In the space of a year, fate intervenes drawing some pairs closer and others further apart. Mostly successful professionals, they search for satisfaction in an imperfect world. Except for the flamenco dancer, the individuals complain about everything from an ugly flower bouquet to a Polish stew. Coming off as judgmental, cerebral brats, they probably resemble power couples everywhere.

One of the best scenes shows two of the older men partner dancing to the Platters inside the daughter’s pink bedroom.

Mr. Thompson does not dive into the emotional landscape so as much as the characters’ racing thoughts. Oddly enough, little sympathy is elicited for anyone, including the woman who is hit by a car and becomes a paraplegic. However, the tragedy brings her closer to her husband—an even exchange? You be the judge.

Whenever I leave a French film, I always feel the urge to tuck into a fine meal, down a splendid glass of wine, change my wardrobe and lose weight. Is that just me? The stylish and skillful cast includes Dany Boon, Emanuelle Seigner, Karin Viard, and Marina Hands.
CHANGE OF PLANS opens in New York on August 27th at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and IFC Center.
C. Ipiotis

From the very first scene, the film unfolds with predictable sincerity. Good hearted, hard working, golden girl, Leslie Wright (Queen Latifah) works as a physical therapist but lives for the NETS. Her beautiful, out-of work cousin Morgan Alexander (Paula Patton) invests daily in building her career as an NBA trophy wife.

Because of a fluke meeting at a gas station, Wright meets star NBA player McKnight (Common) but no sooner does she primp and dream of romance, than Morgan snares him with flattery and everything the feminist movement railed against for the past three decades.

The most authentic moments happen to music: when Latifah sings, or McKnight plays the piano in tribute to John Coltrane or even an oh-too- brief appearance by trumpeter Terence Blanchard.

As Wright’s mother, Phylicia Rashad and James Pickens, Jr. as her father, come close to generating some honest-to-goodness feelings. But the script by Michael Elliot hobbles his characters’’ emotional range. Director Sanaa Hamri expresses a visual fondness for extreme close-ups of people’s eyes, make that a single eye. But the intense close-up does not magnify emotional intensity. It just looks weird.

Considering the cast’s appeal, there was every reason to believe “Just Wright” would snuggle into people’s hearts, instead it just dribbles on.
C. Ipiotis

Best New Narrative Filmmaker – Kim Chapiron for Dog Pound, written by Kim Chapiron and Jeremie Delon. (France). Winner receives $25,000 cash. Sponsored by American Express.
Jury Comments: “ We have chosen to honor a director who created an environment built with such intensity and humanity that his ensemble cast was able to transcend the cold walls and locked doors that confined their characters.”

Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film – Eric Elmosnino as Serge Gainsbourg in Gainsbourg, Je t’Aime…Moi Non Plus, directed and written by Joann Sfar. (France). Sponsored by Delta Air Lines. Winner receives two BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere Delta travels.

Jury Comments: “The ultimate compliment to an actor is that he so becomes his role that he will forever be defined by it. No more is this true than in this case.”

Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Sibel Kekilli as Umay in When We Leave (Die Fremde), directed and written by Feo Aladag. (Germany). Winner receives two BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere Delta travels.
Jury Comments: “Among many brilliant performances we found one in particular that captivated from the first frame of the film and held us through a long and difficult journey. "

The jurors for the 2010 World Documentary Competition were Jessica Alba, Margaret Brown, Abbie Cornish, Marshall Curry, Whoopi Goldberg, Aidan Quinn and Eric Steel.

· Best Documentary Feature – Monica & David, directed by Alexandra Codina. (USA). Sponsored by HBO. Winner receives $25,000 in cash and the art award “Jorge, 2003/2009” by Vik Muniz.
Jury Comments: “Monica & David takes an incredibly intimate situation and beautifully translates it in a way that makes you think about your own life. "

Special Jury Mention: Budrus directed by Julia Bacha (USA, Palestine, Israel).
Jury Comments: “Budrus is about a local community who stood up to defend what was theirs, and in doing so they changed a country.”

· Best New Documentary Filmmaker – Clio Barnard for The Arbor (UK). Winner receives $25,000 cash. Sponsored by American Express.
Jury Comments: “... this director bends the boundaries of the form, beautifully crafting an innovative and detailed film wherein great storytelling is paramount.”

This has always seemed to me a kind of lazy-hazy shorthand on the part of movie pundits. Over the last decade, it’s struck me that not all Tribeca docs have been five-star hotels and not all of its features have been flea-ridden SROs. And even if the festival’s percentages favor what we now call “nonfiction film” over what we now call “narrative film,” you have to concede that those skewed percentages apply to American movies in general.

Good, original stories either are unsubstantiated rumors or exist beyond the reach of most writers and directors at every strata of the movie marketplace – which, by the way, seems to care less than a monkey dropping for anything that isn’t pre-tested, i.e. any comic book franchise you can name.

So, as always, I wonder as I wander from venue to venue; all of which, by the way, seem to be getting further away from the eponymous neighborhood every year. You have your Tribeca game plan. I have mine. These are a few of things I’ve seen – and, mostly, liked:

The Two Escobars -- Compared with all the chatter about this year’s edition of Tribeca being the “Alex Gibney Festival” because of all the stuff he’s showing this year (“My Trip to al-Qaeda,” In-progress print of “Elliot Spitzer,” part of “Freakonomics”) and the stuff he’s shown here before (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” “Taxi to the Dark Side”), hardly anyone has mentioned the return of Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, whose award-winning “Favela Rising” from five years ago was one of the festival’s biggest coups. They return with yet another one of their own trips to the dark side: The sad tale of how soccer in Colombia became one of the many casualties of that country’s extravagantly violent and immensely stupid drug war.

The title refers to two legendary, unrelated figures of the country’s late-20th-century folklore: Pablo Escobar, CEO of Medelin’s most notorious drug cartel and Andres Escobar, charismatic heart-and-soul of the Colombian national soccer team. Sifting through miles of archival footage and extracting remarkable interviews with everyone from Andres’ sister and fiancée to Pablo’s incarcerated henchmen, the Zimbalist brothers orchestrate a dual portrait that connects the rise of Pablo’s fortunes with that of the sport itself. Because of Pablo’s geek-like infatuation with soccer, much of his blood money (and you’d swear you see every drop of that blood spilled throughout the movie) went into soccer. Images of dead people in the streets are juxtaposed with those of the national team in its full, lightning-strike glory – and you’re a little startled by how the latter images, almost but not quite overcome the other.

After Pablo’s untimely, inevitable death, gloom and tension permeate the once-mighty national team. Their nerves are so shot by the 1994 World Cup that they lose in the first round (to the U.S. team, no less) on a goal scored by Andres himself in his own net. Two weeks later, he was gunned down in Medelin, allegedly by vengeful drug lords who lost gambling money because of the team’s collapse.

At times, you wish the Zimbalists would have taken their feet of the gas and refrained from piling on as much detail into each development as it can bear. It mucks up their momentum, which otherwise carries the movie with an almost rock-arena fervor. That propulsive, riveting style is reason enough to check this thing out when it surfaces on ESPN sometime later this spring.

Legacy – Thomas Ikimi, a writer-director educated in Nigeria, England and Columbia University, assembled this deep, dark puzzle thriller about a former “black ops” soldier (Idris Elba), who’s holed up in a Brooklyn flophouse sorting through the shattered remains of his psyche. He was captured and tortured for the unit’s slaughter of an arms dealer’s family. It’s not entirely clear how he made it back to the world, but now that he’s there, he intends to take some revenge of his own against his older brother (Eamonn Walker), a right-wing senator who’s campaigning for president on a radical anti-terror platform.

Ikimi shows considerable talent for wooly atmosphere, serrated dialogue and calculated enigmas. Still, “Legacy” mostly comes across as a referendum for Elba’s ability to carry a movie on his own. Anyone (anyone?) who saw the just-released “The Losers” (anyone?) or has followed Elba’s career since his breakout performance in “The Wire” knows that he’s got the brooding magnetism to carry any action movie he gets. “Legacy,” though not quite big enough to raise his status, gives him plenty of room to twitch, roar, smolder and kick ass. He’s got my vote for a star vehicle. Only thing is: I’m not sure commercial American movies as they exist now are going to be able to do much better than this for Elba. And if they can’t do it for him, they’re certainly not going to do it for any other emerging black actor with his range and mobility. I hope I’m wrong – but I doubt it.

Please Give – Nicole Holofcener (“Walking and Talking,” “Lovely and Amazing,” “Friends with Money”) brings forth yet another of her droll, understated comedies-of-(ill) manners with her trademark themes of (quoting the program notes here) “mid-life crises, insecurity, materialism, accumulation of wealth and the liberal guilt and moral paralysis that accompany them.” After two movies set in L.A., she’s back among the New York hip-wah-see. Catherine Keener, who’s been a constant in all Holfcener’s movies, is Kate, an antique dealer who shares both the business and her seemingly blissful life with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt).

Yet she’s nagged by the feeling that she’s not doing enough for those in need, hence her habit of handing out $20 bills to every homeless person she can find. (Biggest audience laugh at the screening: When Kate tries to give money to a scruffy-looking, gray-bearded black man standing outside a restaurant and is told, with no inflection or rancor, that he’s waiting for a table.) Meanwhile, her hormonal 15-year-old daughter (Sarah Steele) wonders why Mom can’t be as attentive to her needs (like a $200 pair of jeans).

Adding to Kate’s expanding portfolio of guilt feelings is her sense of watchful waiting over their next-door neighbor, a prickly nonagenarian (Ann Guilbert, best known as Millie Helper from the old “Dick Van Dyke Show”). Even the latter’s two granddaughters, mousey nurse Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and bitchy spa worker Mary (Amanda Peet) acknowledge that Kate and Alex are waiting for the old lady to die so they can expand their own apartment. Still, the granddaughters’ lives carry psychic baggage of such proportions that they get tied up with Kate and Alex’s own.

Holofcener’s approach has previously seemed seem as sour and as brittle as some of her characters. But “Please Give, for all of its deadpan veneer and gimlet-eyed humor, ends up being as moving as “Lovely and Amazing” without that latter film’s traffic jam of complications. And Keener, Hall and Peet are each luminous, but in different ways than they’ve been before. I’m not seeing the commercial prospects here that are found in, say, “It’s Complicated.” But I’ll take Holofcener’s chamber music over Nancy Meyers’ brass band slapstick any day. And yes, I know that makes me a snob. I feel SO guilty about that….

My Trip to al-Qaeda – The aforementioned – and, as noted, ubiquitous – Alex Gibney directed this not-quite-filmed-theater adaptation of a staged monologue by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Lawrence Wright about his experiences covering the rise of fundamentalist Islam in the Arab world and the ongoing consequences of that upheaval both here and abroad.

It’s an adroit blend of travelogue, archival material and memoir; much of it reviewing and rehashing ideas, indignities and misperceptions catalogued by many post-9-11 documentaries, including Gibney’s.

Still, Wright carries his hard-won knowledge with charm, ease and, at times, dry humor. Familiar points are made, warnings are repeated and the untenable-ness of the situation we’re in is depressingly reinforced.

Of all the things mentioned by Wright, the most chilling, to me, was his description of how the people of Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Middle East states don’t care about facts; rather they carry alternate visions of reality choked with conspiracy, dogma and hype. When one contemplates what’s happening to the media universe in this country and the nasty polarities that have emerged in what used to be “civil” public discourse, you can’t help but wonder if these United States we live in are headed for the same collective mental state – and what manner of jihads and sectarian chaos could emerge as a result. Just because the movie doesn’t make such connections (at least, not blatantly) doesn’t mean you can’t infer them.

The Arbor – My first weekend of Tribeca 2010 ended as it began: With an innovative documentary invoking harsh, rueful truths about the failure of collective and individual responsibility. Clio (pronounced “Cly-oh”) Barnard’s movie leaps in, out and around the barriers separating fiction and non-fiction movie convention in chronicling the complicated legacy of British playwright Amanda Dunbar, who became famous for her semi-autobiographical dramas about growing up in the tough Yorkshire housing project (or, as they’re called in England, “estate.”) that gave the name to both her first play and this movie. Dunbar died in 1990 at age 29 of a brain hemorrhage, leaving behind not only her successful dramas but a troubled mixed-race daughter named Lorraine, who remained in The Arbor, grappling with alcohol and drug addiction – and worse.

Barnard re-introduced Lorraine to her mother’s life and work, through news clips and performances of her work. The movie does likewise with readings of the play,”The Arbor”, staged on the project’s terrain. But Lorraine declined to be interviewed on camera, compelling Barnard to make her most audacious move of all: Using actors to lip-synch recorded interviews with Lorraine and other Dunbar family members and friends. These seemingly disparate tactics risk creating an alienation effect from all the heartbreak. Yet at the conclusion Sunday night’s premiere screening, one heard a stunned silence that was even louder than the applause that followed several seconds later. Other storytellers have breached the walls separating fact and fiction, but few have carried it out with as striking a balance of boldness and delicacy. It’s the best thing I’ve seen so far…with less than a week to go.
By Gene Seymour .

As the day nears, a woman arrives with her own secret, the wise and genteel Maddie Darrow (Sissy Spacek) and suddenly, Bush’s heart is revealed. High contrast lighting plunges faces and landscape in dramatic relief as buried feelings compete with an agonizing desire to be released.

The tension, wit and camaraderie between the actors make the film feel like a tightly directed stage play. Duvall gores his character’s soul, while Spacek floods herself with grace and humanity. A brazen skeptic, Murray adds human complexity to the role of the money-hungry undertaker and the appealing Buddy radiates truth. A visual parable, “Get Low” uncovers the threads of decency that bind communities.
C. Ipiotis

Tom DiCillo’s film “When You’re Strange” plunges into the psyche of the Doors through a collage of unseen archival footage of the band members in performance mixed with “home movies.”

A fascinating peephole into the high-pressure world of the music industry, the film walks into series of recording sessions that say more about the artist than any performance footage. Granted, watching Morrison’s metamorphosis into the sexual, poet of rock is utterly mesmerizing, but the facts supporting the Door’s rise are equally compelling.

Occasionally employing a sardonic tone. Johnny Depp narrates the documentary; this was the era of drugs, sex, rock ‘n roll. In a short space of time, the Doors--drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison made their mark.

Besides the remarkable amount of film footage exposing the artists in on and off-stage, you are reminded that the group consisted of expert musicians. Too often, the public mistakes rock artists as kids with the musical IQ of two strumming chords.

Because Morrison, the riveting lead vocalist eclipsed the rest of the band, many did not realize the sizable creative contributions made by Manzarek.

The doomed Morrison is seen in various states of drug or alcohol induced highs, but fortunately, this repetitive image is filled in with chunks of informative information about the era. Some great Doors music adds to the documentary’s gritty allure.

When You’re Strange opens for limited release April 9.
C. Ipiotis

12 narrative and 12 documentary features compete for combined unrestricted cash prizes amounting to $100,000, including prizes totaling $50,000 from American Express for the Best New Narrative and Documentary Filmmakers.

Buried Land, directed by Geoffrey Alan Rhodes and Steven Eastwood, written by Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, Steven Eastwood, and Dzenan Medanovic. (USA, UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina) – World and TFF Virtual Premiere. The small town of Visoko heralds to the world a remarkable discovery: A valley of ancient pyramids predating Egypt exists under the hills of central Bosnia.

· Dog Pound, directed by Kim Chapiron, written by Kim Chapiron and Jeremie Delon. (France) – World Premiere. Director Kim Chapiron (Sheitan, TFF ’06) takes a searing look at three incarcerated teenagers fighting for their lives and for hope. · Lucky Life, directed by Lee Isaac Chung, written by Lee Isaac Chung and Samuel Gray Anderson. (USA) – World Premiere. When one of them falls ill, a group of friends takes one last trip to the beach, desiring a meaningful farewell.

· My Brothers, directed by Paul Fraser, written by William Collins. (Ireland) – World Premiere. When 17-year-old Noel accidentally breaks his dying father’s most prized possession—a cheap wristwatch—he and his two cheeky younger brothers “borrow” the boss’ bread van for a clandestine quest to replace it.

· Open House, directed and written by Andrew Paquin. (USA) – World Premiere. Brian Geraghty gives a haunting performance as prim and taciturn David, forced for years to watch over his sexually predatory partner Lila and her violent urges. · Gainsbourg, Je t'Aime... Moi Non Plus, directed and written by Joann Sfar. (France) – International Premiere. One of France’s greatest mavericks is brought back to life (uncannily, by Eric Elmosnino) in this imaginative and visually flamboyant film debut from one of France’s greatest cartoonists.

· Snap, directed and written by Carmel Winters. (Ireland) – World Premiere. With a fresh and intense style, playwright-turned-director Carmel Winters composes a gripping psychological drama about three generations of a family poised to repeat the mistakes of the past.

· When We Leave (Die Fremde), directed and written by Feo Aladag. (Germany) – North American Premiere. When young Turkish-German woman Umay can no longer stand her husband’s ill-treatment, she flees from Istanbul with her five-year-old son into the arms of her family in Berlin.

· The White Meadows (Keshtzar haye sepid), directed and written by Mohammad Rasoulof. (Iran) – North American Premiere. Poetry, mythology, metaphor, and the absurd are expertly woven to tell the fable-like story of Rahmat, who sails from island to island off the coast of Iran to collect tears.

· William Vincent, directed and written by Jay Anania. (USA) – World Premiere. The versatile James Franco (Milk, Spider-Man) stars in the story of William Vincent, a quiet and peculiar criminal uninterested in the fruits of crime.

World Documentary Feature Competition
· American Mystic, directed by Alex Mar. (USA) – World Premiere. Set against a vivid backdrop of American rural landscapes, Alex Mar’s meditative documentary artfully weaves together the stories: a Wiccan in California mining country, a New Ager in upstate New York, and a Native American father and sundancer in South Dakota, all yearning for fulfilling spirituality in disparate but often strikingly similar ways.

· The Arbor, directed by Clio Barnard. (UK) – World Premiere. Brilliantly blending the borders of narrative and documentary filmmaking, artist-cum-director Clio Barnard reconstructs the fascinating true story of troubled British playwright Andrea Dunbar and her tumultuous relationship with her daughter.

· Budrus, directed by Julia Bacha. (USA, Palestine, Israel) – North American Premiere. In one of the most conflicted parts of the world, a Palestinian family man unites rival parties Fatah and Hamas, Western activists, and even groups of progressive Israelis in a nonviolent crusade to save his village from being destroyed.

· Earth Made of Glass, directed by Deborah Scranton. (USA) – World Premiere. This powerful investigative documentary by the Oscar®-nominated director of The War Tapes (best doc, TFF ’06) skillfully weaves interviews with President Kagame of Rwanda and Jean-Pierre Sagahutu, a survivor of the horrific 1994 genocide.

· Feathered Cocaine, directed by Thorkell Hardarsson and Örn Marino Arnarson. (Iceland) – World Premiere. Behind drugs, people, and weapons, falcon smuggling has become the world’s most mysterious and profitable illegal trade.

· Freetime Machos, directed by Mika Ronkainen. (Finland, Germany) – North American and TFF Virtual Premiere. Matti and Mikko play for Finland’s worst amateur rugby team. Overworked and domesticated, the two men long for a space to revel in their masculinity and bond with other men.

· Into Eternity, directed by Michael Madsen. (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Italy) – International Premiere. Three miles below the earth, the people of Finland are constructing an enormous tomb to lay to rest their share of humans’ 300,000 tons of nuclear waste.

· Monica & David, directed by Alexandra Codina. (USA) – North American Premiere. Monica and David are in love. Truly, blissfully in love. They also happen to have Down syndrome.

· Sons of Perdition, directed by Jennilyn Merten, Tyler Measom. (USA) – World Premiere. In the polygamist community cultivated by the notorious (and now incarcerated) “prophet” Warren Jeffs, women are a commodity, children are reared to be ignorant, and free thought is surrendered.

· Thieves By Law (Ganavim ba Hok), directed by Alexander Gentelev. (Israel, Germany, Spain) – World Premiere. In an unprecedented insider first look, Thieves by Law is a front-row invitation into the living rooms and offices of some of the most controversial and elite head honchos in the Russian mafia.

· The Two Escobars, directed by Jeff Zimbalist, Michael Zimbalist. (USA, Colombia) – World Premiere. Born in the same city in Colombia but not related, Andrés Escobar and Pablo Escobar shared a fanatical love of soccer.

· The Woodmans, directed by C. Scott Willis. (USA, Italy, China) – World Premiere. The Woodmans are a family united in their belief that art-making is the highest form of expression and an essential way of life, but it’s only photographer daughter Francesca who achieves worldwide acclaim—after a tragedy that would forever scar the family.

Showcase
· Blood and Rain (La sangre y la lluvia), directed by Jorge Navas, written by Carlos Henao, Alizé Le Maoult, and Jorge Navas. (Colombia, Argentina) – New York Premiere. In Jorge Navas’ beautifully composed neo-noir, taxi driver Jorge begins his night shift bent on revenge after his brother’s murder at the hands of a violent gang.

· A Brand New Life (Yeo-haeng-ja), directed and written by Ounie Lecomte. (South Korea, France) – New York Premiere. When her father offers to take her on a trip, nine-year-old Jin-hee happily sings him a love song, the bittersweet notes inaudible to her own ear, until she realizes he has abandoned her at a Catholic orphanage.

· Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur), directed by Pascal Chaumeil, written by Laurent Zeitoun, Jeremy Doner, and Yoann Gromb. (France) – New York Premiere. Alex (Romain Duris) and his sister (Julie Ferrier) break up couples for a living.

· Lola, directed by Brillante Mendoza, written by Linda Casimiro. (Philippines, France) – New York Premiere. Two elderly matriarchs bear the consequences of a crime involving their grandsons: one is murdered, the other is the suspect.

· Metropia, directed by Tarik Saleh, written by Fredrik Edin, Stig Larsson, and Tarik Saleh. (Sweden, Denmark, Norway) – New York Premiere. In the year 2024, all of Europe is united by a vast web of underground railways, populated by an army of downtrodden worker bees.

· Moloch Tropical, directed by Raoul Peck, written by Jean-René Lemoine, Raoul Peck. (Haiti, France) – New York Premiere. Haitian auteur Raoul Peck meticulously drapes the poetic across the political in his reflection on the universal malady of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

· Road, Movie, directed and written by Dev Benegal. (USA, India) – US Premiere. Loath to take over the family hair-oil business, young Vishnu jumps at the chance to drive his uncle’s beat-up Chevy truck across India to its new owner.

Special Events
The Festival is proud to present three Special Events, including a restored print of David Lean’s Russian Revolution epic on its 45th anniversary and two work-in-progress screenings that provide a first look at exciting new films—one a revealing documentary on former Governor Eliot Spitzer, and the other a first-person account of a Marine veteran’s return to Iraq.

· Doctor Zhivago, directed by David Lean, written by Robert Bolt. (USA, UK, 1965) David Lean’s romantic Russian Revolution epic, adapted from Boris Pasternak’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

· Untitled Eliot Spitzer Film, directed by Alex Gibney – Work in Progress screening. Academy Award® winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, TFF ’07) takes an in-depth look at New York governor and ‘Sheriff of Wall Street’ Eliot Spitzer, who many believed was on his way to becoming president.

· The Western Front, directed and written by Zachary Iscol. (USA) – Work in Progress screening. In 2004, writer/director Zachary Iscol fought as a US Marine in Al Anbar, Iraq’s most violent province. Five years later, Anbar has been transformed into one of the safest, but not because the insurgency was defeated.

For details go to: http://www.tribecafilm.com

Tickets for the Festival will be $16.00 for evening and weekend screenings and $8.00 for daytime weekday and late night screenings.
Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2001.

A chance encounter sparks a compulsive obsessive attraction between two strangers. At times eerie, goofy and sentimental, “Wild Grass” is a middle-aged man’s fantasy.

When a nice looking 50ish man – with a questionable past—finds a woman’s wallet he is drawn to her pilot’s license photograph and imagined details of her life. They meet after he returns her wallet to a police precinct, and from that point on, Georges Palet (Andre Dussollier) and Marguerite Muir (Sabine Azema) thrill in an unexplainable cat and mouse game of chasing and rejecting each other.

And only in a French film would the gorgeous wife (Anne Consigny) be totally accepting of “another” woman calling in the middle of the night for her husband, let alone invite her in for tea and warm chat. With dream-like quality, slow motion sections underscore significant plot points while the camera traces objects in the background that add personality to a house or neighborhood. Images are repeated like exclamation points: a stolen saffron bag flying in the air, a woman’s face surrounded by soapy water and a wristwatch. Both want something they don’t really need, and both share a love of flying---freedom from earth’s gravitational pull and demands. In quirky twists, first George becomes a stalker only to be matched and topped by Marguerite. In true nightmare fashion, Marguerite—a dentist—becomes so unhinged by George’s snubs, she assumes the persona of a “demon” dentist.

Like much of the film, plot lines and character’s back stories lack detail and instead get broad brush strokes of sensation, ending with the main characters piling into Marguerite’s plane, for a ride to, who knows where?
New York Film Festival Opening Night Film.
By C.Ipiotis