Look at Me

[osprey_archer]

My roommate is a foreign film buff, so every once in a while she’ll drag me off to watch movies like Look at Me, which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.

It’s a comedy, although an odd one. Often comedy characters are so over the top that they aren’t really human (Will Ferrell’s characters, frex). It’s funny, and it makes laughing at their faults guilt-free, but it’s not honest.

Look at Me doesn’t take that easy out. The characters all act like real people, very flawed people, who are both funny and poignant. I admire very much the fact that the movie never excuses the characters’ flaws. Many of the characters are loveable despite their flaws, but the movie doesn’t attempt to say that the flaws either aren’t there or don’t matter.

The main character, Lolita, is a budding singer and the daughter of a famous author. Her family situation is wretched—her father is blisteringly self-absorbed and can’t talk without insulting someone. (At one point, he chances on Lolita’s almost-boyfriend in a moment of gloom. “We keep the cyanide in the cupboard,” her father tells him helpfully.)

Lolita, having grown up with this sterling example, has learned to be pretty self-centered and obnoxious herself. She’s also plump and plain (by movie standards, which means she’s a pretty girl dressed in clothes that don’t suit her) and desperately sad. My roommate and I both liked her—I suspect that’s not a universal reaction—but kudos to the filmmakers for making either reaction to her reasonable.

My favorite character is Lolita’s singing teacher, Sylvia (who is played by the movie’s director, Agnes Jaoui, which I can't pronounce but think is an awesome name anyway). She's the most dynamic character in the movie—she changes her attitude about almost everyone. But all the characters (with the minor exception of Lolita’s almost-boyfriend) are complicated and changeable, both the men and the women. Even Lolita’s stepmother, her father’s trophy wife, is allowed to be a real person and not just a silly gold-digging dumb blonde.

There really ought to be a movie somewhere told from the point of view of the trophy wife.

Also, the movie has an exquisite ending. It’s not a movie that could have a happily ever after—Lolita’s family is too messed up, and it’s made Lolita into a basket case as well—but it does have an ending that is happy right now, which is both happy and truthful.

Comments

[longlegs21.livejournal.com]

I love foreign films, too! This one sounds interesting; what language is it in (not that it matters)? And what's the storyline?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I do tend to leave out the salient details for these things, don't I. It's in French.

The storyline is kind of complicated--and I don't want to give too much away because it's a really good movie--but basically, Lolita is an aspiring singer who wants her father (a famous author) to notice her, and failing that, she wants people outside her family to notice her for something other than being her father's daughter.

And most of the other characters in the film, now that I think about it, also want to be noticed or appreciated by someone. The title is very apt.

Thank you for responding. :) I always think, you know, when no one responds (and it's not like I expect a lot of response to a review of a film no one else has probably seen), "I've finally driven everyone away. Darkness! Despair!"

[longlegs21.livejournal.com]

Heehee! It took me a couple read-throughs to realize, "Hmm. She hasn't actually said what this story is about, has she?"

But it sounds like something I'd enjoy; I'll check it out. Thanks for the rec! Come to think of it, I think I'd seen Look at Me mentioned once before, but I didn't investigate (or else I don't remember that I did).

I do want to comment more. (In fact, expect a response to State Quarters shortly. :-)) I'm distressed to discover that I'm already reaching the point where it's hard to keep up with my friend list--and I only have nine friends. Counting people and communities. So, yeah, I'm a slow so-and-so, but I really enjoy your journal. :-) I usually don't read the tv show posts because I've never watched any of them; otherwise, I'm on board!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

There are other people who read the TV stuff, so it's all good. And yay! State quarters!

I have a tendency to go on and on about characters and worldbuilding and forget entirely about the plot. :/ There's a reason the plots in my stories tend to be very thin.