By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Starring: Delphine Chuillot | Ethan Hawke | Joanna Kulig | Kristin Scott Thomas | Samir Guesmi
Original language title: La femme du Vème
Country: france, poland, united_kingdom
Year: 2012
Running time: 84
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605777/
Bruce says: “It has been seven years since MY SUMMER OF LOVE, so to say the THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH was eagerly anticipated is an understatement. Although an entirely different type of film, comparisons to MIDNIGHT IN PARIS are inevitable. Both are about American writers in Paris and both involve fantasy: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, the fanciful sort; THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH, the Kafkaesque type.
“Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke) arrives in Paris in search of his daughter Chloé (Julie Papillon). When he finally finds her we begin to gather clues about his past. He committed an unpardonable act which caused his wife (Delphine Chuillot) to flee from the US to France, taking her daughter with her. Details do not accumulate in large quantity in THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH so the viewer must be alert as important information is passed along piecemeal.
“His wife wants Tom to disappear. But Tom has nowhere to go. He gets drunk, gets rolled and ends up with no money in a very threatening arrondissement. He checks in to a hotel where Sezer (Samir Guesmi) the owner takes his passport and refuses to return it unless Tom pays his bill. To earn money Sezer talks Tom into being a night watchman in a strange underground warehouse where mysterious things are going on. His main job is sit in front of a videocam and buzz people in by using
special codes. In the Bar au Coin beneath the hotel he becomes friendly with Ania (Joanna Kulig), the Polish waitress who unbeknown to Tom is the owner’s girlfriend. A feud over cleanliness in the toilet with his next door neighbor gets Tom in very hot water.
“One day Tom is browsing in an English bookstore and he gets invited to a literary party. There he meets Margit (Kirsten Scott Thomas) an enigmatic widow who seduces him when he arrives at her apartment in the fifth arrondissement. Whenever Tom has free time he spies on his daughter from afar. Soon things go very bad when Sezer frames Tom for murder, a horrible truth emerges about Margit, and Chloé disappears.
“THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH lacks the focus necessary to determine exactly what genre it might fall into. Perhaps it is a thriller, film noir, a gothic horror story, a gangster film, a cautionary tale…..the list could go on and on. Whatever the genre or combination of genres, the murkiness of the production design and cinematography do the film justice by creating a foreboding mood. The camera lingers on Ethan Hawke time after time and the evidence is clear: he is an extraordinarily handsome man. He is also a very good actor trapped in an abstruse film. I did not expect THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH to be a quick study but Pawlikowski could have done a much better job with his adaptation of the Douglas Kennedy novel. 3 cats
“(THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH screened at the 2012 Miami Film Festival.)”