_Aurore_ by Laetitia Masson
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All on Tue Aug 18 18:51:27 2020
I was drawn to this series because of director Laetitia Masson. I've only
seen one of her films, the dream-like _For Sale_ with Sandrine Kiberlain
(one of my favorite actresses). Masson hasn't made a feature film
in years; I hope the acclaimed miniseries "Aurore" marks her comeback. It
goes for a hallucinatory tone rather than realism; in the stunning opening
a girl dances on the edge of a lake dyed bright red by industrial waste.
Red is her dress too when she kills a boy for his biscuits. The first
episode, about the immediate aftermath of that killing, is elliptically structured, touching on the grief of the community and the doubts of the investigators. It is extraordinarily moving and magnanimous. The next
episode finds the grown up Aurore (Bouchez), out of prison with a new
name, running from her past. She ends up with her English tutor from
prison, now as disillusioned and alone as she is. The equally damaged
sister of the dead boy pursues her and her daughter. The writing is
superb; details about their past are revealed unobtrusively, a morsel at
a time, and only after you have been conditioned to the lethal inevitability. The final episode wraps things up operatically but too neatly; I wish it had sent the characters on an open road, like the end of _For Sale_, instead
of returning to the scene of the crime. But it has Aurore Clement's
memorable turn as Bouchez's aging prostitute-mother still wearing the
same red kimono and self-pity.
Brit Marling wrote a recent NYT article about the need to create a different type of heroine. French woman directors have been leading the way with
these inspired stories about unusual, pricky women. Besides, how can you resist a miniseries with a heroine who reads James Salter?
(for A.)
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