Deuxième realization of Katia Lewkowicz, HOLD YOU RIGHT , was presented by the director itself as a film about femininity, worn by three women with very different whose fates will ultimately related. If the film starts well enough, with funny situations and poignant, it ends quickly enough by getting lost in a scenario draft and worked little. Katia Lewkowicz mixing amount of things, try to speak a little bit of everything, uses different forms and it is really where it is coming from. Has want to put these women in the front, and STAND RIGHT not finally manages to make it tiresome or even annoying.
Three women and three different lives. There is Louise (Marina Foïs), Sam (Noémie Lvovsky) and Lili (Laura Smet). Each has the willingness to evolve. Louise left her job in the laundry of the family to join a large manufacturing company doll where she has been pistonnée by her lover. Lili is Miss New Caledonia and is limited to smiles. She would like to work but this becomes impossible after his encounter of a wealthy industrialist. Finally Sam is the mother of the family. After having given birth to two new children, she decides to take its life in hand and become something other than a mother, a worker.
In the manner of the good movie Puzzle from Paul Haggis, which came out almost at the same time (19 November) and that we had reviewed, STAND RIGHT provides a history deconstructed. It alternates between the intrigues of the way with a quick mount keen which gives the pace of the film. But the inverse of Puzzle the links between the stories are quickly visible.
Without the characters very original one is first charmed by each of the women. Only, as you advance in the film, the gaps in plot and lack of character development become obvious.
There’s Lili, the beautiful doomed to be nothing more than a picture, a smile. Yet she does not want that work, do something with her hands and make her father proud of her. Without understand neither why nor how she falls under the spell of a rich man, much older. It has to be fast enough the link between this relationship and relationships are complicated she has with her father.
From his side, Louise is propelled-in-chief of a major section of a company doll. It is quite interesting in its rise in rank in the face of his colleagues. She is at first overwhelmed and not able to express his ideas. With the advice of her sisters she learns as and to is essential. Unfortunately it returns too often to the situations of departure and she continues to appear totally in a panic and cannot control anything. We can witness scenes of more and more improbable, where nobody reacts and remains a passivity disconcerting.
Finally Sam is the mother of a large family. A relatively touching. It is presented as a machine to lay eggs. His last birth, the fourth, is one too many. Sam has the impression of never having done anything with his hands. From now on she wants to do everything. And for it, all to do is to work non-stop and abandon her children and her husband. It is increasingly absent. She remains speechless and without reaction in the face of everything that surrounds it, as it also does not control his life. The talented Noémie Lvovsky finds himself having to reproduce the same game as Laura Smet and Marina Foïs. All three have the same facial expressions, the same inability to express themselves, to react, to have energy. While we could have sympathy for each of the protagonists, the redundancy of the characters ends up stopping the potential of heroines.
”The speech of Katia Lewkowicz is still difficult to according to us and Hold you right disappointing in its scenario-lean”
In the end, which at first amuses and fascinates us tired very quickly. Katia Lewkowicz uses excessive repetition of phrases appropriate catchy as “it must work” that is needed Lili as possessed, or the “breathing” voice-off of Louise. At the end of the constant hesitancy of these three women causes the viewer but not in the good way. We especially want to give them a few slaps to wake them up and see them (re)act.
The director offers nothing apart from the scenes disjointed. It is certainly particularly gifted in his ability to put in scene sequences are fun and surprising, but it all becomes too improbable and not believable. We accept yet to see Lili powered Miss despite his lack of professionalism in this field, which leads to link together the bloopers. This is more difficult with a daughter of Sam that gets turned into the advisor for the design of the new dolls that “directs” Louise. Thus, the sequences that want to be influential will prove to be more superficial and heavy, especially the basketball game between a group of women half naked, who do not have to find a better one to breathe and evacuate their pressures.
The result is quite surprising because the objective of Katia Lewkowicz was to show what are subject women, from a very young age. The obligation to be beautiful, smiling, keep right. An image that will reproduce the daughters of Sam. The filmmaker also seeks to provide three figures of femininity. In itself a good topic. Only the audience is never really invited to understand these three women. The speech of Katia Lewkowicz is still difficult to according to us and HOLD YOU RIGHT disappointed by its storyline very thin. This is not the case of the film Fidelio, the odyssé of Alice from director Lucie Borleteau which will be released on the 24th of December. The latter also discusses the place of the woman. In another register, this work is distinguished by the representation of a woman in a man universe (universe maritime), on a par with the latter, both in her work and in her sexuality. The film offers something of a rarity, a woman with the same qualities and defects as a man while being judged in the same way. A beautiful result on a relevant topic, that is not able to reach , STAND RIGHT.
Other films released on November 26, 2014
Original title : Hold you right
Realization : Katia Lewkowicz
Scenario : Katia Lewkowicz
Main actors : Marina Foïs, Noémie Lvosky, Laura Smet, Lola Dueñas, Jonathan Zaccai, Michaël Abiteboul
Country of origin : France
Released : 26 November 2014
Duration : 1h34mn
Distributor : Wild Bunch Distribution
Synopsis : Louise, Sam, Lili. Three women who do not know, but whose fierce desire for evolution will make them meet, join, overlap.
This is the story of Louise that leaves the laundry of the family to work in a large manufacturing company doll where the pistonnée her lover.
Of Lili, Miss New Caledonia, who meets a rich industrialist.
Sam, mother of large family, who decides to take his independence.
There is the pressure of their mothers, their sisters, their friends.
There are men who disappear. There are their daughters, who watch, mimic.
And there’s the design of this new model of doll, and finally to the image of the woman.
But is this the model that must adapt to the woman or the reverse ?