FRANCE: L'enfer. 2005

Director: Danis Tanovic
Stars: Emmanuelle Béart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain, Carole Bouquet, Guillaume Canet.
Release date: France - 30 Nov 2005.
Length: 95 mins

Bosnian born director Tanovic made the much debated about film, No Man's Land. It had some great moments, but one of the most interesting things to come out of it was discussion about the stupidity of war driven by ancient ethnic rivalry. He seems like a director who wants to say many things with his films, though with this new film he appears to get more personal with realtionship issues than his more politically toned previous film. This new film was written by the late Polish director Krzystof Kieslowski (Three Colours:Red, White, Blue) & is the 2nd of an eventual (?) trilogy. The 1st film Heaven was by German director Tom Twyker (Run Lola Run) & starred Cate Blanchett. Want to know what's wierd? Emanuelle Beart was previously in another film with the same name in 1994.

I seriously thought this film would be a shoe-in for this years French Film Festival. I can't see it on the list as yet.

Synopsis
In Paris, during the eighties, a man freed from prison is rejected by his wife. At the end of his rope, he beats her up and then throws himself out the window in front of his three daughters. Sophie, Céline and Anne, the three sisters, are now adult, each pursuing their own life. Family ties have been severed. Sophie, the eldest, is married to Pierre, a photographer with whom she’s had two children. The couple is going through a rocky patch. Céline, single, is the only one who takes care of their feeble mother who is in a retirement home. Anne, an architecture student, is having a passionate love affair with Frédéric, one of her teachers. A young man enters Céline’s life. Attractive Sébastien seems determined to charm her. What he reveals to Céline brings the three sisters together again, allows them to accept their past and to perhaps at last dare to truly live.

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