By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Starring: Isild Le Besco | Laurence Cordier | Nicolas Duvauchelle | Ouassini Embarek
Country: france
Year: 2005
Running time: 95
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407342/combined
Bruce says: “The French really know how to capture self-absorption. When it works for me as in the current LOOK AT ME, it is a joy. Other recent films such as RED LIGHTS, LOVE ME IF YOU DARE, KINGS AND QUEEN and À TOUT DE SUITE are much less successful, usually because they lack the ability to laugh at their characters. In the case of À TOUT DE SUITE director Benoît Jacquot is obsessed with Isild Le Besco the lovely actress who plays Lili, a very self-absorbed Parisian teenager from a very wealthy family. Throughout the film the camera has difficulty leaving her even when there are exotic vistas of Tangiers, Casablanca and Athens to behold. When Benoît does get around to establishing a sense of place he chooses to accelerate and blur rather than linger. Why look closely at the casbah or the Parthenon when Isild is part of the scenery? Benoît’s obsession gets in the way of his storytelling, prevents him from setting the proper tone of his scenes and the film suffers for it.
“With the exception of her drawing class, Lili is bored with school, her sister and her separated parents. Lili is consumed by her boredom. A girlfriend from school consistently sleeps over and Lili sneaks the café and croissants past the maid and into the bedroom each morning. She and her girlfriend dart into a bar one afternoon to get a bite to eat. An older (well, he’s probably in his thirties) man buys them wines. He says he is waiting for a friend. When Bada (Ouassini Embarek) arrives Lili is mesmerized. When the men suggest the girls meet them at a club that evening, the girls are sitting on ready.
“On the dance floor Lili makes out lasciviously with one man before she dances with Bada. Later, Lili sneaks both Bada and her girlfriend into her bedroom. A soon as her friend leaves in the morning she and Bada have sex. The two of them start hanging out. Before you know it, Bada is robbing a bank with two friends. He calls Lili to hide out at her place. He arrives with his friend Alain (Nicolas Duvauchelle) and they hatch a plan to flee the country. Alain’s girlfriend Joelle (Laurence Cordier) arrives and the four of them go to Madrid traveling under fake passports. From Madrid they go to Casablanca and Tangiers and finally fly to Athens when the stolen money gets difficult to circulate on the Moroccan black market.
“At the Athens airport Lili is nervous and gets pulled into customs for thorough questioning. She finally is released only to discover her three friends fleeing the scene without her. A man befriends her and takes her to a hotel then finds a job for her as an au pair. Troubled by the lurid glances from her new employer and the absence of a child which is usually an integral part of the au pair arrangement, she flees again. This time she is befriended by a girl who works in a souvenir shop. Soon Lili is selling souvenirs to bourgeois tourists.
“After Lili ends up in an intense sexual encounter with a guy and a girl she realizes it is time to go home. He parents arrive in Athens and she returns to Paris, notorious. Sentenced to two years in prison for being an ‘accessory after the fact,’ her sentence is commuted through her father’s connections. The story may seem wild and unlikely, but it is based on fact.
“I doubt if the real Lili pouted and sulked for so many hours, staring off into space. The only time Lili is happy is when she is drawing or nestled close to Baba. While she professes to love Baba and pines for him in Athens, one suspects it is not necessarily the man she wants but the attention. Her Parisian boredom at the beginning of the film was certainly a thirst for affection.
“Isild Le Besco is quite captivating. Nicolas Duvauchelle (EAGER BODIES) is a gifted actor and it is a shame that he and Laurence Cordier have little to do and are allotted so little camera time. Ouassini Embarek is uncharismatic and not very believable as a university educated Moroccan bank robber, even when he tells Lili that ‘robbing banks makes him feel like Robin Hood.’ 2.5 cats”