I'm beginning to like director Jerome Bonnell (_Le Chignon d'Olga_,
_The Queen of Clubs_) very much. His films are mostly intimate and
small in scope, but how sensitively he attends to his characters'
desires, disappointment, and longing! _All About Them_, made in 2015,
invokes the French New Wave masters (Truffaut's _Jules and Jim_,
perhaps Malle's _The Lovers_?) and is more expansive; it may be his
best work yet. Anais Demoustier's Melodie is in love with both her
bestfriend Charlotte (Sophie Veerbeek) and her companion Micha (Felix
Moati). Demoustier is expressive as always, but frankly she has limited
range, despite winning the Romy Schneider. Bonnell has given her a
beautifully written role as a love-sick, put-upon lawyer who has
surprising moments of steeliness, who is fierce about her work and
the clients assigned to her to defend. Micha is rather unformed, still searching for himself; he works for a non-profit which studies fish
changing genders due to manmake polution. His dishevelled hair,
worn-out socks, otherworldliness, and childlike befuddlement no doubt
appeals to Melodie, who defends rapists, illegal immigrants, and other
sad-sack petty offenders. (It appeals to Bonnell too; most characters
in his films are innocent twenty-somethings.) Veerbeek is hard where
her costars are malleable. She is mysterious, seems to know exactly
what she wants, and is not always likeable. Then she sings in
a night club, and you understand why both main characters are in
love with her. The love triangle leads to a surprisingly poignant,
uplifting, but bittersweet ending. (It is characteristically left
unclear if Melodie will take the job in Paris.) The guitar and
Schubert chamber score enhances the intimate mood. Unlike _Olga_,
Bonnell repeatedly uses extreme close-ups of one or two characters'
faces, magnifying their small, everyday heartbreaks into universal
concerns.

I do wonder why Bonnell mostly ignore non-Caucasians in his films. No minorities can be sceen, not just in the Paris scenes, but also in
Lille. (The Calais area have major migrant camps.) It is as though
the sacrficies these characters live through justify they obliviousness
towards others even less fortunate. (Benoit Jacquot, who also started
out mining romantic stories from struggling youths, had no problem
writing cool Vietnamese characters 30 years ago.) But one can complain
too much. Bonnell makes small romantic films that used to be a staple
of French cinema but is rarely seen in the U.S. today. Compared to
the arch, ridiculous work of Philippe Garrel or the U.S. threesome drama
_Dr. Marston and His Wonderwomen_, this is a near masterpiece.

(for A.)

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