Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [49]
But whatever he and his college collaborator may achieve in the future, La Ciudad will always stand out as a singular achievement.
67. LA PETITE LILI
(2003)
Directed by Claude Miller
Screenplay by Julien Boivent and Claude Miller
Based on the play The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
Actors:
NICOLE GARCIA
BERNARD GIRAUDEAU
JEAN-PIERRE MARIELLE
LUDIVINE SAGNIER
ROBINSON STÉVENIN
JULIE DEPARDIEU
YVES JACQUES
MICHEL PICCOLI
ANNE LE NY
MARC BETTON
Sexual intrigues and clashing egos are the main ingredients of La Petite Lili, but filmmaker Claude Miller (and his screenwriting partner, Julien Boivent) have something more up their sleeve in this intriguing film set in and around a French country house.
For one thing there is the obvious allure of the title character, an aspiring actress played by the sensuous Ludivine Sagnier (who first made an impression on American audiences in the thriller Swimming Pool). Then there is great amusement in observing Julien (Robinson Stévenin), a self-serious young man who rejects his parents’ bourgeois success and wants to express himself as an experimental filmmaker. Lili becomes his first muse, but she has dreams of her own and isn’t afraid to pursue them.
Julien’s mother is Mado Marceaux (Nicole Garcia), a longtime movie star who’s aware that she isn’t getting any younger; her lover is a successful movie director named Brice (Bernard Gireaudeau) who represents everything young Julien despises. Yet Julien’s first film, which is screened one night in a barn on the estate, is hopelessly dense and pretentious.
There are other characters in this heady mix, and in time you may recognize the entire setup as a modern-day version of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. But where that durable play engages in debates over literature, this one substitutes filmmaking; that leads to an unexpected coda that the Russian playwright couldn’t have anticipated. It’s in this final sequence that filmmaker Miller has the last laugh on both his characters and his audience. It’s a delicious turn of events that I’d rather not spoil.
La Petite Lili is intelligent, sexy, and satisfying, with a particular appeal to film buffs who will savor the concluding sequence.
68. LA PROMESSE
(1996)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Screenplay by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Actors:
JÉRÉMIE RENIER
OLIVIER GOURMET
ASSITA OUEDRAOGO
RASMANÉ OUEDRAOGO
When was the last time a movie you watched made you feel as if you’d been punched in the gut—figuratively speaking? La Promesse is just such a film. Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who write and direct together, have a knack of making their fictional movies seem palpably real, so when we identify with a leading character we share their emotions.
In this case the protagonist is a fifteen-year-old boy named Igor (Jérémie Renier) who lives with his father, Roger (Olivier Gourmet). Roger is a no-nonsense kind of guy who has no moral compass or sense of shame. He routinely exploits illegal immigrants by hiring them for construction jobs, then bleeding them dry by renting them poorly heated, overcrowded apartments. Igor is too young and naive to fully understand what’s going on. He relates to some of the workers as friends, and when an African man named Hamidou suffers a serious injury at the construction site, he asks Igor to promise that he will look after his wife and child. It is a vow the boy takes seriously. His father, however, can only think of the threat of exposure. He enlists Igor’s help in committing an unthinkable act that will change the boy’s outlook on life.
La Promesse, like all of the Dardennes’ films, is shot on natural locations in Belgium with a handheld camera that follows its characters around as if it were a cinema verité documentary. The directors’ rejection of Hollywood moviemaking conventions, and their matter-of-fact approach