would-be brooding elegant restrained tone serves only to keep it at arm's length.