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La Fontaine's daydreaming milkmaid is evoked, so is Mankiewicz's social climber (A Letter to Three Wives). The student (Béatrice Romand) has had it with married lovers, "their wives and kids are a big drag," an interrupted tryst precipitates her decision: "Je vais me marier." The actual husband is incidental to the caprice, the very busy lawyer (André Dussollier) fits the bill. The pursuit commutes back and forth between Le Mans and Paris, the tenacious sprite will not compromise her fantasy courtship, "I want him to desire me, to suffer." Bringing Up Baby divided by Gertrud is the impossible formulation, Eric Rohmer the warm mathematician makes it happen. An Eighties woman chasing 19th-century ideals, the heroine corners the bachelor in one awkward date after another and finds herself choking with unanswered calls. Her romantic fluctuations perplex Mom (Thamila Mezbah), her domestic aspirations underwhelm the former flame (Vincent Gauthier). A matter of personality, of "milieu," debated with the painter friend (Arielle Dombasle) who specializes in lampshade-canvases. "To develop it, I have to find it." (Art and commerce figure as side themes, a seller can deem vintage Jersey porcelain "junk" but knows that the buyer's taste is the one that matters.) "Love changes." "Its form maybe, not its intensity." At a birthday bash that might have been imagined by Elaine May, the lass nervously plucks candles off her cake before shanghaiing the would-be beau to the bedroom for a stiff embrace. The follow-up shatters the illusion at the lawyer's office with the summarization of a letter sent but not yet read. "You don't like scenes? We've just had one!" A cautionary comedy on the dangers of putting theory before practice, a warning about casting the scénario with an unavailable leading man. The rhyme at the close is from Strangers on a Train. Cinematography by Bernard Lutic. With Féodor Atkine, Huguette Faget, Sophie Renoir, Hervé Duhamel, Pascal Greggory, and Virginie Thévenet.
--- Fernando F. Croce |