Look at Me DVD Review:

Comme Une Image or translated as Look at Me, is about how people relate to an image of a person rather than deal with how real that person is. The story is centred around a young French woman, 20 year old Lolita Cassard who is still finding her indentity in the world and wondering if she has any talent as an amateur opera singer. As any young woman will discover, relationships with her parents, namely her father are stretched at best with a patriach being more concerned with his failure as a writer than how his daughter's emotions are developing. He is successful and well known but is losing his allure. His daughter also has to grapple with the fact that she is overweight and her stepmother is slightly anorexic although in reality she weighs about seven stone. Lolita is taking lessons from a part time teacher who does not see any hope for the budding singer until she realises that she is the daughter of a famous writer who could have the potential to help her husband hit the big time as a writer himself.

This picture won Best Screenplay at Cannes last year and should be noted for it's ability to compliment human emotions alongside a soundtrack of wonderful chamber music, thus putting a different slant on how people relate to each other. Another film that did this successfully, 20 years ago was Robert Redford's elegaic contribution, Ordinary People in which Mary Tyler Moore had to come face to face with the death of one son whom she loved dearly, and the yearning for acceptance by her from her only living son.

Like most foreign films, subject matter is approached in a way that is honest sometimes brutal, occassionaly comedic but always compelling. Differing from the Hollywood machine, French films especially celebrate the human condition by being brutally upfront about it and intelligent in debating the subject. Stateside cinema can sometimes brush it under the carpet or sweeten it with a happy ending. Look at Me studies familial relationships, weight gain and loss and failure with an air of maturity and frankness, seldom seen in popular Hollywood or even British cinema. It's also interesting to note that the music teacher, Sylvia played by Agnes Joui also directed the film and wrote the screenplay. The combination of music, communication and human fraility are subdued with a light comedic touch in this gem of a movie.

Features

Making of featurette
A delightful hour where we are taken onto the set of the film and how the production came about. There are segments of opera singers practicing their craft and lipsyncing with the main characters alongside interviews with the cast and crew, images of Cannes and also vignettes of costume designs to fit each of the different characters.

Theatrical Trailer
Regular 3 minute montage of the film, enticing movie lovers to go see it.

Photo gallery
Still shots from the production.

Final Comment
When I opened the packet I feared this may have something to do with Geri Halliwill, but that fear was soon diminished, when I put the film on. This is an intelligent, uncompromising reality check about fathers and daughters, aspirations and dreams, consequences and losses. For those of you that are not allergic to subtitles, go buy and enjoy this Gallic cinematic delight.



Catherine Emenike