Ciné-Club March : Belle Epine

BELLE EPINE

 Date: Friday, 2 March 2012

Fifteen days after the death of her mother, Prudence Friedman, an adolescent girl, tries to grieve and to emancipate. One of her friends, Maryline Santamaria will make the introvert Prudence run wild, by showing her the world of illegal races of bikers. But the story is not that important in Rebecca Zlotowski’s movie, resistant to any type of classical plot. Indeed a disturbing atmosphere prevails, with a singular way of capturing parts of reality. The action takes place at the end of the 1970s, in the depressed climate of the suburb around Rungis, filmed with a dense and electric photography. The young director is interested in reading the mind of her heroine, beyond all obvious opacity, and in guessing all her feelings: sadness, desire, temerity… Léa Seydoux is in almost every plan, with beauty and intensity. Between neurosis and pure desire, Belle Epine is an interesting direction exercise, and reveals two talents, an actress and a director, both to be followed.