LOVE LIKE POISON

Ma's View:  The French film festival has just finished so we have a stack of blogs to do.........

The French title of this movie is "Un poison violent" from the words of a song by Serge Gainsbourg and both song and movie examine how physical passion comes into conflict with spiritual faith.  Director, Katell Quillévéré, has handled this delicate coming-of-age movie with great finesse, aided by her young lead, Clara Augarde, who captures the confusion and intensity of Anna, just 14 years old and home from her Catholic boarding school and about to take her confirmation.  Anna's mother and father have recently separated and the mother is emotionally fragile and very dependant on the parish priest, a family friend.  Anna misses her dad and helps to care for her aging paternal grandfather, meanwhile pursuing her friendship with Pierre, a neighbourhood boy who is sweet on her.

All of these characters interact with Anna in different ways and offer conficting advice and values at a time when she is already confused and unsure of how to proceed.  As Anna prepares to undergo the sacrament of confirmation when she must renounce the pleasures of the flesh and pledge to devote herself to spiritual growth, her burgeoning sexuality is awakened by Pierre, played with just the right amount of tentative confidence by Youen Leboulanger-Gourvil (and he can sing too!).  Acting honours also go to Michel Galabru, who plays the grandpere, a dyed in the wool anti-cleric!  How I loved the scene where he makes the priest skedaddle out of his room with his tale between his legs!

Enough said - a lovely, lovely movie with a beautiful soundtrack handling the topic with delicate precision!

My score:  8/10


Pepe's View:

This was the first movie we saw of the 2011 French Film Festival and one of the best.  The performance of Youen Leboulanger-Gourvil as the young boy who is exploring his new found feelings of sexuality and passion is perfect.  The performance of the lead, played by Clara Augarde, is also perfect as she shows us the confusion of a young girl seeing conflicting aspects of love all around her.  On the one hand the church tells her to be pure and chaste, on the other her much loved Grandad (who almost steals the movie) demonstrated to her a much more sensual, romantic natural love while her parents who were once in love are now out of love. Meanwhile, her mother is attracted to the parish priest and then her young friend in the village gives Anna a taste of passionate love.

This is a beautiful, slow moving revealing movie in the best tradition of French cinema.  My only objection is the English translation of the title.  The original French title is   "Un Poison Violent"  which is far truer to the theme of the movie.

My score:  8/10