Customer Reviews

La Vie Promise

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not one of Isabelle Huppert's best movies but she's always interesting to watch and her great performance is the best thing about this movie and quite frankly the only thing that makes it watchable and worth recommending.

The film is essentially a road movie in which Sylvia, a prostitute, and Laurence, her estranged 14-year-old daughter, run away from Nice after the latter commits a crime to defend her mother. They head to find Sylvia's husband and son, which she abandoned three years before and erased from her memory. Along the way, they meet a friendly fugitive who helps them.

The cast is excellent and the scenery is pretty, though there's a heavy-handed use of flower symbolism and U.S. country songs. In short, I recommend it only for Isabelle Huppert's characteristically superb performance (thought be warned that, even though she's great, this is far from her best films).

The story here is a little bit specious and even cloying at times. Isabelle Huppert plays Sylvia, a druggie prostitute who seems to care only about her booze and pills. She plies her trade on the streets of Nice. Her 14-year-old daughter, Laurence (Maud Forget) appears out of nowhere, having run away from her foster home. Sylvia tells her to get lost. She doesn't, and in the next scene, trying to protect her mother from a couple of pimps who are starting to beat her up for some money, the 14-year-old somehow stabs one of them. The other runs out the door. The stabbed man is dead, and mother and daughter are on the run as in a Hollywood on the lam movie.

I don't think I need to tell the reader that mom is going to find the love she really feels for her daughter in addition to finding her own heart, and so I won't, because it isn't that simple. The story though is rather ordinary and predictable and is told with a number of loose ends just left lying about, not the least of which is the dead man.

No matter however because:

(1) Isabelle Huppert is brilliant and very convincing as a low-class, trashy kind of person who lies almost habitually, even when she doesn't need to, a person lacking social skills or really any kind of skill. Her hair is too too blonde and she dresses like a tramp.

But it is amazing how comfortable Huppert looks in the role. Again I am very much impressed with her ability. I wonder if there is a more talented actress working anywhere in the world today. She is almost obsessive in the way she becomes the characters she plays. I've seen her in half a dozen films and in everyone she was a distinctly different person.

(2) The movie is beautifully shot with arresting scenes of earth and sky, unlike anything one usually sees in a domestic French movie.

(3) The music, some of it American country and western, some of it classical, was wonderfully chosen and coordinated with the story of the film in a way that enhances our appreciation. That is what is usually attempted of course. The idea being that music should help to trigger our response; but often the attempt is only halfhearted or too obviously directive. Here the music helps to bring the film to life.

(4) The story is uplifting and redemptive.

One more thing: the title in English, The Promise Life, is not a good translation of what is intended by the French, La Vie Promise. Better would be "The Promised Life," although that would be inaccurate. Also unsatisfactory would be "The Life of Promise." What I like is the title sometimes given to the film, "Ghost River." There is a beautiful line in the film that refers to "The flow of the ghost river" that I think somehow illustrates the life Sylvia has lead.

By all means see this beautiful if somewhat sentimental film for Isabelle Huppert, one of the great stars of the modern cinema.

Isabelle Huppert gives a superb performance as a pill-popping prostitute in "La Vie Promise," a slice-of-life, hard luck tale set on the highways and byways of rural France. Huppert is Sylvia, a hooker in Nice with a fourteen year old daughter named Laurence, whose existence the jaded streetwalker would prefer not to acknowledge even though Sylvia does give her money on a regular basis. One night, however, Laurence forces herself into her mother's life by stabbing to death the pimp who is thrashing Sylvia to within an inch of her life for some money she owes him. The two women hop aboard a train in an effort to disappear into the countryside. One night, Laurence runs away after the two of them have an argument. Much of the film's time is devoted to the mother and daughter's search for one another, often missing each other by a mere fraction of a second. Joshua is a man whom Sylvia and Laurence meet separately on the road and who, in his strangely quiet way, becomes instrumental in reconciling - both physically and psychologically - the estranged pair.

"La Vie Promise" has a simplicity of style and a purity of vision that keep it from becoming just another tale of a down-and-out prostitute or a tired generation gap drama. Sylvia is a complex character, a hurt and lost soul trying to come to grips with the mistakes she's made and hoping to rectify at least some of those mistakes in this crucial moment of her life. Huppert does a beautiful job conveying both the emotional turmoil and the latent nobility hidden within the recesses of her wounded psyche. The screenplay doesn't try to psychoanalyze the character completely, but allows her to retain much of the mystery and ambiguity that makes her, finally, interesting to the audience. The film does less well with Laurence who really isn't allowed a whole lot of psychological development throughout the story. As a result, young Maud Forget isn't given much opportunity to display her depth and scope as an actress. Pascal Greggory's Joshua is also kept enigmatic, but in his case the ambiguity works well in the context of the story.

The film has been beautifully photographed, and Oliver Dahan's direction contains many lyrical touches that turn the film into a compelling mood piece, employing nature as a prime element in its artistry. But it is Huppert's rich and many-layered performance that brings the film to life.

LA VIE PROMISE is one of those films that begs multiple viewings: the cinematography is truly an art form here, the story though incredibly well told (written by director/ co-author Olivier Dahan with Agnès Fustier-Dahan) requires integration of the viewer's thinking to capture the interstices of understated depth of the tale, an the acting of Isabelle Huppert is simply one of the finest moment on film. Rave review? Yes, and well deserved!

Sylvia (Huppert, who has never been more beautiful before the camera) is a prostitute with an edge in Nice: she accepts her profession but acts with the elements of a seasoned streetwalker, always fully in charge of any situation. She is a woman with a past. She was once married to Piotr (Andre Marcon) in northern France (Viale) but had a nervous breakdown eight years ago concurrent with the birth of her son, the apparent reason for her fleeing to Nice. Now her teenage epileptic daughter Laurence (Maud Forget) appears, having been scattered through foster homes because her mother doesn't want her around, and Sylvia once again throws her out. But Laurence is hiding in Sylvia's flat when her pimp visits demanding money, and Laurence kills him. The mother and daughter then flee Nice afraid of the murder consequences and travel toward northern France by walking hitchhiking, bus - any means possible to avoid the police. Sylvia has decided to search for her eight-year old son and for Piotr, hoping they may afford them protection. Along the way they meet Joshua (Pascal Greggory), an escaped convict who befriends them and encourages the growing bond between mother and daughter and eventually provides their arrival at their destination. The concluding moments of the story are the stuff of great drama and should not be revealed to the viewer.

Throughout the film the integration of art photography and music enhances the mood of the story: Bach, Mendelssohn, Debussy and mixed with contemporary American blues and the mixture deserves a CD release. But the overriding star of this entire production is the radiant Isabelle Huppert, one of our finest actresses of today, in a role that, though nearly impossible to make credible, in Huppert's hands becomes a woman whose damaged psyche becomes permanently imprinted on our memories. It is a tour de force of acting of the highest caliber. Highly Recommended to lovers of Art Films. Grady Harp, July 06

This French film, called something else when released in that country, revolves around a prostitute that takes off with her teenage daughter to seek a reunion with her husband and the 8-year-old child they bore together. The pair then engage in an embroiled trip across France where they meet interesting people, managed to elude cops and others that get in their way, and elope into an emotional world of the current day, old and failed past events, and hope for the future.

While this sounds like it has all the trappings of both a Hollywood melodrama and a movie of the week, this film is far better than either of those prospects, mostly because of the fine acting by all the principals. Those principals revolve around French beauty and actress Isabelle Huppert, who plays the prostitute-mother.

The plot, which is too substantial for this to be considered an art film (which it mimics with its regular cutaways to quiet daydream sequences), has a plot with too much in it that could never happen.

Huppert and her daughter (who is a criminal) first escape her daughter's problem, then run around the French countryside like they are on vacation, staying at nice places, and meeting nice people. They fight, separate, are reunited and run into an escaped convict who drives nice cars, has a heart of gold, and apparently has lots of money to buy them clothes and support their travel stays. He eventually takes them to meet the hooker's husband.

What is most effective in this film are the interrelationships between the characters -- especially the mother and teenage daughter -- and the emotions these interactions generate. I felt authentic pathos for this couple during their journey, which was all the time fated to end either negatively or tragically. It really ends neither way but also can't be counted as a "good" ending.

The film is beautifully composed, well written (other than the contrived plot devices) and is very, very personal and emotional. People that want to escape into the lives of people down on their luck and looking for a prospect can buy, rent or borrow this film and get 100 percent return on their investment.

It is, in my opinion, a movie that delivers its promise and provides a lot of beauty during an hour and a half. It is not a great film, nor an art film, although it could have been both with a better plot. But it stands well on its own and is worth your time if you like this kind of thing.

Isabelle Huppert shows once again what a marvelous actress she is! Her face is like a chameleon, how she can convey emotion silently as well as when she speaks. The 3 main characters in the movie all moved me. It was well directed in how these 3 people became involved in each other's plight. They all had someplace to run from and they all needed some foundation. I loved the ending and I am glad that this movie demonstrated that no matter how bad your life may be, when you truly desire to change it...it will change. I have to buy this one!

The French film "La Vie Promise" has a mighty weapon in its cinematic arsenal--the luminous Isabelle Huppert headlines this character study of a woman reconnecting with her past. Huppert, a really terrific international star, is renowned for her strong screen performances and is reason enough (for me) to check out any film. Here she plays Sylvia, a world wise and weary prostitute. After a particularly unconvincing bit of violence, Sylvia and her estranged daughter must flee the city to avoid unpleasant reprisals. Huppert is aloof and unkind to the girl and is genuinely unsympathetic in every way! As the women become separated, the film turns into an internal exploration for both--as the girl starts to understand her mother's standoffishness and Sylvia begins to piece together a life prior to being on the streets. Sylvia, quite literally, has blanked out most of her past but longs to reconnect with a son she had to leave behind.

The film never addresses the daughter's back story. Her origin remains a mystery, and she doesn't seem particularly infuriated that Sylvia's quest to find her son still leaves her out in the cold. With the assistance of man on the run, the women eventually reach their destination and the film achieves a quiet intensity as memories start to flood back. Huppert plays the role with a push/pull dichotomy--she charges into every situation, hesitates, then retreats. She wants answers, but doesn't want them. The subtle shifts in her character and in the dynamic between the travelers makes for a satisfying resolution to the adventure. There may be no grand moments of realization, but the film still provides a calm power that is appealing. KGHarris, 2/11.

I thought this movie was going to be interesting. Wrong ...
It did arouse the curiousity of the other person watching.

The director tried to take a hippy trippy view of this person's life.
I found it disconcerting & didn't care what happened to her.

I ended up leaving about halfway through to do the dishes.

There was no English subtitles even though I speak French.

Isabelle Huppert plays the out of luck prostitute, Sylvia, who had suffered an emotional breakdown and did not want to get involved in anyone's life, not even that of her daughter, husband and son. She blatantly rejected her 14 year old daughter Laurence (Maud Forget), but is forced to take her on the run when Laurence kills a pimp who was beating her up. Along the way, Sylvia says some hurtful things causing Laurence to run off, then she regrets it and wishes Laurence were back. She sets off to find her husband Piotr, egged on by hope that he'll have her back and rescue her from her circumstances. As she stumbles across fields and down country roads, she has flashbacks of a happier time, and returns to the mental institution to find out about herself and regain her memory.

By a set of coincidences both Sylvia and Laurence hitchhike with an escaped car thief Joshua (Pascal Greggory) who attempts to reunite them and help them find Sylvia's husband and 8 year old son. The threesome bond emotionally, as each is running away from something, and running towards some unknown hope, some promise for a better life. The reunion wasn't what Sylvia hoped for, and as she gazes at her young son from behind the trees you can't help but feel for her and what she had lost. Yet during this time, she found that she did care about Laurence and was rewarded with Laurence telling her that she loved her. Joshua treats them like family, and at the end the three head off crossing the border into Germany and into the great unknown. Sylvia writes a letter to her 8 year old son explaining her wish that someday they'll be a real family again.

As with French films, there is a complexity and exploration of the characters' psyche that is not present in American films. There is an uncertainty, no trite resolution, and a continual flow that leaves you wondering what happens to the characters after the film is over. Perhaps it is best described as Sylvia's grandmother tells her, that life is like a ghost river. You don't remember most of it, and where it flows you don't know, but it is there, the past an undercurrent to where you are for the moment, and the future as uncertain as the past.