Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 9:25 pm 
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FABIENNE GODET: LIFELINES/SI DEMAIN (2020) - RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2021

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LUCIE DEBAY, JULIE MOULIER IN LIFELINES

In search of lost time

When we meet the protagonist, Esther (Julie Moulier, who also appeared in Fabienne Godet's 2013 and 2018 features) has been drinking for ten days and winds up in the hospital because she can't deal with being dumped by her boyfriend. Then she receives a journal, source unknown, about an 18-year-old devastated when she survived a motorcycle accident her boyfriend died in.

This meditative road picture takes us along with Esther as she forgets her sorrow by trying to track down what happened to this young woman, who apparently ran off and may be traceable to Toulouse. Moulier has a funky, soulful quality; her face looks lived-in, perhaps a drinker's face, though she turns out to be trim and energetic. Esther leaves behind her best friend, Elena (Lucie Debay), even though Elena's cancer has come back. Elena insists she feels fine and she wants Esther to track down this story. Moulier's lived-in quality makes her relatable. If you go with the flow, this is a watchable picture. It takes us to Spain and then to Lisbon, where there is a little girl called Antonietta who goes to the French school and, eventually, the name of the lost girl and her identity is revealed.

Esther is a translator who wanted to be a writer. When she winds up in Spain she speaks fluent Spanish. She also has a stoicism that she needs when a handsome young hitchhiker she was traveling to Spain with doesn't show up the next morning and then her car dies on a remote road and her bag disappears later when she's begun hitchhiking. The handsome young man is played by Arnaux Valois, also the love interest in another Rendez-Vous '21 film, Susanne Lindon's Spring Blossom.

You may guess the surprise ending before it comes, and before that this bracing journey may start to feel futile. But as a place-marker, and thanks to Moulier, and Godet's dp Marie Celette (also the dp for the 2018 film) and surroundings that don't feel conventional, Lifeline has a certain offbeat appeal.

Lifelinea/Si demain, 85 mins., debuted at the Arras Film Festival Nov. 2020. It was screened at home for this review as part of the all virtual Mar. 2021 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. It is unreleased.

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