_Anais in Love_
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All on Sun May 22 16:09:56 2022
Anais Demoustier hits the ground running in
_Anais in Love_, defying gravity and muscle
fatigue, and she never lets up. Director Charline
Bourgeois-Tacquet gives her plenty of excuses
-- claustrophobia and fear of cramped French
elevators, chronic tardiness so she is always
late -- but she needn't have. Perpetual
motion is just in her character Anais' nature.
Anais is always running in circle, ten times
faster than anyone yet always returning to the
same spot, far behind in the race. This is the
highly decorated actress' most full-blooded
performance. As a star vehicle, the film is
_Run Lola Run_ and _Amelie_ rolled into one,
but is far better than either; I hope it will
do for Demoustier what those films did for the
lesser actresses Audrey Tautou and Franka
Potente.*
Playing against the mousy type, her Anais is
a fireball who literally sets people and places
on fire. She is halfway through her thesis
(appropriately on "passion in the 17th century"),
but is unable to sit still long enough to finish
it. She has nothing in her bank account, other
than her charm, to avoid eviction. She invites
her sometime-boyfriend to movies but run from
a commitment. She has an affair with literary
editor Daniel, who is twice her age, and keeps
him at arm's length. Anais is her mother's
favorite, but cannot stand to be under the
same roof once she learns the mother has had
a liver cancer relapse. (The family dynamics
and character background are really well-written
in this film; the barely-less-dysfunctional
brother and the absentee father are highlights.
Anais has clearly spent her life rebelling
against this level-headed bourgeoisie milieu).
Finally, her thesis advisor pays her to organize
an academic symposium, and she shirks that
responsibility too, to pursue other choices.
At least this time she is running towards, not
away from, something. Daniel's mistress Emilie
(played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) would have
been Anais' soulmate; they share a passion for
Margurerite Duras and a thirst for freedom. If
this were a Kieslowski film they would have a
platonic relationship, parlaying their age
difference into a selfless passing of the baton
in life experience. Instead Anais pursues
Emilie to a writer's retreat in a chateau,
charming her way into admission despite being
flat broke; she seduces Emilie in a fiery
red dress dancing to "Bette Davis Eyes," in
a scene that would have filled Lou de Laage
with envy. They strike up a florid, long-
distance correspondence. But Emilie is an
intellectual. She writes about passion without
really plunging into it; her romanticism is a
bit theoretical, vicarious. She is a slave to
her work, hates distraction, and despite an
idyllic seaside rendezvous you sense a
bittersweet ending is inevitable. The finale
is best left to each viewer to interpret.
_Anais in Love_ is an intoxicating film to
watch; it has both the go-for-broke passion and
the knowing intellectualism that mark the best
examples of French cinema. Director Charline
Bourgeois-Tacquet is one to watch. For those
who question Anais Demoustier's talent, who
wonder whether she should win her Cesar and
Romy Schneider ahead of luminaries like Lea
Seydoux, they should wonder no more.
*The unlucky Demoustier's previous significant
exposure in the U.S. might be _Bird People_,
which has the depth of a roadrunner cartoon
but was one of the hundreds of mediocre features
inexplicably championed by art-house critics in
the last two decades. It ended up being the
last feature film of Pascale Ferran's thoroughly
mediocre directing career.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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