MIFF 2014 Week Two Round-Up - Breillat-A-Palooza

Jayde Walker
Aug 17, 2014
3 min read

The first time I saw a Breillat film was in 2001, when I spent a Saturday night in with a copy of A Ma Soeur and Hideo Nakata's Ringu. Without sounding like a total tosser, that night was probably one of the most profound for me in terms of 'filmic discovery'. Both of them resonated with me deeply in very different ways. Breillat is a highly controversial, provocative and theoretical director/writer, renowned for her confronting depictions of adolescent sexuality. Her films can be raw, discomforting and highly intellectual in viewing - she has a rather cynical viewpoint of sexuality and sexual power within relationships. As a result she has gained quite the rep as a 'sexual provocateur auteur'. However, Breillat is more than just shock (even though she is able to evoke feelings of dread and tension like a horror maestro). Her mise en scene, the symbolic use of colour within her films - particularly in the way colour is assigned and used towards her characters - are beautifully structured.

Breillat's latest film, Abuse of Weakness, is an adaptation of her book of the same name. In 2004, Breillat suffered a stroke that left her left side paralysed. She underwent rehab and returned to work, but three years later fell victim to the charms of notorious con man Christophe Rocancourt, who swindled her out of around 700,000 pounds. He was later convicted and jailed under an article of French law called abus de faiblesse, or abuse of weakness, which basically enables the courts to prosecute those who prey on the 'weak'. This is a slightly fictionalised account of Breillat's relationship with Rocancourt. In the movie, Breillat becomes Maud, played by the always-incredible Isabelle Huppert. Recovering from a stroke, the maddening and domineering director Maud comes across unrepentant con man Vilko (Kool Shen, charmingly boyish yet coolly manipulative) spruiking his autobiography on a TV talk show. She feels he's perfect for the leading role in her latest movie. Thus begins a bizarre relationship between the pair, with an ever-changing dynamic alternating between romantic, parental and submissive. Breillat chose her cast well, as there's a weird chemistry between Huppard and Shen. Maud's disability and age certainly doesn't dampen her earthy, intellectual sexuality; in fact, she more than holds her own as a competitor against Vilko's young and vibrant wife. The depiction of Maud doesn't shy away from some of the more uglier aspects of her character. She enjoys the playful domination of men, treating her assistants as interchangeable toy boy lovers. She arrogantly believes she can control Vilko, only to immediately succumb to his seductive con games. She gives off a cool, independent, confident facade, which intermittently cracks to reveal a woman struggling physically, emotionally and financially. It's a brilliant portrayal. Vilko is not as well fleshed out. He's not a sympathetic character, but he's certainly interesting. Shen plays him with the bravado of a boastful teen lout, able to switch on the charm then flip to tantrum when he doesn't get his way. But we're never really shown why he is why he is, nor is there real insight into why he decides to con Maud. Habit? A challenge? Potentially this is because Breillat herself doesn't know. One of the comments around the film is it's lack of sexual content in comparison to Breillat's other films. It's not as graphically confronting, but I felt it was just as subtly sexual and continued her themes of sexual power, providing a good bookend to her works on teen sexuality. I stuck around for the Q and A session and also went to her Talking Pictures discussion the following night. Unfortunately, it was really hard to understand Breillat due to a number of factors, mainly due to language translation issues - probably would've have been better to conduct the sessions in French and interpret back to English.