[CRITICAL] SOME WOMEN

In SOME WOMEN, Kelly Reichardt pays tribute to the heroines of everyday life and puts forward 4 actresses in a film without pretense, full of melancholy.

In just a few months separate Paterson for SOME WOMEN, two films about different but who are linked by this desire to film the America trivial, to deny the major subjects for dwell on the small things of life. The new film from Kelly Reichardt brings to the scene, through several segments, women face obstacles in their daily life (work, family life, existential questions) in a modest setting, which tends to inevitably bring them closer to us. Far from the poetry unobtrusive claimed by Jarmusch and observation of the micro-change, SOME WOMEN works on a principle of naturalism, where the aim is not to follow the characters from point a to point B (the base of the standard scenario), but a small part of this course. The approach has something to leave more of a puzzled, that one is initiated or not the proposals atypical.The first plan of the 6th feature film from Kelly Reichardt delivers an instant note of intent : in an overall plan on an extended deserted, a train arrives in the distance. Gradually, the means of transport moves towards the camera and then continues his journey. Before it completes its advanced and completed a movement logic out of the framework, a cut occurs. This plan seems trivial and yet all the essence of the film is contained in it. Through the image of this train, director, u.s. exposes his desire to film a process running while not omitting to clarify that it is intended to hold as a chapter. This train, it was every woman that we will meet during 1: 40. It is also an opportunity to ask a part. In this case it is the Montana state Northern of the USA is reputed to be the least populated of the whole continent and with a high density of natural area beautiful. The nature, Reichardt loves the show. It is now known as the film refuses to venture on the side of big crowded cities in order to immerse the characters in an environment devoid of superficiality. So everyone can meet face to itself and to its questions. It is necessarily the american dream, which took a slight blow when we discover this opposite of the US where a lawyer has to handle cases of the absurd, where the lonely can you gnaw, where your financial survival post-survey is to perform hours of travel time to a job boring.

“SOME of the WOMEN film is a minimalist who advocates a form of appeasement rather than the excitement “

SOME WOMEN is not a vocation to explode the country of Uncle Sam in a scathing criticism. Far from it even. He advocates instead a form of appeasement, serenity ambiguous. The scene of the hostage-taking underlines this sense of calm, using a ground conducive to tension (the weapons are outputs !) to defuse it royally via the cinematic apparatus. No ounce of excitement. As soon as the drama could interfere, he is continually curb by the mood of the film. Like this scene “accident” is summarizing to an output drive slow, devoid of damage. Point rise in the meter or screenplay. A soft tone sullen emanates from the whole, sprouted up in the staging, quiète, refusing to shine. The guidance formally places necessarily light on the arcane structural and its failures. This composition in three acts decreases in interest in his piece central, not being able to draw its pin from the play. And the agreement Kelly Reichardt/Michelle Williams can’t do anything (the two women are in their 3rd collaboration).In the middle of the strangeness fluffy of the first part and the emotional power of the last, the encephalogram flat reign. The project then demonstrates its limits, not knowing how to bring a particular relief to a segment a little dull. An error that is not fatal, when one takes the project in its entirety – it is a little bit also the game of the film-the patchwork to be accused of inequality. Ups and downs, but also the impression that, somewhere, the magic began. In particular, thanks to the last segment featuring Lily Gladstone and Kristen Stewart, who spread a spleen unstoppable an obvious intensity. This long shot on Jamie, in front of the camera in the process of driving allows the feature to reach a peak emotional daunting, because everything was so well run upstream, from the writing to the staging, passing by the interpretation (Lily Gladstone, the least known of the 4 women in the headliner steals the show to all the world). Never in self-satisfaction (one of the great defects of a part of film independent american), SOME WOMEN would be, if one takes the risk of an analogy, a piece of folk. Refined in its composition instrumental but delivering an authentic part of humanity. A song that whispers, who will be able to hear, that despite the ups and downs, life goes on.

Maxime Bedini

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