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Look at Me
The Film:
Directed and written by real-life partners Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri Look at Me (Comme Une Image) is a perfect example of why French and Hollywood cinema have little in common, if at all.
Lolita (Marilou Berry) is a twenty years old, visibly overweight, girl who aspires to become an opera singer. Unfortunately her father and famous writer Etienne Cassard (Jean-Pierre Bacri) has little interest in his daughters' aspirations and prefers being left alone working on his books. When he is not consumed by his career Etienne shows more interest in his much younger wife. However, both his personal life and career prove to be too demanding and stressful for Etienne and he visibly struggles to maintain that delicate yet often elusive balance that would keep them in tact. He is an egoist.
Lolita's singing teacher, Sylvia (Agnes Jaoui) is equally swamped with problems that have raised a red flag in a relationship that more and more resembles a poorly made for TV soap opera. On a positive side her husband's meager attempts to become a successful writer after years of lackluster press reviews have finally delivered the needed result. His latest book is praised by the critics in Paris.
With the exception of Etienne all of the main characters in Comme Une Image undergo some sort of a positive transformation that changes their personalities for the better. They grow a bit wiser, they manage to relate to other people and their daily struggles, they also seem to be delicate enough when emotions are running high. For Etienne, however, life has a whole different meaning and forgiveness, tact, and compassion are not necessarily a part of it.
Comme Une Image relies on a number of clichés often seen in films that deal with the subject of family dysfunction, yet everything in it feels razor-sharp and fresh. In addition, none of the main characters appear faultless as they all struggle to overcome the stigma of social ineptitude. From Sylvia's unwillingness to commit and Lolita's struggle with the way she looks, to Etienne's intimidating mannerisms, everyone seems to be fighting a personal issue that has affected their lives in a negative way.
Characters such as Etienne are hardly a rarity. Over-confident, offensive, and ready to pay for whatever they can not otherwise acquire the likes of Etienne are dismissive even of their own kin. Interestingly enough when taken out of their shell they all appear weak, disorganized, and surprisingly innocuous. For example when Etienne's wife decides to leave after a pointless quarrel we see him crying and struggling to recollect his emotions. Only so we could moments later witness his abusive behavior and sarcastic remarks directed at his daughter's physical appearance.
Given the complex yet delicate transformation that each character in Comme Une Image undergoes this film is a tremendous success. The extreme range of emotions that each actor showcases is impressive. And that is exactly what separates this witty French social comedy from most of the films that Hollywood produces. Comme Une Image is not your typical politically correct picture where everything comes to a logical conclusion. The social meanness which the film delivers is unprecedented as it challenges pretty much every sensitive social status quo you might think of.
Marilou Berry is without a doubt the perfect cast for the role of Lolita. Her self-destructive criticism, passion to outgrow even her own father, and above all inspiring range of emotions elevates Comme Une Image to another level. Couple that with Jean-Pierre Bacri's cold perfectionism and you have a film that stands out among everything else being produced nowadays by delivering a deadly strike to conventionalism in modern cinema.
How Does the DVD Look? How Does the Disc Sound? Extras: The Making of Look at Me- Deleted Scenes (8 scenes)- Previews (Bon Voyage, The Triplets of Belleville)- Final Thoughts:
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