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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two Sisters Living Together: Belgian Bitter-Sweet Tale, May 29, 2005
This review is from: Pauline & Paulette (DVD)
Very short Belgian film, by first-time director Lieven Debrauwer, 'Pauline & Paulette' may not be seen at your multiplex, but will appeal to the movie fans who prefer the 'bitter-sweet' tale. Thanks to the exceptional acting from the leading ladies, the film is lifted one notch higher than usual European dramas.
The plot is simple. You see the four sisters -- Martha, Paulette, Cecile, and Pauline. Pauline, who loves collecting beautiful paper and watering flowers, is mentally-handicapped, and is now living with Martha, who suddenly dies, leaving the instructions to the remaining sisters, Cecile and Paulette. That is, if they both refuse to take care of Pauline, all of her money goes to Pauline.
As a consequence, Paulette takes Pauline back to her house, where she also runs a small business. And so far, you know, the story development is not surprising. It seems at first going on the familiar road, to the tidy 'feel-good' conclusion, but in the second half, you see, it is not. The subdued ending at the cold seaside town is very memorable, one of the best part of the film.
The film's tone is always quiet, even low-keyed, and there's nothing you cannot predict in the film's story except the final reel which is very insightful. But what I liked about the film best is that it does not deny the possibility that Pauline's life could be fine if someone else, someone outside her family, takes care of her. Some films tend to treat the life in hospital in the negative light. In 'Pauline & Paulette' it is just another alternative way of life.
Beligian veteran actress (75-year-old) Dora Van Der Groen gives impressive acting as Pauline, who could be both very charming and irritating, and equally good is Ann Petersen as Paulette, who suddenly discovers her utter loneliness in an unexpected place. The film starts like a Hallmark entertainment (which I like very much, don't be mistaken), but ends with a slightly bitter taste, which reminds us that 'Pauline & Paulette' is an European film, after all.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dora van der Groen - She's a handful, and she shines!, December 7, 2004
This review is from: Pauline & Paulette (DVD)
The centerpiece of this fine little film is Dora van der Groen's portrayal of Pauline, a retarded woman who is helpless and stubbornly willful, oblivious and conveniently aware, guileless and mischievously wily - in short, a handful to her sisters. van der Groen creates such an authentic character it's not only hard to believe, it's hard to **accept** that we're watching an actress and not the genuine article. Add to that the family dynamics that slowly, quietly unwind from frustration to grudging acceptance and then to real warmth, and you've got 78 minutes of the small compromises, small reconciliations, and small steps forward that left me thinking, "Yes, that's the way it should be."
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Perils of Pauline - and Paulette, April 2, 2006
This review is from: Pauline & Paulette (DVD)
PAULINE AND PAULETTE is a bittersweet little slice of life drama about four sisters, three of them senior citzens. The oldest sister Martha takes care of the mentally retarded sister, Pauline, while the two other sisters have gone on with their lives, the youngest sister Cecile having moved away Pauline doesn't even remember who she is. Pauline idolizes her somewhat indifferent sister Paulette who runs a small women's fashion shop and performs regularly in local amateur opera productions. Pauline in her limited mental capacity perhaps recognizes a kindred spirit: both sisters have a love of beauty, Pauline forever watering Martha's flowers and never without her scrapbook of pictures of flowers roughly torn out of magazines or from scraps of gift wrap, Paulette lives in a candy-box world with her rosy red boutique and her small home and it's womanly bric-a-brac, feminine furniture, and perfume. When Martha suddenly dies, the surviving sisters are forced to assist Pauline probably for the first time in their adult lives.
This Belgium movie was a popular title at film festivals when it was first released and among it's rewards was bringing two of the grande dames of Belgium cinema to international attention - Dora van der Groen as Pauline and Ann Petersen as Paulette, both of them about 73 when the film was released although playing sixty-something. van der Groen is amazing as the childlike Pauline but Petersen has many wonderful moments too as the prententious but not unfeeling Paulette. To me the film's most stunning moment is when the curtain comes down after Paulette's swan song at the operetta and she finds herself quite alone on the stage, her little dream world revealed for the plastic fantasy it was. This was sadly Petersen's final film, she passed away in 2003.
Director Lieven Debrauwer has a fine sense of human emotions and the movie is beautifully photographed, vividly capturing Paulette's gift-wrapped world and Pauline's austeure existance. The movie also sharply portrays the hostile unkindness the mentally-changed often face, here from a belittling butcher clerk and Cecile's self-centered boyfriend. The ending is perhaps unsatisfying to general American tastes with it's meloncholy, slightly unresolved ending but then the movie was not meant to be a Hallmark card. Director Debrauwer does a very good job in his first feature film, after several short subjects (three of them starring van der Groen and one regrets they are not here as bonus features on the DVD) and his commentary on the DVD is pleasant. I recommend this film to those who enjoy slightly sentimental films, you will certainly be moved.
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