le film reviews

last month i watched and reviewed a couple of films that were screening at the french film festival in glasgow. the first has just been put up at theskinny.com - neither was 'best-of-year' material (i will be doing the whole list rigmarole shortly, honest), but they had their moments...

Skirt Day (dir. Jean-Paul Lilienfeld, starring Isabelle Adjani, Yann Collette)

In 2008, French teachers protested budget cuts that had stretched education resources to breaking point. Skirt Day therefore couldn’t have been timelier: a harried, barely coping teacher, worn down by taunts from students and an unsupportive bureaucracy, takes her class hostage in a moment of desperation. But timing apart, the film is a disappointingly mishandled muddle. As the handgun exchanges hands several times during the siege, it prompts multiple plot twists that are either overly obvious or unconvincing, while the sheer quantity of socio-political issues paid lip service (most awkwardly racial tensions in the banlieue), causes its fragile frame to buckle. The supporting cast are resultantly marginalised, rendered two-dimensional stereotypes of the kind the narrative otherwise makes motions to critique. But there is significant salvation in the form of a committed lead turn from Isabelle Adjani, which won her a record-breaking fifth Best Actress Cesar. Her unexpectedly complex performance earns an A+ in an otherwise D standard film.


Imogene McCarthery (dir. Alexandre Charlot, Franck Magnier, starring Catherine Frot, Lambert Wilson)

Haggis for tea, a wee dram at every opportunity and tartan togs across the board: welcome to sixties Scotland, home of unlikely spy Imogène McCarthery (a game turn from a sprightly Catherine Frot). Charged with delivering top secret plans to the Highlands, patriotic Imogène battles dastardly Reds and deceptive double-agents with a mix of pluck and good fortune. There’s amusement to be had viewing Scotland through the eyes of our continental neighbours (alcoholism and xenophobia remain our shorthand stereotypes it seems), though generally the humour is far from mean-spirited; instead, it seems oddly nostalgic for a fantasy ‘foreign’ past. But the Egypt and Brazil-set OSS 117 films do a similar thing with greater conviction and more consistent laughs, and by comparison Imogène’s sleuthing feels pedestrian. No matter where Jean Dujardin’s spy visits next, his adventures will likely be worth following.; take Scotland away from Imogène and you’re left with the lightest of farces, attracting only the mildest of interest.