Look at Me
by Agnès Jaoui
List Price:
Our Price: $4.04
You Save: $15.95 (80%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.50 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Agnès Jaoui, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Laurent Grévill, Marilou Berry, Virginie DesarnautsDirector: Agnès Jaoui
Brand: BERRY,MARILOU
Writer: Jean-Pierre Bacri
Writer: Agnès Jaoui
Cinematographer: Stéphane Fontaine
Editor: François Gédigier
Producer: Christian Bérard
Producer: Jean-Philippe Andraca
Producer: Judith Havas
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-09
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Look at Me
Movie Review: Smart, Lovely
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm looking to find a better title for this review of this very fine film.
Actually I think that the translators could have found a better English title for the film. "Look at Me" seems like a weak title for such a strong film.
The main character, the one who so desperately wants her father to look at her, is Lolita. Obviously named by her mother who left long ago for a yoga camp in the Antilles, Lolita has to bear the irony of being named after a sexy blond nymphet. This Lolita is far from the appearance of her namesake; she is large, plain-faced, and steeped in self loathing. On the flip side of her despair, though, is her ambition to be a Someone in the arts. First she tried acting, failing that she goes into music. Her father. Etienne Cassard, is a famous novelist and can afford to finance her whims but he obviously feels that she is being unrealistic.
Etienne has all of the self-love that Lolita lacks. Or perhaps he lacks it, too, but has managed to become successful, which provides him with adulation, if not the real thing and a very young, pretty new wife, (who could well be named Lolita.) The one character who remains a mystery to me, is his male companion, a sort of assitant,who puts up with Etienne's insults and asks for more. He does say that he used to be a "terrorist" and that Etienne saved him from all that, and he credits him with saving his life. So maybe Etienne is not all bad, after all. Maybe he was nicer before his success? He also offers Lolita's sort-of boyfriend,
Sebastien, a job without being asked.
It is part of the intelligence and appeal of the film that the characters are not one-sided. Although we are supposed to side with Lolita, who pathetically tries over and over to win her father's attention, she is not without blame, either. She throws her friend, Sebastian over when she thinks she has a chance with the cuter, blonder, Matthieu. Sebastian is the name this fellow uses, to cover an Arabic name. Why he falls for Lolita at all, when she treats him so poorly, is a mystery to me. Is he impressed by her social milieu? It doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe he really likes rude, complaining, whining, fat girls.
However...in spite of these inconsistencies, I really liked this film. The heart and soul of it is Agnes Jaoui, the director and one of the stars. She plays Sylvia, who is the moral compass who saves the film from being just another "interesting" display of life among the neurotic, rich and famous. Perhaps it's significant that she is one of the few "principles" who practices an art at the grass roots level. She is a voice coach and doesn't seem to have ambitions to become a diva, herself. She comforts and coaches, not only a group of amateur singers, but her husband,Pierre, another writer, who has his own case of self-loathing.
Pierre's luck changes when he meets Cassard, co-incidentally through Sylvia, who happens to be Lolita's voice coach. Sylvia, is not above a little corruption herself, as she changes her plans to drop coaching Sylvia's amateur group when she discovers she is Cassard's daughter.
Pierre is accepted into Cassard's inner circle, and drops his old collaborator and apparently a lot of his old standards. He even decides he likes rabbit, when Cassard serves it, although he has always hated it. His book suddenly takes off and he gets his piece of the pie of fame and fortune. One wonders how long he will remain high on the cycle of success and when will he decline as Cassard is doing. When will Cassard become jealous of Pierre's fame and turn his nastiness on him?
If all of this sounds very unpleasant, and it is, somehow the director has managed to imbue this film with warmth and beauty. The music, for one thing, is transcendent. Lolita rises out of her heavy slump when she performs, even if she never quite impresses her father. The old church in which the concert is performed is a lovely setting for the ending. It's as if the characters all manage to rise above their pettiness for a little and shift gears. Sylvia confronts Sebastian on his heartlessness and he comes around a little and has what probably is, for him, a pretty nice talk with Lolita. Lolita realized that Sebastian has cared for her for herself and is not just using her to meet her father. Best of all, Sylvia, in a very nice final move, leaves her spineless husband and, on the way out, turns up Lolita's tape loud and clear.
I recently saw another French film, Fat Girl, directed by another female director on the same theme. On a scale of one to ten, I give Fat Girl, a one and Look at Me a ten!
Summary of Look at Me
A young woman struggles with her self image and her troubled relationship with her father.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 3-APR-2007
Media Type: DVD
Only the French dare to make movies about such unlikeable people, and only the French can make you like them anyway. Look at Me is a cornucopia of prickly personalities, starting with Lolita (Marilou Berry), an aspiring singer who hates everyone who pays attention to her because of her famous father and assumes that no one would pay attention to her for any other reason. It's not surprising, because her father Etienne (Jean-Pierre Bacri, The Housekeeper), an acclaimed writer, surrounds himself with people who want something from him--including a less famous writer (Laurent Grevill, I Can't Sleep) who finds success thanks to Etienne, and whose wife (writer/director Agnes Jaoui, The Taste of Others) happens to be Lolita's music teacher. Look at Me captures the little ways that fame warps everything around it; Etienne gets away with treating everyone terribly because of his literary stature, to which desire and resentment fasten like barnacles. But it's not just a satire--gradually, through an accumulation of brief glimpses and offhand remarks, these abrasive characters become increasingly vivid and genuine. --Bret Fetzer
Similar DVD Movies
The VisitorsBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2001-09-11; Published: 2001-09-01; DVD
Best price: $61.49
Let It RainMPI; Release date: 2010-12-21; DVD
Best price: $14.20
Price in other shops:
La Vie en Rose (Extended Version)HBO HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2007-11-13; Published: 2007-11-01; DVD
Best price: $7.08
Price in other shops:
The ButterflyFirst RUN Features; Release date: 2004-10-19; DVD
Best price: $16.04
Price in other shops:
Girl on the BridgeLEG; Release date: 2008-07-01; DVD
Best price: $6.93
Price in other shops:
L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment)Fox; Release date: 2003-12-23; Published: 2003-12-01; DVD
Best price: $4.30
Price in other shops:
Cafe au LaitKoch International; Release date: 2005-05-10; DVD
Best price: $6.55
Price in other shops:
Read My LipsRelease date: 2003-07-22; DVD
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops:
Bon VoyageRelease date: 2004-08-17; DVD
Best price: $27.99
Price in other shops:
The Taste Of OthersBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2012-01-06; DVD
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops: