Serge Bozon clearly aims to create a new type of French cinema -- more contemporary and multicultural than his illustrious forebears. The problem
is that he seems to throw overboard an illustrious tradition in the process
-- despite working with Isabelle Huppert twice in a row. _Madame Hyde_,
like his previous _Tip-Top_, is a genre-mixing brew. Unlike the last film,
the droll comedy falls flat because Huppert does not have have a Sandrine Kiberlain as battery mate. The film is more affecting as a tragedy, given
the eventual downfall of the heroine.

While Jekyll and Hyde is ostensibly the source material, the film is more
like a comic book superhero origins story. What would a timid, ineffective high school teacher be like after she accidentally gains superpower? Huppert becomes a superb, inspiring science teacher after being zapped by a jolt
of electricity in her physics lab. She also glows in the dark and can set gang-bangers and menacing dogs on fire. She feels young and vital, but it
only lasts for so long before her power leads her astray and makes her harm
the innocent, too. The off-kilter dialog and electronic music reminds me
of Hal Hartley. (So this would be the French connection -- harkening back
to Godard by way of America?) One important difference is that Hartley's compositions and camera work are jolts of energy. So are his characters, endlessly in motion. Unfortunately, Bozon makes some very odd choices here, using almost exclusively static cameras, two-shots, and wide compositions
that are at odds with the rambunctious classroom set. Is _Madame Hyde_ actually shot on film as opposed to digital camera? It feels like it, and
for once that feels completely wrong in a film.

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On Thursday, June 21, 2018 at 1:49:14 AM UTC-5, septimus_...@q.com wrote:

..One important difference is that Hartley's
compositions and camera work are jolts of energy. So are his characters, endlessly in motion. Unfortunately, Bozon makes some very odd choices here, using almost exclusively static cameras, two-shots, and wide compositions that are at odds with the rambunctious classroom set.

Thinking back to Hartley's brilliantly written, satirical _Amateur_ (also starring Isabelle Huppert and suddenly 24 year old), it is hard not to be disappointed in _Madame Hyde_. The latter film is very much like a bad
Hartley outing, _No Such Thing_, which also tries to update a gothic novel
into a modern setting with intentionally cheap special effects and stale
jokes. Both films are badly miscast, too. The notion that a great
high school teacher should be a comic-book hero would have been very interesting. I'm not sure Bozon (who apparently taught high school once)
put nearly enough depth into that part of the screenplay.

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