Maddened By His Absence Reviewed by Lisa Nesselson
CRITICS’WEEK
A tale of inconsolable grief sensitively told from a bizarre angle, Maddened By His Absence (J’Enrage De Son Absence) is carried beautifully by a down- right haunted William Hurt. If ever a character fit the description “There’s method in his madness”, Hurt’s Franco-American Jacques, who returns from Boston to Paris to settle several layers of family business, is it. Co-writer-director Sandrine Bonnaire, whose
2007 doc about her developmentally challenged sister Her Name Is Sabine enjoyed deserved atten- tion, makes the transition to fiction by drawing viewers into a story as wrenching as it is layered. This increasingly harsh but rewarding adult drama deserves a look from international distributors. The film addresses how life does and does not go
on after the death of a child. While that sounds like a perfect opener for the ‘Flee in the Opposite Direc- tion Film Festival’, this is a low-key thriller with a steady hum of mysterious behaviour. The deeply serious, slightly repetitive venture should be aided by the presence of Hurt and curiosity about Bon- naire’s second outing behind the camera. Under a black screen with white credits, Hurt’s
voice is heard helping a French boy recite a nursery rhyme in English. All of his subsequent interactions are conducted in fluent, lightly accented French.
Fr-Lux-Belg. 2012. 99mins Director Sandrine Bonnaire Production companies Mon Voisin Productions, Mosaique Films, Iris Production, Iris Films International sales Films Distribution, www.
filmsdistribution.com Producers Dominique Besnehard, Michel Feller, Thomas Schmitt, Nicolas Steil, Jesus Gonzalez Screenplay Sandrine Bonnaire, Jérome Tonnerre Editor Svetlana Vaynblat Production designer Denis Hager Main cast William Hurt, Alexandra Lamy, Augustin Legrand, Jalil Mehenni, Matteo Trevisan, Francoise Oriane
Jacques is presented at first like a potential stalker
or child molester, staring intently from behind the wheel of a car as a woman accompanies her seven or eight-year-old boy to school in a Paris suburb. In the first quarter of an hour, we learn Jacques’
father has died, an event that prompts him to tele- phone Mado (Lamy), the woman whose move- ments he was tracking. This is their first contact in eight years. They were once a couple. Jacques still blames himself for something that happened over 10 years ago. Mado has remarried a tall, openly affectionate
man, Stéphane (Legrand), with whom she has a child. Mado is in charge of shipping at a fabrics firm; Jacques is an architect. His late father’s home is stuffed with fine furnishings and artwork, to which he is the sole heir.
Once the packing and legal obligations relating
to the estate are underway, Jacques asks to meet Mado’s son, Paul (Mehenni, appealing and con- vincing), and takes an intense interest in the boy. The camera offers tight close-ups — Bonnaire
loves to linger on and scrutinise faces — and ele- gant movements. As befits the world view of an architect, we understand the lay of the land. Appearances that speak volumes are all in place, with the window to a below-ground cellar a par- ticularly sharp piece of production design. Reactions flow organically from carefully laid
groundwork. The film explores how otherwise rea- sonable people can be driven to extreme behaviour. As the film advances into “How are they going to write their way out of this?” territory, the suspense builds to an emotional crescendo.
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