Au cul du loup (2012)
Directed by Pierre Duculot

Film Review

A humdrum life in one of the drearier precincts of Belgium, or a life of unbridled freedom on the paradisiacal island of Corsica?  That's the stark choice that Christina, the 30-year-old heroine of Pierre Duculot's debut feature Au cul du loup, is confronted with when fate, or rather her deceased grandmother, lobs a forgotten Corsican retreat into her lap.  For anyone who has ever been to either Belgium or the Island of Beauty it seems like a no-brainer but as Christina soon discovers paradise is not quite all it's cracked up to be, and leaving Belgium means severing her ties with not just her family but also her longstanding boyfriend.

Au cul du loup is an unpretentious auteur piece whose charm lies principally in its near-Bressonian simplicity.  It doesn't dwell on the obvious, nor does it make a meal of the heroine's inner conflict as she negotiates a premature mid-life crisis.  Christelle Cornil is compelling in her first role (the eager-eyed may have previously spotted her in Mikael Buch's Let My People Go! (2011)) - her subtle performance joins up the dots in Duculot's spare screenplay, revealing a convincing portrait of a thirty-something looking for meaning in her life.

The vivid contrast between the two locations - Charleroi predictably drab and oppressive, Corsica lush and inviting - mirrors the divide between Christina, who longs to make a fresh start, and her parents, who are trapped until their dying days in a life of middleclass mediocrity.  The basic set-up is a familiar one and the film does tend to rake in some well-worn clichés, but Duculot's refreshingly understated approach, provides a fresh perspective on a phenomenon known to everyone over the age of thirty - that need to find yourself as you traverse the precarious bridge between youth and middle-age.  And if Duculot's objective had simply been to make us fall in love with Corsica (it is surely sacrilege to refer to any part of it as 'the wolf's bottom'), he certainly succeeded.  Au cul du loup is such a modest, quiet film that it risks being quickly forgotten, but its subtle poetry lingers, like the faint whispers of a dream.

Film Synopsis

Not yet thirty, Christina leads a humdrum existence in a humdrum town in Belgium, where she lives with her humdrum boyfriend Marco.  One day, she is surprised to learn that her grandmother has died and bequeathed her a small house on the island of Corsica.  Christina's family are as puzzled by this legacy as she is, and no one seems to know why the old woman bought the house in the first place.  Christina resists pressure to sell the house and instead she sets off to Corsica by herself to take a look at it.  Although situated in an attractive, remote part of the island, the house is in a bad state of repair, and yet Christina is strangely reluctant to part with it.  As she mulls over why her grandmother should choose to leave her this strange gift she begins to see the world in a whole new light...