Me and My Sister (2004)

Too much of everything

The Age of Commercialism

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Alexandra Leclère has made a wonderful first feature; I was entertained throughout this funny and sometimes bitter film about a provincial, somewhat naive and emotionally open woman (Catherine Frot) who visits her older sister (Huppert) who lives with her husband and son in Paris. Martine can't stand Louise's gaucheness, her forgetfulness (forgetting her wallet at home before visiting a dress shop) and the way Louise has of opening her heart to strangers. The dinner party at Martine's flat is wonderful: Louise is telling the guests of her past love, while Martine gets drunker and more aggressive every minute. The last laugh is on Martine, of course: her husband has been having an affair with her old friend Sophie.I have had harsh things to say about Isabelle Huppert in the past, but here she is wonderful. She plays the frantic jealousy of her character to perfection: there is a scene (shocking, violent) when Martine reads the letter from their mother to Louise, in which the mother rejects her daughters, saying she does not want to see or hear from them again. The triumphal anger of Martine and the distress of Louise are palpable.

The film "Les Soeurs fachees" is very moving. It really comes alive because of the two extraordinary lead actresses. Especially the wonderful Isabelle Huppert. She is amazing the way she can express emotions, during the movie, without saying a word. You can read it all in her beautiful face. During the movie you get to know, nearly in every scene, how different these sisters are. The cold, unhappy Martine and the nice and friendly Louise. It proofs how important are goals for you life, and it's never to late to change something,to become happy. A wonderful true french film, refreshing, charming, sad, might make you laugh and cry. Loved it. I would definitely recommend it to everyone who loves great cinema with talented actors, and dislikes Hollywood Studio Movies.

If the readers will forgive a personal note (which I usually don't indulge in), Les soeurs fâchées is the last of the 10 films I watched in the Hong Kong International Film Festival, a good mix comprising 2 French, 2 Japanese, 3 Chinese and 3 American. Depending on the viewers' mood, Les soeurs fâchées can be enjoyed as a light comedy surrounding, or a deeper probing into the characters of the two sisters. Whichever way you choose to look at it, you would first notice the deliberate contrast between sophisticated city creature Martine (Isabelle Huppert) and awkward provincial out-of-towner Louise (Catherine Frot). The irony is that Louise who never seems to know where to put her hands is never really out of control while Martine who is so composed is a walking time bomb, liable to fly off the handle any time the snapping point in reached.Sibling rivalry is, as often, in the root of things. Although the background is kept vague (maybe intentionally), we see and hear enough to know that the sisters, back at the time of their humble origin, were very much alike, failures in the regular education system and generally abandoned by their mother. Martine presumably acquired her present status through marriage while Louise stays at pretty much the same level of the social scale.And here comes the strangest thing: it's Martine who becomes furiously jealous of Louise on just about every score. First, Louise has become a self-taught writer and just got her first book published (reminds me of the poor chap in Sideways). And then, Louise has reconciled with their mother while tough as she may try to look, Martine must be longing for that same reconciliation which has somehow eluded her. As a final straw, while Louise had enough guts to break away from a marriage that didn't work out and followed her own desire, Martine found that her own husband has not only been fooling around but is also doing it with her best friend. Nothing seems to be particularly original in terms of story and plot. But when put together in the crisp, witty script, acted by two superb actresses and packaged with beautiful shots, lucid editing and well chosen music, the film becomes a vastly enjoyable experience.

I'm very surprised to find not a single comment on such a class act. Okay, it's a new release but it IS five days old now. Anyhow it's so good to see that Isabelle Huppert has temporarily abandoned her apparent avowed intent to plumb the depths of sleaze in her ongoing trawl through the sewers of the world and return to what she does better than most actresses anyplace, anytime, anywhere that this could be a stinker and it would still be a breath of fresh air. As it happens it's anything but and Huppert and Catherine Frot are twin delights. Huppert is the chic, snobbish wife living in the right arrondissement, checking accounts in all the right places and the right kind of husband to pick up the tab. The wonderful Francis Berleand scores as the unfaithful husband who can't stand sister-in-law Frot; normally that's not a problem since Frot lives in the provinces but now she's written a book and has come to town to rubber-stamp a publishing deal and will spend three days with Huppert and Berleand. What we have is a very low-key take on Neil Simon's Odd Couple with Frot being everything Huppert is not and vice versa. Frot, fresh from playing a Tyrant's Tyrant in Vipere au poing turns up here as the kind of lovable kook that Shirley MacLaine was always being cast as but could never quite bring off because she couldn't do lovable (she couldn't do kook either if anybody ask you but that's another story), and she shows Maclaine just how it's done.Okay, we're talking soufflé here but it's a French soufflé, hand-made at Maxim's. Eat, Enjoy.