French kisses

>> Ex-Centris showcases two remarkable relationship movies, Petite che#233;rie and La Chambre des magiciennes

By SIOBHAN O'CONNOR

 Claustrophobia doesn't even begin to explain the smothering feeling that permeates documentarian Anne Villacèque's great first feature, Petite che#233;rie. Primarily set in a ghost-town housing estate in a French borough, the film centres around the truly bizarre, unflinching Sybille (Corrine Debonnière), a 30-year-old, romance-reading virgin who lives with her parents. Debonnière, no classic beauty by any stretch, excels in the role of Sybille, conveying both vulnerability and indomitable strength, beauty and ugliness.

 Enter Victor (Jonathan Zaccai), the sexy, devil-could-care enigma who wants a piece of Sybille. The two meet on a commuter train, he goes home with her and never leaves. Once the two marry, however, Victor slowly begins to reveal his true colours. Villacèque avoids a few obvious cliche#233;s here--Victor is neither the saint who takes a chance on the ugly duckling, nor is he actively trying to hurt her. He becomes increasingly nasty, however, steals, lies to her and her parents and calls her "salope" while trying to make love to her. Unwilling to let go of love, Sybille, while no fool, stays with him.

 Essentially a film about loneliness and alienation, Petite che#233;rie manages to treat a familiar theme with a very fresh lens. Peppered with scenes so brutally human it hurts to watch, it's Villacèque's hand-picked cast that makes the film so powerful.

 Equally daring is Claude Miller's gritty, new digital video, La Chambre des magiciennes. The film's protagonist is the likeable but ultimately selfish Claire (Anne Brochet), a 30-year-old student preparing to give her thesis defence. Claire has had the same migraine for six months and as her defence approaches, her prescribed elixirs stop working, eventually landing her in hospital.

 There she's sandwiched between the young, spunky Odette, and the older E#233;le#233;onore (brilliantly rendered by Annie Noel) who is beginning to lose her mind. Nightmarish sequences ensue as Claire's headaches worsen and Ele#233;onore's late-night episodes grow more mysterious and disturbing. Slowly Claire and Ele#233;onore forge a friendship, and the grumpy Claire begins to soften.

 The handheld camera-work is nauseating, of course, but works well with the subject matter: as Claire gets sicker, the shots get more oblique and jumpy, the harsh lighting raising the ugly to the grotesque. La Chambre may be brutal watching, but it remains one of the more affecting films in recent memory. :

 

Petite che#233;rie and La Chambre des magiciennes open Friday, Feb. 9 at Ex-Centris