HAFSIA HERZI, ISABELLE HUPPERT

PATRICIA MAZUY: VISITING HOURS/LA PRISONNIÈRE DE BORDEAUX (2024) - R-V

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This somewhat oddball film should probably be discussed in relation to André Téchiné's recent Les gens d'à coté/My new Friends, which came out a liitle before Visiting Hours, in which Hafsia Herzi and Isabelle Huppert are also cast as an odd pair of friends, as here. In Téchiné's film, Herzi is part of an anti-police couple who move in next to Huppert, who is a bereaved policewoman, though she hides this from her new neighbors. But I have not seen this , wihch was less well received (AlloCine 3.1: 2.6 vs. 3.3: 2.8) but might cast more light on the pairing of. the two actors.

La Prisonnière de Bordeaux is interestin, and odd, and features two great actresses, if it's not wholly successful. It's a drama of class rather than ideology as Téchiné's appparently is. It resolves itself less successfully when it turns to a genre outcome, becoming a somewhat tongue in cheek crime thriller that concudes in a way that neutralizes the dangers. Nobody gets hurt; but also various strands of the tale remain loose and unresolved, as if the scenarists were in too much of a hurry to finish things up.

Alma Lund (Huppert) and Mina Hirti (Herzi) meet as wives visiting men in the same prison - with this world nicely fleshed out for us. Alma is attracted to Mina's passion when she protests at being denied a visit because because she isn’t on the schedule due to a clerical error, and can'tthe next day as requested because school kids and a long commute make returning next day impossible. This establishes a pattern, because Alma has time on her hands and finds in Mina an excitement and warmth she lacks in her own life. Huppert is superb as the bored, spoiled woman. It's a variation on many roles she has played before yet still an immensely watchable performance.

The husbands' different crimes define their class. That of Nasser (Lionel Dray) is "bijouterie," jewelry - not making it, stealing it. Christopher Lund was driving drunk with his mistress and committed a terrible hit and run accident that permanently disabled one person and killed another. He is, or was, a brain surgeon. Alma lives in a chateau in the grand provincial style. It's near the prison. Alma, attracted, offers to let Mina stay with her to avoid a three-hour trip from far-off Narbonne, where she lives and then engineers a greater connection. She also finds her a job. She worked at a dry cleaners. Now thanks to Alma she begins working (perhaps more comfortably?) at the laundry of the brain surgeon's former clinic.

Mina brings her two children, and the glib and privileged Alma talks their way into the local school in the middle of the session. The trouble for Mina is her husband's partner in crime Yacine (William Edimo), for whom Nasser took the fall, who thinks he's been cheated out of part of the haul and sees Mina's departure as a way of totally screwing him. He needs to be placated.

Memorable scenes simply show Mina and Alma sipping wine at the chateau, while Mina airs her more realistic view of life and Alma reveals an eccentric wit that has developed in a world of privilege. As Tim Grierson argues in his [url="https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/visiting-hours-cannes-review/5193494.article#wrapper_sleeve"]Screen Daily[/url] Cannes review, Mina accepts the relationship even though she may feel treated as a "charity case," Alma's "fix-it project," but "there is a level of mystery surrounding how much genuine affection there is between the women — or if each character sees in the other merely a means to an end."

The plot twist comes with an obvious giveaway scene that may make us wonder just how stupid Alma is (just what she says later to Mina) - or whether she is taking a wild risk out of such desperate boredom she is ready to throw her life away. As a French Letterboxd comment (from Antoine Devynck) says, "the scenario is well written" and the main characters are "well developed" thanks especially to the two "exceptional actresses," but "the only problem is in an excess of plot lines that remain unresolved at the end of the film," particularly with regard to the imminent early release of Christopher from his already privilege-based short sentence and that matter of missing loot from the jewelry heist and the angry accomplice. It's also been noted that the tone of this film is surprisingly mild compared to the bracingly harsh outcomes in Mazuy's haunting and dark previous film, [url="https://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5121"]Saturn Bowling[/url] (R-V 2022). Still, the two brilliant performers with Mazuy's help leave us with some memorable moments and an odd sense of the frangibility of lives while avoiding any conventional moralizing. Mazuy is an original.

Thomas Fouet wrote of this film inLes Fiches du Cinéma: "Convincing in her observation of a relationship transcending class, Patricia Mazuy is more hasty in her borrowings from genre films."

Visiting Hours/La prisonnière de Bordeaux, 112 mins., debuted at Cannes Directors' Fortnight May 18, 2024, also showing in São Paulo, Netherlands and the Viennale fests. French theatrical release was Aug. 28, 2024, with subsequent [url="https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=294404.html"]AlloCiné[/url] ratings of 3.3 press and 2.8 spectators (66%, 56%). It was screened for this review as part of the 2025 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, NY. Showing:
Saturday, March 8 at 3:00pm – Q&A with Patricia Mazuy
Monday, March 10 at 8:30pm

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