lazarillo
This is a film by Jean Becker who directed "One Deadly Summer", one of the first films of Isabel Adjani back in the early 80's. The plot is very similar to "One Deadly Summer" with a sexy, grown-up orphan out to take revenge on all the people who drove her mother, the "Elisa" of the title, to suicide. Vanessa Paradis, the lead in this one, did not go on to have the illustrious career of Adjani (she is probably most famous today as Johnny Depp's long-time girlfriend), but she gives a pretty good performance here, especially compared to many of her other roles where she too often had little to do but stand around and look pretty.Paradis' character "Marie" does not start out particularly sympathetic. She gets released from the orphanage by threatening to out the director as a lesbian, and she and her friends make their living by swindling mom-and-pop shopkeepers. She also assaults her elderly grandparents, seduces and then humiliates her mother's former "sugar daddy", initiates a twelve-year-old Muslim boy into sex, and when she finally meets her long-lost pimp/pianist father (Gerard Depardieu) one of the first things she does is take off all her clothes and try to crawl into bed with him! As the move progresses, however, her character becomes more and more sympathetic (as her tragic childhood is fleshed-out via flashbacks of her mother), and by the end the movie ends up being quite touching.Paradis had played a role very similar to this (when she actually was about 17) in her debut "Noce Blanche", but she had obviously developed into a more self-assured actress by this film. Needless, to say she is very sexy, as is her nymphomaniacal friend/partner in crime (Clotilde Coreau). Depardieu is good as always (the movie is dedicated to Serg Gainsbourg and Depardieu's role might be somewhat of a homage to the late, great pianist/torch singer as well). I'd recommend this one.
Bob Taylor
I don't think Jean Becker is a very interesting director; the two films I have seen--L'Été meurtrier and this one--don't show any great stylistic ability. You remember L'Été for Adjani's performance as an avenging angel, and Vanessa Paradis does the same thing here: she's a one-woman wrecking crew taking on greedy grandparents, the lesbian director of her orphanage, men looking for sex, in fact anybody who gets in her way.The film stands or falls on the power and charisma of its star, and Vanessa Paradis doesn't disappoint. She is amazingly at ease in front of the camera, as befits a Lancôme model who also started singing at 14. No matter how tawdry the script gets--and that's plenty at times--she sails right through it. She even holds her own with Depardieu, the icon of French film.
withnail-1
This was an incredibly moving and under-rated film. it is basically about a girl who loses her parents and tries to reconstruct a surrogate family from her friends on the street. in the end she meets up with her father, intent on killing him at first... but fate takes another turn. vannessa paradis is incredible in this film and showed the world that she is a talented actress. i highly recommend this film.
claudine.bordereaux
The whole film took me into a carousel of emotions: anger, longing for the mother, the sense of betrayal. Marie (Vanessa Paradis took me by surprise in a swirl. Gerard Depardieu is a great actor who's not afraid to try all sorts of roles, only they show the true human nature. This film moved me. very deep and although I did not have much of respect for Vanessa, in this film she proved herself to be a good actress. I got very moved by two songs and I've been surfing on the film site and others in order to find them. I just saw the film recently on YV and did not have the time to register the title and the artists. The first song is showing for a very short while 2 musicians and a little girl in the metro, starting to sing a wonderful (Romenian?)song. The second is when Depardieu is on the beach, at night, drinking down his pain, while the music is crying on the tape-recorder he brought with him. An italian song, I should think. Please, help me to find the right songs and their interpreters. you'll make me very happy. I was so moved. I'd love to know if the music is on Cd or if the artists have their respective CDFriendly greetings from Claudine
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