A NEW LIFE (64)

Directed by: Olivier Assayas (1993)

Starring: Sophie Aubry, Judith Godrèche, Bernard Giraudeau, Philippe Torreton

The Pitch: A young woman decides to contact the father she never knew, meets her half-sister and gets involved with the father's mysterious lawyer.

Theo Sez: Title is something of a sly joke, since the characters (esp. our heroine) seem to be starting 'a new life' every few minutes - often accompanied by narrative ellipses, so we're forever looking for clues in order to work out what just happened (I'm pretty sure I got the first and most audacious rupture, taking her from working in a factory to lying half-dead on the floor of a strange house in a single dissolve, though I'm still not clear why her own house is burned-out when she goes back there to get her stuff). This is Assayas before he got the splash in his style - notably the exhilarating use of songs to kick-start the images - though still recognisably himself, showing off most of what makes him great: (a) intellectual pursuits side-by-side with a feel for movie glamour (the two women look amazing, esp. when they stalk around the house in compositions straying into PERSONA territory), just as the story uses elements of melodrama - the house full of secrets, the cynical depraved-looking steward - and simultaneously detaches itself from them; (b) a volatile, very French texture, shifting restlessly as if impatient with details then suddenly exploding either in narrative (the aforementioned ellipses) or style (smash-cuts, often from a dialogue scene to the roar of machinery); (c) an abiding interest in people, following what appear to be minor characters into their own private lives and workplaces - sometimes to reveal some relevant new facet, sometimes for no reason at all. Feels a lot like a (slightly more dynamic) Téchiné - who also does most of (a) and (b) above - closer to Generic French Arthouse than the more cosmopolitan later films (maybe the 'party scene' in COLD WATER was the turning point, allowing Assayas to discover a whole new side of himself); first hour or so is fascinating, but it fritters itself away - though maybe I just wanted to see more of the stark-looking Godrèche than Giraudeau, whose role gets less interesting as it becomes less mysterious (also, he reminds me of Peter Coyote). Possible best shot in a superbly-shot movie: camera arcs (dollies?) towards Godrèche as she sits in a garden chair, with the high-pitched whistle of a kettle boiling in the background, keeps on prowling as she gets up and moves indoors, to the back of the frame - then stops, framing her dead-centre, just as she turns off the kettle and the whistling stops.