UNE HIRONDELLE A FAIT
LE PRINTEMPS
THE GIRL FROM PARIS |
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Director:
Christian Carion
Screenplay: Carion & Eric Assous
Cast: Adrien: Michel Serrault
Sandrine Dumez: Mathilde Seigner
Jean: Jean-Paul Roussillon
Gérard: Frédéric Pierrot
Stéphane: Marc Berman
Awards: Nominated for Best First Work, César Awards (2002).
Running time: 103 minutes
Production: France, 2001
Rating: Not rated (scene of animal slaughter)
Gauge: 35mm (color)
Language: French
Distributor: Films Philos
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"The
Girl from Paris...is a quiet, slow-moving tale, very much in tune
with the gradual rhythms of traditional agricultural life. It could
easily have been dull and anecdotal, but Mr. Carion relates his simple
story with relaxed precision. He regards the staggering beauty of
the landscape, with its golden hay and craggy escarpments, with the
matter-of-fact appreciation of a native." A. O. Scott, The
New York Times. |
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A successful
computer science teacher, Sandrine decides that at 30 it’s
time to leave her unfulfilling job in overcrowded Paris and take
a chance on her life-long dream: farming. After completing an agricultural
science program, she buys a farm in the rugged and isolated mountains
of the Rhône-Alps. The catch is that the seller, Adrien, a
prickly old codger mistrustful of everyone and dismissive of Sandrine’s
ability to manage a farm, insists on living in his house for another
18 months before moving to Grenoble. Sandrine renovates the barn,
turning it into a guest house with living quarters for herself,
and advertises her property on the internet as an agrotourism destination.
Adrien, derisive at first, gains a grudging respect when the tourists
arrive and he sees Sandrine giving walking tours and selling her
homemade goat’s cheese and preserves. The two mutually suspicious
neighbors gradually bury their differences, but when the harsh winter
sets in, Sandrine, feeling lonely and deprived, doubts her strength
to continue. Having grown up on a farm himself, the director doesn’t
ignore the hardships--from helping goats in labor to repairing fences
in a winter storm--but he also shows a respect for farm work traditional
and newfangled, and a profound appreciation of natural beauty.
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| PHOTO Films
Philos |
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