CLAIRE DARLING
****
Director: Julie Bertuccelli
Screenwriters: Julie Bertuccelli and Sophie Filliéres, adapted from the novel Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge.
Principal cast:
Catherine Deneuve
Chiara Mastroianni
Samir Guesmi
Alice Taglioni
Laure Calamy
Olivier Rabourdin
Country: France
Classification: M
Runtime: 94 mins.
Australian release date: 20 June 2019
Previewed at: Palace Central, Sydney, on 4 June 2019.
Set in a magnificent mansion belonging to the director’s grandmother in Verderonne, northern France, Julie Bertuccelli’s Claire Darling is an intriguing and poignant story based on a best-selling book by Texan author Lynda Rutledge. It looks at the relationship between a mother and her daughter and the significance of possessions that hold memories of life’s experiences. The furniture and objects are mostly antique and ornately beautiful and one suspects that many of them also belong to Madame Bertuccelli’s grand-mère. Interestingly, it is the first dramatic feature from the director since she made The Tree in Queensland in 2010, a film which was also based on a novel written in English.
Claire (Catherine Deneuve) is an aging heiress who, on the first day of summer, arranges all her treasured household possessions on her front lawn to be sold off to anyone who comes by. She is asking ridiculously low prices for these valuable goods so news soon spreads around the village and the locals start streaming in looking for bargains. Once or twice the more sensitive inhabitants suggest that, should she change her mind, they would be happy to return the items but, for the most part, people are happy to take advantage of the unusual situation. There is, of course, much speculation as to why Claire is having this garage sale and divesting herself of her material wealth. A visit by her long-estranged daughter, Marie (Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve’s actual daughter), determined to put a halt to the sale having been tipped off by her childhood friend Martine (Laure Calamy), gradually reveals the past as the two women attempt to reconcile their conflicting memories of the events surrounding Marie’s departure.
On many levels this is a remarkable film. Both the leading women convey this tragedy in a nuanced manner, exhibiting behaviour that is, at various times, both frustrating and heartbreaking. Deneuve is mesmerizing as the reclusive, privileged matriarch who is moved to action by a premonition but unable to explain this intuition to those around her, who think she is having some kind of breakdown. And indeed, she may be - Deneuve plays Claire as if she’s in a somewhat dazed, dreamy state. Mastroianni is also thoroughly convincing as the daughter who left suddenly because of her mother’s actions and hasn’t ventured near her for years. Marie disapproves of her mum yet is still concerned about her and is bound to her by their blood and their shared memories. Their reunion reveals the complexity of life and the relationship that was destroyed because of one mistake.
Two different past time periods, when Marie was a girl and a teenager, are mixed with the present by flashbacks that seamlessly interweave with current day events. This stylistic choice was deliberate because Bertuccelli says that that is the way her memory works, that “Everything is mixed with my present.” She adds, “A close friend gave me this book, saying it made her think of me. She was right, I lapped up this story which encompassed many themes that I identify with: the complex rapport between mother and daughter; how the dead haunt us; objects and furniture which engulf us and act as a memory substitute; lies, secrets and things left unsaid in families, distorting our relationships; our impending demise; the memory we construct, which both imprisons and suffocates us; and being forgotten, which makes us sad but also liberates us.” With the most photogenic location and a beautiful set design, Claire Darling is a visual experience whose finale will blast you out of your seat and is reminiscent of the climax of Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point. The film also confirms, as if we needed it, that Deneuve is one of the finest of French actors who, as she ages, becomes even more elegant and who remains the reigning Queen of French cinema.
Screenwriters: Julie Bertuccelli and Sophie Filliéres, adapted from the novel Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge.
Principal cast:
Catherine Deneuve
Chiara Mastroianni
Samir Guesmi
Alice Taglioni
Laure Calamy
Olivier Rabourdin
Country: France
Classification: M
Runtime: 94 mins.
Australian release date: 20 June 2019
Previewed at: Palace Central, Sydney, on 4 June 2019.
Set in a magnificent mansion belonging to the director’s grandmother in Verderonne, northern France, Julie Bertuccelli’s Claire Darling is an intriguing and poignant story based on a best-selling book by Texan author Lynda Rutledge. It looks at the relationship between a mother and her daughter and the significance of possessions that hold memories of life’s experiences. The furniture and objects are mostly antique and ornately beautiful and one suspects that many of them also belong to Madame Bertuccelli’s grand-mère. Interestingly, it is the first dramatic feature from the director since she made The Tree in Queensland in 2010, a film which was also based on a novel written in English.
Claire (Catherine Deneuve) is an aging heiress who, on the first day of summer, arranges all her treasured household possessions on her front lawn to be sold off to anyone who comes by. She is asking ridiculously low prices for these valuable goods so news soon spreads around the village and the locals start streaming in looking for bargains. Once or twice the more sensitive inhabitants suggest that, should she change her mind, they would be happy to return the items but, for the most part, people are happy to take advantage of the unusual situation. There is, of course, much speculation as to why Claire is having this garage sale and divesting herself of her material wealth. A visit by her long-estranged daughter, Marie (Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve’s actual daughter), determined to put a halt to the sale having been tipped off by her childhood friend Martine (Laure Calamy), gradually reveals the past as the two women attempt to reconcile their conflicting memories of the events surrounding Marie’s departure.
On many levels this is a remarkable film. Both the leading women convey this tragedy in a nuanced manner, exhibiting behaviour that is, at various times, both frustrating and heartbreaking. Deneuve is mesmerizing as the reclusive, privileged matriarch who is moved to action by a premonition but unable to explain this intuition to those around her, who think she is having some kind of breakdown. And indeed, she may be - Deneuve plays Claire as if she’s in a somewhat dazed, dreamy state. Mastroianni is also thoroughly convincing as the daughter who left suddenly because of her mother’s actions and hasn’t ventured near her for years. Marie disapproves of her mum yet is still concerned about her and is bound to her by their blood and their shared memories. Their reunion reveals the complexity of life and the relationship that was destroyed because of one mistake.
Two different past time periods, when Marie was a girl and a teenager, are mixed with the present by flashbacks that seamlessly interweave with current day events. This stylistic choice was deliberate because Bertuccelli says that that is the way her memory works, that “Everything is mixed with my present.” She adds, “A close friend gave me this book, saying it made her think of me. She was right, I lapped up this story which encompassed many themes that I identify with: the complex rapport between mother and daughter; how the dead haunt us; objects and furniture which engulf us and act as a memory substitute; lies, secrets and things left unsaid in families, distorting our relationships; our impending demise; the memory we construct, which both imprisons and suffocates us; and being forgotten, which makes us sad but also liberates us.” With the most photogenic location and a beautiful set design, Claire Darling is a visual experience whose finale will blast you out of your seat and is reminiscent of the climax of Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point. The film also confirms, as if we needed it, that Deneuve is one of the finest of French actors who, as she ages, becomes even more elegant and who remains the reigning Queen of French cinema.