La Vie Promise
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Movie Reviews of La Vie Promise
Movie Review: Complicated tale of three lost souls searching for a promise
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: The flow of the ghost river
Summary: 4 Stars
The story here is a little bit specious and even cloying at times. Isabelle Huppert plays Sylvia, a druggie prostitute who seems to care only about her booze and pills. She plies her trade on the streets of Nice. Her 14-year-old daughter, Laurence (Maud Forget) appears out of nowhere, having run away from her foster home. Sylvia tells her to get lost. She doesn't, and in the next scene, trying to protect her mother from a couple of pimps who are starting to beat her up for some money, the 14-year-old somehow stabs one of them. The other runs out the door. The stabbed man is dead, and mother and daughter are on the run as in a Hollywood on the lam movie.
I don't think I need to tell the reader that mom is going to find the love she really feels for her daughter in addition to finding her own heart, and so I won't, because it isn't that simple. The story though is rather ordinary and predictable and is told with a number of loose ends just left lying about, not the least of which is the dead man.
No matter however because:
(1) Isabelle Huppert is brilliant and very convincing as a low-class, trashy kind of person who lies almost habitually, even when she doesn't need to, a person lacking social skills or really any kind of skill. Her hair is too too blonde and she dresses like a tramp.
But it is amazing how comfortable Huppert looks in the role. Again I am very much impressed with her ability. I wonder if there is a more talented actress working anywhere in the world today. She is almost obsessive in the way she becomes the characters she plays. I've seen her in half a dozen films and in everyone she was a distinctly different person.
(2) The movie is beautifully shot with arresting scenes of earth and sky, unlike anything one usually sees in a domestic French movie.
(3) The music, some of it American country and western, some of it classical, was wonderfully chosen and coordinated with the story of the film in a way that enhances our appreciation. That is what is usually attempted of course. The idea being that music should help to trigger our response; but often the attempt is only halfhearted or too obviously directive. Here the music helps to bring the film to life.
(4) The story is uplifting and redemptive.
One more thing: the title in English, The Promise Life, is not a good translation of what is intended by the French, La Vie Promise. Better would be "The Promised Life," although that would be inaccurate. Also unsatisfactory would be "The Life of Promise." What I like is the title sometimes given to the film, "Ghost River." There is a beautiful line in the film that refers to "The flow of the ghost river" that I think somehow illustrates the life Sylvia has lead.
By all means see this beautiful if somewhat sentimental film for Isabelle Huppert, one of the great stars of the modern cinema.
Movie Review: Looking For Connections And Rediscovering The Past
Summary: 4 Stars
The French film "La Vie Promise" has a mighty weapon in its cinematic arsenal--the luminous Isabelle Huppert headlines this character study of a woman reconnecting with her past. Huppert, a really terrific international star, is renowned for her strong screen performances and is reason enough (for me) to check out any film. Here she plays Sylvia, a world wise and weary prostitute. After a particularly unconvincing bit of violence, Sylvia and her estranged daughter must flee the city to avoid unpleasant reprisals. Huppert is aloof and unkind to the girl and is genuinely unsympathetic in every way! As the women become separated, the film turns into an internal exploration for both--as the girl starts to understand her mother's standoffishness and Sylvia begins to piece together a life prior to being on the streets. Sylvia, quite literally, has blanked out most of her past but longs to reconnect with a son she had to leave behind.
The film never addresses the daughter's back story. Her origin remains a mystery, and she doesn't seem particularly infuriated that Sylvia's quest to find her son still leaves her out in the cold. With the assistance of man on the run, the women eventually reach their destination and the film achieves a quiet intensity as memories start to flood back. Huppert plays the role with a push/pull dichotomy--she charges into every situation, hesitates, then retreats. She wants answers, but doesn't want them. The subtle shifts in her character and in the dynamic between the travelers makes for a satisfying resolution to the adventure. There may be no grand moments of realization, but the film still provides a calm power that is appealing. KGHarris, 2/11.
Movie Review: Two good reasons to see La Vie Promise.
Summary: 4 Stars
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
Movie Review: Beautiful
Summary: 4 Stars
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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