[critical] The Ball Of the Actresses

Maïwenn, the character, is making a documentary on the actresses with the belief that each one has its own neurosis. By this process of narration, the film in the film, we will follow in turn, several French actresses, each with its problem. Karine Viard is an actor megalomaniac and pretentious, dreaming of America and blockbusters. Muriel Robin wants to play in the classical theatre under the direction of Jacques Weber but is faced with its compartmentalization of a comic, fantasy or real. And so on. The actresses one after another, and all demonstrate a surdimension of the ego forged in contact with the constant humiliation of their profession.

The self-deprecating humor of these actresses, agreeing to be staged in sessions of botox or promotion for a laptop, is remarkable. We then take a great pleasure to hate these women self-conscious. The film surprises by the delicacy of the look on these monsters endearing. Of course, the neurosis and the ego oozing from every pore of these characters, but they are also immersed in an environment of great brutality, a game of musical chairs where they appear to be interchangeable. The hardness of these lives is particularly striking with this character of waitress, a young actress in the grass, who spent all his savings in an acting class. The intensity of the scene of the clash with his teacher still resonates in my fingers strumming those few lines. What is the benefit of Karole Rocher !

The thesis of Maïwenn, therefore, is that the neurosis is the engine of the actress. Each chapter concludes with a sort of cabaret show, songs and dances. The actresses take the stage in their artistic treatment of their own neurosis. If these scenes were sometimes the ridiculous, the director has the merit to go to the end of his idea. The game is both the cure and the hell of the actress.

Let us avoid surprising the umpteenth time with condescension, as Didier Morville is capable of sensitivity, credit, however, Joey Starr for its correctness. It complements the cast in one of the few male roles.

The Ball of the Actresses is a successful, funny movie, sensitive and finer than it seems. However, it suffers from a certain degree of asphyxia, the actresses carrying a film on their own condition, closes tightly the film.