DISENCHANTED, THE (Desenchantee, La) (director/writer: Benoît Jacquot; cinematographer: Caroline Champetier; editor: Dominique Auvray; cast: Judith Godrèche (Beth), Marcel Bozonnet (Alphonse), Malcolm Conrath (Whatsishisname, The Boyfriend), Ivan Desny (Sugardad, The Uncle), Thérèse Liotard (Beth's mother), Thomas Salsman (Rémi ), Hai Truhong Tu (Chang), Francis Mage (Edouard), 1990-France)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Benoît Jacquot (A Single Girl) has created a disconcerting tale about the sufferings of a stunning 17-year-old Parisian girl, Beth (Godrèche), who due to harsh family circumstances must learn how to grow up fast without losing her childhood innocence. Her one asset in life, is her ability to attract men. How she handles the few dramatic moments of her life, right before her high school graduation, is what makes this a very French film.
"The Disenchanted" opens with Beth just finishing a round of lovemaking with her repugnant boyfriend (Bozonnet) and with him watching her as she is sound asleep. He is someone she never calls by name, but as a running gag throughout the film, he is called Whatsisname. He needles her into telling him the dream she just had, as she reluctantly tells him it is about a young woman who blindly chooses her Prince Charming, whom she does not look at while he is penetrating her, and when she sees him, she is shocked to see that he is an old geezer. The cocky boyfriend takes this dream personally as an insult and suggests she find someone really ugly to make love with, as a test for her love to him.
Angered by this childish challenge, she goes to a disco and meets Eduoard (Mage), who is also 17. He's a computer-geek who evidently meets her criteria for ugliness. But, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, because he didn't look like a train wreck to me. When she lures him back to his wealthy home and decides to go through with her plan, it fails to materialize when he awkwardly fondles her and she rushes out of his house.
Back with her family, she relates to her sexually inquisitive eight year old brother Remi (Salsman), by a mixture of teasing him and coddling him, trying to feel not so lonely by having him around as a companion. Her mother (Thérèse Liotard) remains bed-ridden, telling her daughter that she depends on money given to her by Beth's uncle, a wealthy doctor, whom they call Sugardaddy (Ivan). Beth shows her disdain for the old rascal and his money by remaining mute in his presence. But her mother orders her to go to his house to pick up the check he gives them to meet their expenses, knowing full well what he wants from her. The mother disingenuously tells her, "I've done worst things to help you."
In school, she chooses to do her final report on the disenchanted poet Rimbaud, who has struck a chord with her because he was always leaving places to become an adventurer, gunrunner, and searcher for gold, while always remaining true to himself as a poet. He finally says that he must stop leaving places and make a stand where he is. Her class report, though well-received, is still challenged by her teacher who tells her how the ones giving the final exam are not sympathetic with so much of the passion in her argument.
She seems to be in a no-win situation whatever she does, and to get a little childish revenge, because after all, she is still a child, she has her artist-student friend Chang (Hai Truhong) silk-screen an image of her boyfriend on his front door and she further scribbles on the door that he's a bastard. The boyfriend is furious that she won't see him anymore and gives her an ultimatum to meet him in the park or else. When she meets him there, he starts beating her and a middle-aged man named Alphonse (Bozonnet) comes along and pulls a knife on him, sparing her from any further harm.
Alphonse turns out to be a writer, suffering himself from the loss of a girlfriend and can't reach out any further to her than to see her as a poor-replacement.
The suffering comes to an end as Beth realizes that she has no choice but to leave home and strike out on her own. The feeling is that this three day adventure has strengthened her for all else that will befall her in life. But the optimism, what little there is, seems to be, that she had the nerve to go out into the unknown alone and go after what she wanted to do with her life.
The beauty in the film is in Judith Godrèche portrayal, that gets the most out of the terse dialogue and slim story, as she manages to look alluring in many different poses and who through her vitality and cynicism, always gives off a sense of hope that she will survive, no matter the situation. She fits the lifestyle of the existential hero...a female version of a Camus hero or a Rimbaud protagonist. The film had a very lively pulse which added to its intelligent drama. The heroine is seen as being both the object of someone else's desire and someone with powerful desires of her own.
REVIEWED ON 6/24/2000 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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