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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First-class study of unhappy adolescence, November 8, 2000
"Set Me Free", as Lea Pool's "Emporte-moi" has had to be retitled for the benefit of illiterate Americans, is a restrained, beautiful and touching movie. It focuses on Hanna, the teenage daughter of an unhappy working-class couple (expatriate Jewish poet and beautiful Catholic prom queen) living in Montreal in the 1960s. Wandering into a cinema one day, Hanna develops a fixation on Godard's "Vivre sa vie" and models much of her appearance and behaviour on Anna Karina's doomed but glamorously imperturbable Nana. Her only friend is the more upper-class Laura, on whom she seems to have (or does she?) something of a crush, but who in return fancies Hanna's older brother Paul. Meanwhile, the creepy baker seldom misses an opportunity to grope her, and her troubled dad isn't averse to giving her a smack in the face now and then. Well, events roll quietly on, Hanna's mother suffers a breakdown, she and her brother run away from home to Laura's house, Hanna sneaks off to visit her mother and then tries her luck as a prostitute, with unhappy results, especially as she's only 13. But this is not a cautionary tale, nor is it a crime story. It has strong autobiographical elements; Hanna begins to find some potential for hope in her situation when her kindly teacher lends her a cine camera. "Mouchette" this isn't - Hanna may be poor and suffering from lovelessness and a crumbling family, but her father's touching attempts to make contact with her, by giving her a copy of the diary of Anne Frank and cooking her well-balanced meals, are positive signs. Likewise, Karine Vanasse as the teenaged heroine is not as vengeful and damaged as Nadine Nortier's Mouchette. Vanasse has a rather funny, v-shaped face, with a defiant tilt to her chin and a nice line in Anna Karina impersonations. She's yet another young French actress gifted with seemingly effortless command over her emotions, even if she spends much of the film in a reticent deadpan that is less the Bressonian mask of despair than a blank slate on which any possibility could be inscribed. The rest of the cast are equally good. "Emporte-moi", as I'm going to persist in calling it, is a lovely film, with a cool soundtrack of classical music and cheesy French rock'n'roll. (Vanasse sings a song over the closing credits with amusingly off-key sincerity.) Francophone Canada can turn out quiet masterpieces when it wants to, and this is the latest.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spectacular, April 1, 2002
In a word, this movie was stunning. All of the performances were great, and the best part was the ending, which gave the film a redeeming quality. It's a must-see.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Foreign Film, July 11, 2002
This foreign film was really not bad. Set in Canada, the movie was about a young teenage girl, Hannah, who was questioning her sexuality and living with an over-worked mother and somewhat absent father. Hannah is always going to the movies to see a certain film, "Vivre se Vi", about a classy prostitute. The prostitute is Hannah's idol. Later on, Hannah's mother has a nervous break down, so Hannah and her brother run away, where she tests out being a prostitute for one night. This movie was pretty good, I am beggining to be a fan of Lea Pool's films. You should go rent it, if you don't mind subtitles.
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