Toutes ces belles promesses

Really a two-hander, and two-handkerchiefer, between two women. The tense young Marianne has much to resolve over her childhood, the loss of her parents, and her inability to retain a worthwhile man. The mature Béatrice, her father's mistress, has achieved serenity and may have enjoyed it all along. The two actresses inhabit their roles perfectly. Jeanne Balibar, quirky, nervy, and needy under short dark hair, plays a talented misfit who may never achieve stable partnerships. Bulle Ogier, as a relic of the sixties with straight blonde hair and a very silly hat, has the human warmth and wisdom we would all like to share. With sly humour, lessons in life are quietly imparted.

Director Civeyrac's film is a rather cerebral affair. The heroine, beautifully played by Jeanne Balibar, travels to meet her dead father's mistress (Bulle Ogier) who helps her to choose freedom over love and passion. (No wonder this film has

failed to find a distributer in France!) Flashbacks are used to good effect, usually with a window or mirror as point of entry. He should get an award for 'Best use of Hats': I found the idea of desire passing from one person to another by means of a hat really effective. The film is slow, beautiful and quite without the slightest trace of humour.

Every french director would like to be the next Eric Rohmer, but most don't live up to that standard ... this is no exception. The movie completely misses the right ruthm and the purity of rohmer's movies. The dialogue-driven plot gets interrupted way to eften by dreary flashbacks that keep dragging the film down. It's not really bad, but it's of no significance at all.

I saw Toutes ces belles promesses on the Filmfestival in Ghent, and it was a welcome surprise for starting the day with. French movies are very important for the European movie-scene and Toutes ces belles promesses is a movie to be captured. The story involves a young woman, traveling to an elder women and places from her (and her dead parent's) past, after breaking up with her friend and discovering that her father had an affair with that women. During these actions all kinds of memories come up and she talks about it. Females are the central figures in this picture, so we are constantly shown what kind of emotions the main characters go through, how they feel about their lives and relationships. The whole story has been told already for several times in other ways, but the acting en direction makes it all interesting and beautiful. I would have liked it to be more compelling, but the honesty of of tout ces belles promesses was more important to me. I gave it 8/10