Is it a veneer?

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2005)

Ticks all the European Film boxes: Death? Mourning? Intense love? Long lingering shots of faces? Moody lighting? Yes, yes, yes and yes.
I was very engaged throughout, but writing this two days later I can't help but feel a bit unfulfilled about it all.
I'm going to sound really up my own backside here but I think Martin Amis said something about stories having to be secondary to style now. His point, if I remember rightly (and maybe you shouldn't trust me on this) is that we've heard most stories before, so all we can do now is just try to tell them in ever more interesting ways. I think that's what he said, but try as I might to be an intellectual the brain isn't up to it frankly.
This film has little in terms of twists and turns and plot points. But the simple tale is shown to you in such a way as to please you immensely. There are moments of two people talking that are lit so beautifully you want to grab other directors and say "why can't you make people look as absorbing as that? You haven't been *trying* have you? Stay behind after class." On the other side of the equation the DVD extras have a bit of the director telling you what he was trying to achieve with the close-up shots he was using and Binoche goes on about her painful dedication to her art and you sort of want to say "yeah, OK, chill out" and you feel like after they gave the interviews they might giggle behind our backs and laugh at how they made us all think it was all dreadfully clever.
So, I would rate it above average, but I'm suspicious of it all and I'm not convinced this film is going to stay with me for long. However, I will see the rest of the trilogy and I wouldn't want this review to put anyone off renting it. Your eyes will come out of the experience feeling fulfilled.