![]() Buti turned 12 in 1976, but was raised in a relatively urban environment amid a non-farming family, and his text is non-autobiographical. ![]() Lehericey and Giger’s screenplay is indeed based closely on a novel, the well-reviewed 2014 tome Roland Buti (like Lehericey, originally from Lausanne, Switzerland) published in English as The Year of the Drought. Even relatively minor characters are persuasively etched, with little Sasha Gravat Harsch stealing several scenes as Gus’ tomboyish, long-suffering friend Mado. Gus’ latent fears of abandonment ratchet up several notches when he happens to spy the two women in an amorous embrace (“Take take take take, take me away” plead New Zealand pop-punkers The Fuzzies on the soundtrack).Ĭomplications rapidly ensue: Jean, Nicole and Gus simultaneously hurtle towards their individual breaking points, in a screenplay - co-written by Lehericey and Joanne Giger - which takes a sensitive, novelistic approach to character and plot development. But he seems to divine that Nicole may envy Cecile’s freedom around this time she even takes a part-time job for the very first time. He’s evidently still somewhat clueless about matters sexual: In the early minutes, he steals a porno magazine and is intrigued by the woman-on-woman images in one section. The ever-watchful, ever-calculating kid is still very much a work-in-progress. ![]() Is Gus destined/doomed to follow in his footsteps (it turns out he has a violent streak towards females, too)? Perhaps not. And such rousings are pretty frequent: Even when the rains finally come, at the 75-minute mark, it just means a different set of problems to deal with. Nicole’s perpetually hard-working, bear-like husband Jean (Thibaut Evrard) is certainly nobody’s idea of a progressive-minded spouse, deploying violence when roused to anger, even under his own roof. A footloose, well-traveled divorcee, Cecile is clearly much more of a “liberated” woman than Nicole, who is apparently content with her traditional role as a farmer’s wife. His woes only escalate after Nicole’s long-time pal Cecile (Poesy) turns up out of the blue. A somewhat intense, even neurotic kid, Gus picks up on the rising tensions in his household caused by the disastrous effects of a seemingly endless drought on various aspects of the family’s farming operations. Also bowing in New Directors, Puppylove (2013) was thus her first full-length outing, the story of a 14-year-old who has a close relationship with her dad (played by Vincent Perez).Īlthough the geographical setting is very different, Lehericey now essays similar thematic terrain, paying particular attention (right up until the finale) to the bond between Gus and his mother Nicole (Casta). The San Sebastian sidebar is restricted to directors making their first or second feature: Lehericey’s 2007 debut Comme a Ostende ran only 58 minutes she also helmed a 55-minute documentary five years later.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |