Liars and Other Heroes
Two new French films have identity issues
By Andy Klein
It’s a good week for the French, with two new films arriving in Los Angeles, each excellent but nothing alike. First up – although it doesn’t actually open until Tuesday – we have Tell No One, a top-drawer thriller from young French actor/writer/director Guillaume Canet (who received the Best Director Award for the film in the French equivalent of the Oscars). Like most French thrillers, it shows the influence of Hitchcock ... or, at least, Hitchcock by way of Claude Chabrol. It also is occasionally reminiscent of John Schlesinger’s Marathon Man, largely (though not entirely) because star François Cluzet (Round Midnight, plus several Chabrol films) so strikingly resembles the young Dustin Hoffman.
In the opening scenes, we meet pediatrician Alexandre Beck and his wife Margot (Marie-Josée Croze), who have been madly in love since childhood. But we barely get a chance to know Margot when she’s killed by two unknown attackers, who whomp Alex upside the head before he can get a look at them.
Seven minutes into the film, we jump ahead eight years. Alex has never emotionally recovered from that horrible night, nor from the gendarmerie’s insinuations at the time that he himself was behind Margot’s murder.
The past is literally dug up again when two eight-year-dead bodies are found buried near the scene of the crime. One of them has an item belonging to Margot. While this would seem to exculpate Alex, it only raises suspicions anew, to Alex’s annoyance ... but then he’s metaphorically whomped upside the head again, this time by an anonymous e-mail.
“Tell no one,” the e-mail says. “They’re watching.” And one click away, Alex finds himself looking at recent surveillance camera footage of a woman who appears to be Margot.
Of course, he wants to believe that she’s alive. But how? Her father positively identified her body. And where? And, if so, why is she only now contacting him? As he tries to unravel this mystery, he uncovers more and more about Margot that he never knew, despite their lifelong relationship – and some of it doesn’t seem very savory.
The police are following parallel lines of investigation, still operating from the assumption that everything will eventually lead to Alex as the culprit. And when one of the other involved parties turns up dead from a fatal bullet from Alex’s gun, our hero is – in the manner of innumerable Hitchcock characters – on the run, trying desperately to prove his innocence.
One of the advantages of foreign films is that they are generally less bound by genre convention than their Hollywood counterparts. That is, if Tell No One were remade with, say, Brad and Angelina, would there be any chance whatever that Brad would take the fall? Or that Angelina would turn out to be dead after all? But foreign films are not so necessarily rosy – which keeps the possibilities more open-ended. (For the perfect example, compare George Sluizer’s American remake of The Vanishing with his Dutch original.)
Not that I’m going to give anything away.
If there’s a problem with Tell No One, it’s that the plot becomes so complicated that, three days after viewing it, I’m already confused about which murder eight years ago was pinned on a random serial killer ... or exactly who hired whom for some of the mayhem. I think it all ends up making sense, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
Director Canet started as an actor – he has a small, but crucial, role here – and draws excellent performances from all involved. I’m not always a fan of Kristin Scott-Thomas, but she’s in great form as Alex’s sister’s lover. (She also apparently speaks French like a native.) As the chief investigator, François Berléand is more memorable than he was in a similar role in the Transporter movies. But it’s Cluzet who’s on screen nearly nonstop, and he carries the whole affair perfectly.
Opening Friday is another French film ... or, to be more precise, a French/Israeli/Italian/Belgian coproduction ... mostly set in Israel and Ethiopia ... from a Romanian filmmaker ... who works in France. Live and Become is the first fictional film I’m aware of to deal with the issue of Ethiopian Jews and their relationship to Israel.
There have been accusations at times that Israel was founded for the benefit of Ashkenazi Jews (from most of Europe) with less regard for Iberian Sephardim and even less for Ethiopia’s black Jews. It was not until 1975 that Israel officially and unambiguously accepted the legitimacy of the latter group; and in the mid-'80s, Israel began a secret mission to rescue Ethiopian Jews from their famine-ridden country.
Live and Become, while largely a drama, has a plot setup with one foot in farce. An Ethiopian Jew and her son are scheduled to be taken to Israel, but, hours before, the boy dies. A non-Jewish friend arranges for her son to take his place. The boy of course doesn’t want to leave, but his mother knows that it’s the best chance for his survival. On the trip, his surrogate mother teaches him to say he’s named Schlomo, son of Jakov. Unfortunately she dies not long after their arrival, and Schlomo (Moshe Agazai) – now doubly abandoned – is adopted by a middle-class, left-wing couple, Yaël (Yaël Abecassis) and Yoram (Roschdy Zem).
In addition to being the only black kid within sight, he also has to deal with faking his knowledge of Judaism, a tough chore for a nine-year-old, no matter how smart. Inwardly, he is constantly torn between homesickness for Africa and his desire to somehow become “a real Jew.” And the atmosphere is charged with racism. His schoolmates’ parents want him transferred to another school; and Orthodox religious officials schedule him for an interview that turns out to be an excuse for an unnecessary “conversion” ritual, including a symbolic circumcision (drawing blood with a jab to the penis of those already circumcised).
A little less than halfway through the film, we skip forward four years, to see Schlomo (now played by Moshe Abebe) as a young teenager; 40 minutes later, we leap ahead to Schlomo (now Sirak M. Sabahat) as a young adult, dealing with romance and career issues. He is having a typical transitional identity crisis, but it’s compounded by the never-ending identity crisis of his situation – as he keeps his original deceit a secret from his parents and his fiancée.
At nearly two and a half hours, Radu Mihaileanu’s film is unnecessarily long; a few incidents could have easily been cut. But it’s still worth the time. It manages to be, at points, heartwarming, tragic, and funny. And it casts a light on an ethnic identity issue that, while very specific, is certainly not without relevance to other groups around the world.
Tell No One. Directed by Guillaume Canet. Written by Guillaume Canet and Philippe Lefebvre; based on the novel by Harlan Coben. With François Cluzet, François Berléand, Kristin Scott-Thomas, André Dussollier, Marina Hands, Jean Rochefort, Marie-Josée Croze, Nathalie Baye, and Guillaume Canet. Opens Tuesday at Laemmle’s Sunset 5, Laemmle’s Town Center 5, and Laemmle’s Playhouse 7.
Live and Become. Directed by Radu Mihaileanu. Written by Radu Mihaileanu and Alain-Michel Blanc. With Moshe Agazai, Moshe Abebe, Sirak M. Sabahat, Yaël Abecassis, Roschdy Zem, and Roni Hadar. Opens Friday at the Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, Laemmle’s Town Center 5, and Laemmle’s Playhouse 7.
Published: 06/25/2008
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