ADÈLE HAEMEL AND GUILLAUME CANET, IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER

A crooked business takeover and a murder, ceremonially reenacted

André Téchiné is a grand director who makes grand films and American critics seem to cut him some slack even when recent efforts have failed to achieve what he did at his best in films like I Don't Kiss, My Favorite Season, Wild Reeds, or the wonderful Les Voleurs. And as recently as The Witnesses, about the AIDS crisis, he has made a film that matters. This one, based on real event of the 1970's (and on the memoir, Une femme face à la Mafia by Renée Le Roux and her son Jean-Charles Le Roux), fails to move. It has the glitter and sunshine of a Riviera casino, the Palais de la Méditerranée. It has a regal Catherine Deneuve as Renée Le Roux, the casino's owner, Adèle Haenel as Agnès Le Roux, her headstrong daughter, and Guillaume Canet as Maurice Agnelet, the odd, questionable lawyer. Slow destruction of wealth and order: Agnelet first steals Agnès' heart, then her money. He destroys the casino by by turning it over to an Italian mobster, Fratoni (Jean Corso, a nobody). Fratoni completes a hostile takeover of all the casinos. Whereupon Agnelet moves to Panama and Agnès disappears permanently. All this surely is material for an exciting graft and gangster film. But the excitement is off-screen. And as Téchiné presents it, none of it seems to matter.

Everything in In the Name of My Daughter (bad English title in place of a somewhat pointless French one, L'Homme qu'on aimait trop, The Man Who was Loved Too much) is presented by Téchiné in a way that is full-on haute bourgeoisie French traditional cinema. And in general, despite Haenel's edge (and a wild African drum dance), it feels consistently more ceremonial than fresh and dramatic. Everything comes across as cold and bloodless, even when emotions are high and tears are shed. That generic quality Canet has, which made him so effectively creepy as the gendarme serial killer in the recent Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart (also R-V 2015), here just leaves a blank space. There is zero chemistry between him and Haenel, so her suicidal passion for him is inexplicable (and reading from her diary doesn't help make her telegraphed-in emotions seem any more real). It makes sense that Peter Debruge in his Variety review calls this film "a waxworks re-creation of the Nice casino wars." The thirty-years-later segment at the end fails to move us. Again Canet, as Agnelet, is stifff. The always-elegant Deneuve's hair has gone dark gray replacing the earlier satin white, which makes no sense. The aging makeup on both only adds to the general waxworks effect. Renée's decades of deprivation and suffering are only summarized and seen from a distance and carry no emotional punch.

There are a few early scenes between Canet and Haenel, before their relationship has become unconvincing, when Haenel's aggressiveness strikes sparks even off him a bit. Later, when the casino is being dismantled and Renée is losing everything, there's a good scene or two between her and her loyal chauffeur. Téchiné has carried over the Italian actor Mauro Conte from his previous Unforgivable, where he had a more important role as Jérémie. Now he is Mario, the loyal chauffeur, and there's a vivid, curiously touching moment where Mario drives Renée home in her Mercedes sitting next to him and they sing an Italian pop song together. He then has lunch with her and they converse in Italian: again surprising, off-program, therefore memorable. We know Téchiné is capable of a whole film of moments like this, but he has become involved in this inexplicable project that allows hardly any breathing room.

In the Name of My Daughter/L'Homme qu'on aimait trop, 116 mins., debuted at Cannes out of competition; ten or twelve other festival showings. French theatrical release 16 July 2014, to mediocre reviews (AlloCiné press rating 3.1; but Unforgivable's was worse, 2.6). Screened for this review as part of the March 2015 FSLC-UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, March 2015, showing at Lincoln Center and IFC. US release coming by Cohen Media Group began 8 May 2015; Landmark Cinemas Northern California 22 May.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.