Words in Blue
BERLIN -- "Words in Blue" (Les Mots Bleus), a film by French veteran Alain Corneau that is screening in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, is both precious and pretentious, wanting to examine a world where fear and alienation lead to isolation. But it never truly penetrates that world. The premise about a family that literally can't communicate and a teacher who strives to reach out to them is a valid one, but Corneau offers only the slightest hints as to what has damaged his characters psychologically.
Corneau's auteur status ensures distribution in French and other European territories, but elsewhere this is simply festival fare.
Six-year-old Anna (Camille Gauthier) refuses to speak. Her mother Clara (Sylvie Testud) refuses to learn how to read or write. Things are so bad that Clara is forced to pull her daughter from a normal school so that Anna May attend a school for deaf and mute children. Here, a handsome and caring teacher, Vincent (Sergi Lopez), takes it upon himself to teach both mother and daughter. It doesn't hurt that he has the hots for mom.
Corneau's adaptation of Dominique Mainard's novel (with an assist from the novelist) fails to offer up a convincing back story so one might understand what caused such broken psyches. Clara's grandfather was killed by the Nazis and her grandmother suffered a stroke so that, as Clara puts it, "words failed her." A troubled romance produced Anna, but this was after her decision to eschew literacy. Not much to go by.
Although the premise is intriguing, one grows frustrated with the metaphorical approach to a story rooted in reality. The performances are fine, especially young Gauthier, who has only her beautiful eyes to express a wealth of emotions. But the final third of the film disappears into a cloud of absurd emotionalism.
Tech credits are adequate.
Corneau's auteur status ensures distribution in French and other European territories, but elsewhere this is simply festival fare.
Six-year-old Anna (Camille Gauthier) refuses to speak. Her mother Clara (Sylvie Testud) refuses to learn how to read or write. Things are so bad that Clara is forced to pull her daughter from a normal school so that Anna May attend a school for deaf and mute children. Here, a handsome and caring teacher, Vincent (Sergi Lopez), takes it upon himself to teach both mother and daughter. It doesn't hurt that he has the hots for mom.
Corneau's adaptation of Dominique Mainard's novel (with an assist from the novelist) fails to offer up a convincing back story so one might understand what caused such broken psyches. Clara's grandfather was killed by the Nazis and her grandmother suffered a stroke so that, as Clara puts it, "words failed her." A troubled romance produced Anna, but this was after her decision to eschew literacy. Not much to go by.
Although the premise is intriguing, one grows frustrated with the metaphorical approach to a story rooted in reality. The performances are fine, especially young Gauthier, who has only her beautiful eyes to express a wealth of emotions. But the final third of the film disappears into a cloud of absurd emotionalism.
Tech credits are adequate.
- 2/16/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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