OLIVIER, OLIVIER
A film review by Lons Ponschock
Copyright 1995 Lons Ponschock
A film by Agnieszka Holland Based on events of a true story Stars a French cast Rated (R)
This is a very special film.
You will see it at the video shop and think it is a romance or maybe something on a subject you would like to avoid.
Actually it's about *a lot* of subjects you would like to avoid and that is why is a very special film.
It is about the secret rituals of childhood too. And in one wonderful scene (a bit reminiscent of THE REFLECTING SKIN) there is this image of pain and loss and grieving which may stay with you forever. Because these images are so powerful, I will not describe them further.
I have written about the work of this director before. Agnieszka Holland also did EUROPA, EUROPA and THE SECRET GARDEN. Here, as in EUROPA, there are deceptions and revelations, posings and discoveries.
Olivier is a little boy who becomes missing. After six years of grieving and pain a teenage boy comes into the lives of his parents and his slightly older sister, Elizabeth.
Somewhat like the way that a stranger changes the lives of the characters in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, here in OLIVIER we see a marvelous and disturbing example of that quote from DEGREES:
"Each person is a door into another
universe: six degrees of separation
between you and everyone else on the
planet."
In OLIVIER that door reveals all in the end. And it is well worth your viewing time to get there.
-- lon
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