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Review by: Jack Foley | Rating:
Two
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Making of documentary (60 min).
Photo gallery.
THE Oscar-nominated French director of The Taste of Others (Le
Gout des Autres) was rightly rewarded with the best screenplay
award at this year's Cannes Film Festival for her follow-up, Look
At Me (Comme Une Image), a darkly comic look at the relationship
between an egotistical writer and his neglected, overweight daughter.
The film is a beautifully-written, wonderfully performed ensemble
comedy which tackles some fairly familiar themes in a fresh and
inspiring fashion.
Marilou Berry stars as the 20-year-old Lolita, the overweight
and under-confident daughter of self-obsessed author, Etienne
(Jean-Pierre Bacri), who yearns for attention and approval to
the point of obsession.
Dogged by the feeling that people are only interested in what
she has to offer as a means of befriending her influential father,
Lolita continually threatens to push them away, until events conspire,
over the course of one summer, to provide her with a voice of
her own.
First of all, there's Keine Bouhiza's Sebastien, a young man
whom Lolita meets by chance in the street, and who gradually teaches
her to open her eyes to the unpleasantness of many of the people
around her, while falling in love with her himself.
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And then there's Agnes Jaoui's singing
teacher, Sylvia, who comes to befriend and encourage Lolita, despite
being initially sceptical.
Through this friendship, Sylvia, too, is encouraged to realise
how many of the people around her are shallow and egocentric,
especially her husband, Pierre (Laurent Grevill), an emerging
writer who falls under Etienne's spell and will stop at nothing
to pander to his every need.
Comme Une Image, while certainly talky, boasts such an incisive
script that viewers shouldn't mind investing time in the world
that writer, director and stars, Jaoui and Bacri, have created.
It has something pertinent to say about all of the themes it
explores, from notions of self-image, to the misplaced perceptions
we have of others and the corrupting influence of fame.
Yet it does so without ever becoming overly dramatic or sentimental
- a trait that many of Hollywood's screenwriters would do well
to note.
Performance-wise, Berry is terrific as Lolita, particularly in
the way she toys with viewers' emotions (she can be dislikable),
while Bacri, as her father, is both spitefully funny and totally
beyond redemption (particularly during his final moments).
Jauoi, too, excels, as Sylvia, quite possibly providing the film
with its most identifiable and grounded character.
The film also boasts a terrific classical score, which merely
serves to heighten the all-round enjoyment of proceedings.
It is a deliciously enjoyable affair that marks a triumph for
all involved.
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