 | Two good reasons to see La Vie Promise.
rating: 4
Olivier Dahan's La Vie Promise is a melancholy French drama that tells the story of a Nice prostitute, Sylvia (Isabelle Huppert), on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who attempts to escape her dysfunctional life by reconnecting with her estranged, 14-year-old daughter, Laurence (Maud Forget), and the husband, Piotr, and son living in Viale she abandoned eight years earlier. Along the way, Sylvia and Laurence are befriended by Joshua (Pascal Greggory), a car thief and ex-con, who becomes their silent-knight-in-shining-armour-saviour-figure. There are two good reasons to see this film:
1. Huppert's fascinating performance as a middle-aged, badly-bleached-blond, stuck-in-the-80s, emotionally-damaged, tattooed, pill-popping whore. It is hard to believe this stunning actress has never been nominated for an Oscar. With a touch of warmth, Huppert brings one of her finest performances to this film.
2. Maud Forget, as Sylvia's 14-year-old epileptic daughter, who has lived a life deprived of maternal love.
Although the film ends on a promising note, it travels through existential Hell to get there.
G. Merritt
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Complicated tale of three lost souls searching for a promise
rating: 5
Isabelle Huppert plays the out of luck prostitute, Sylvia, who had suffered an emotional breakdown and did not want to get involved in anyone's life, not even that of her daughter, husband and son. She blatantly rejected her 14 year old daughter Laurence (Maud Forget), but is forced to take her on the run when Laurence kills a pimp who was beating her up. Along the way, Sylvia says some hurtful things causing Laurence to run off, then she regrets it and wishes Laurence were back. She sets off to find her husband Piotr, egged on by hope that he'll have her back and rescue her from her circumstances. As she stumbles across fields and down country roads, she has flashbacks of a happier time, and returns to the mental institution to find out about herself and regain her memory.
By a set of coincidences both Sylvia and Laurence hitchhike with an escaped car thief Joshua (Pascal Greggory) who attempts to reunite them and help them find Sylvia's husband and 8 year old son. The threesome bond emotionally, as each is running away from something, and running towards some unknown hope, some promise for a better life. The reunion wasn't what Sylvia hoped for, and as she gazes at her young son from behind the trees you can't help but feel for her and what she had lost. Yet during this time, she found that she did care about Laurence and was rewarded with Laurence telling her that she loved her. Joshua treats them like family, and at the end the three head off crossing the border into Germany and into the great unknown. Sylvia writes a letter to her 8 year old son explaining her wish that someday they'll be a real family again.
As with French films, there is a complexity and exploration of the characters' psyche that is not present in American films. There is an uncertainty, no trite resolution, and a continual flow that leaves you wondering what happens to the characters after the film is over. Perhaps it is best described as Sylvia's grandmother tells her, that life is like a ghost river. You don't remember most of it, and where it flows you don't know, but it is there, the past an undercurrent to where you are for the moment, and the future as uncertain as the past.
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Isabelle Huppert: An Amazingly Fine Actress in a Glowing Role
rating: 5
LA VIE PROMISE is one of those films that begs multiple viewings: the cinematography is truly an art form here, the story though incredibly well told (written by director/ co-author Olivier Dahan with Agnès Fustier-Dahan) requires integration of the viewer's thinking to capture the interstices of understated depth of the tale, an the acting of Isabelle Huppert is simply one of the finest moment on film. Rave review? Yes, and well deserved!
Sylvia (Huppert, who has never been more beautiful before the camera) is a prostitute with an edge in Nice: she accepts her profession but acts with the elements of a seasoned streetwalker, always fully in charge of any situation. She is a woman with a past. She was once married to Piotr (Andre Marcon) in northern France (Viale) but had a nervous breakdown eight years ago concurrent with the birth of her son, the apparent reason for her fleeing to Nice. Now her teenage epileptic daughter Laurence (Maud Forget) appears, having been scattered through foster homes because her mother doesn't want her around, and Sylvia once again throws her out. But Laurence is hiding in Sylvia's flat when her pimp visits demanding money, and Laurence kills him. The mother and daughter then flee Nice afraid of the murder consequences and travel toward northern France by walking hitchhiking, bus - any means possible to avoid the police. Sylvia has decided to search for her eight-year old son and for Piotr, hoping they may afford them protection. Along the way they meet Joshua (Pascal Greggory), an escaped convict who befriends them and encourages the growing bond between mother and daughter and eventually provides their arrival at their destination. The concluding moments of the story are the stuff of great drama and should not be revealed to the viewer.
Throughout the film the integration of art photography and music enhances the mood of the story: Bach, Mendelssohn, Debussy and mixed with contemporary American blues and the mixture deserves a CD release. But the overriding star of this entire production is the radiant Isabelle Huppert, one of our finest actresses of today, in a role that, though nearly impossible to make credible, in Huppert's hands becomes a woman whose damaged psyche becomes permanently imprinted on our memories. It is a tour de force of acting of the highest caliber. Highly Recommended to lovers of Art Films. Grady Harp, July 06
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Beautiful
rating: 4
Isabelle Huppert shows once again what a marvelous actress she is! Her face is like a chameleon, how she can convey emotion silently as well as when she speaks. The 3 main characters in the movie all moved me. It was well directed in how these 3 people became involved in each other's plight. They all had someplace to run from and they all needed some foundation. I loved the ending and I am glad that this movie demonstrated that no matter how bad your life may be, when you truly desire to change it...it will change. I have to buy this one!
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Pretty good emotional drama; too much plot for an art film
rating: 3
This French film, called something else when released in that country, revolves around a prostitute that takes off with her teenage daughter to seek a reunion with her husband and the 8-year-old child they bore together. The pair then engage in an embroiled trip across France where they meet interesting people, managed to elude cops and others that get in their way, and elope into an emotional world of the current day, old and failed past events, and hope for the future.
While this sounds like it has all the trappings of both a Hollywood melodrama and a movie of the week, this film is far better than either of those prospects, mostly because of the fine acting by all the principals. Those principals revolve around French beauty and actress Isabelle Huppert, who plays the prostitute-mother.
The plot, which is too substantial for this to be considered an art film (which it mimics with its regular cutaways to quiet daydream sequences), has a plot with too much in it that could never happen.
Huppert and her daughter (who is a criminal) first escape her daughter's problem, then run around the French countryside like they are on vacation, staying at nice places, and meeting nice people. They fight, separate, are reunited and run into an escaped convict who drives nice cars, has a heart of gold, and apparently has lots of money to buy them clothes and support their travel stays. He eventually takes them to meet the hooker's husband.
What is most effective in this film are the interrelationships between the characters -- especially the mother and teenage daughter -- and the emotions these interactions generate. I felt authentic pathos for this couple during their journey, which was all the time fated to end either negatively or tragically. It really ends neither way but also can't be counted as a "good" ending.
The film is beautifully composed, well written (other than the contrived plot devices) and is very, very personal and emotional. People that want to escape into the lives of people down on their luck and looking for a prospect can buy, rent or borrow this film and get 100 percent return on their investment.
It is, in my opinion, a movie that delivers its promise and provides a lot of beauty during an hour and a half. It is not a great film, nor an art film, although it could have been both with a better plot. But it stands well on its own and is worth your time if you like this kind of thing.
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