La Belle personne (2008)
Directed by Christophe Honoré

Film Review

For his fifth film, Christophe Honoré continues his sombre study of adolescent romance, closing a trilogy that includes Dans Paris (2006) and Les Chansons d'amour (2007).  The film is loosely based on Madame de La Fayette's novel La Princesse de Clèves, with the action transposed from the court of King Charles II to a French highschool in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.  Honoré was inspired to make the film when he heard the future French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, declare, at a public meeting in 2006, that there was nothing that today's generation could learn from dusty old tomes such as La Princesse de Clèves.  By shifting La Fayette's 17th century romantic intrigue to contemporary France but retaining most of its themes, Honoré proves Sarkozy wrong and shows that even a novel written three hundred years ago has a great deal to teach us, as (in common with all great literature) it deals with human themes that are both timeless and universal.

La Belle personne was originally planned as a made-for-television movie but was given a cinematic release a few days after its screening on the French TV channel Arte in September 2008.  The budgetary constraints are painfully noticeable but these add an austere cinéma vérité feel to the piece which imbues it with a greater sense of reality, and a darker intensity, than Honoré's previous films.  In contrast to the brooding melancholia of Les Chansons d'amour, La Belle personne is swathed in a funereal sense of gloom, and all of its protagonists are visibly tormened by their first encounter with love.  Honoré portrays romantic love not as something positive but almost as a terminal illness, a kind of mania that takes possession of its host and drags him or her across terrain strewn with thistles and nettles.  What fascinates Honoré most are not the outward aspects of love, but the struggle and confusion beneath the surface, an ordeal that every adolescent must go through and which some are better equipped to deal with than others.

Once again, Honoré is well-served by a cast of exceptional ability, headed by his favourite actor, Louis Garrel.  With his striking Byronesque physique and intensely interiorised approach to acting, Garrel is perfectly suited to Honoré's contemplative, dialogue-sparse style of cinema and here he is at his best as a kind of fairytale prince who is visibly haunted by the power of the emotions.  In her first substantial film role, Léa Seydoux reveals herself to be an actor of comparable talent, outwardly as beguiling as a princess and yet harbouring the same inner maelstrom of emotional torment.  Seydoux has little in the way of dialogue and yet she manages to convey so much and leaves us in no doubt that she is an actress with a remarkable career ahead of her.  As the fragile, teadybear-like Otto, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet provides a poignant contrast to the more confident Garrel, and you can't help wondering whether his character is nearest to Honoré himself.  Leprince-Ringuet is accorded the privilege of interpreting the film's one musical number, a haunting soliloquy that powerfully expresses the pain and cruelty of love and culiminates in the film's most shocking scene.  By including Chiara Mastroianni, Honoré offers a respectful nod to Manoel de Oliveira's La Lettre (1999), an adaptation of La Fayette's novel in which the actress played the lead role.   

The bleakest of Christophe Honoré's films to date, La Belle personne provides a pretty solemn viewing experience, but thanks to a script and performances that resonate with authenticity, it impresses as one of the director's most accomplished works so far.  Honoré not only proves the falsity of Sarkozy's idiotic assertion by showing us how relevant classic works of literature are, even in this culturally diverse, high-tech era, he also delivers an original film of remarkable depth and perception - but from one of France's leading auteur filmmakers you would expect nothing less.

Film Synopsis

After the death of her mother, 16-year-old Junie goes to live with her cousin, Mathias.  Junie's arrival at her new school attracts the attention of several of Mathias' friends, but she only consents to go out with one of them, the timid but amiable Otto.  In fact, Junie is really only interested in one man, her handsome Italian teacher, who is equally drawn to her.  Within no time, the two young people are overtaken by their amorous yearnings, but the romance is destined to end in tragedy...