THE TUESDAY ADDICTION

Its Tuesday again…our day for catching a French film at the Alliance Francaise, Delhi.

Truth be told at times am not so enthusiastic about going. A list of chores to be handled beckons and I feel going homewards to tackle them or to just put up my feet somewhere and relax with a cup of coffee is a much better alternative.

But those feeling vanish within the first five minutes of the film and am all eyes (I can’t understand French so rely on the subtitles for following the film). Each film I have seen is etched in my mind and inspite of almost a year’s regular film watching no two films seem the same nor do the storylines borrow from each other.

Mention French films and what you hear are comments like these - ‘noir’, ‘sensual’, ‘too much skin show’ and ‘too arty’. And of course the snide side comments that ‘they are just trying to be oh-so-intellectual’ (this is said in regards to the audience).

It’s all so very true including the part about us trying to be intellectual (but then we are guilty of not being able to digest the mindless Hindi movies or the ‘America is great’ English ones that the multiplexes showcase). Yet there is so much more to it that just can’t quite be explained. Let me try though:

Can you imagine a full length film on two sisters and their differences? Les Soeurs Fachees is not over-dramatized, it doesn’t show one killing the other for lust or greed yet it shows how subtly through gestures and comments one sister tries to kill the innocence and joie de vivre of the other. It’s an amazing insight into sibling relationships and I came away wondering what my relation with my sister would have been like had she lived till this day. Flashes of our fights, quarrels, back biting and love all came back. It seemed like the film had opened up a Pandora’s Box of memories for me.

Another film about two twin sisters showed them living in their own enchanted world of music and dance. They aren’t rich yet they reflect the richness and innocence of an era gone by when it was possible for one to be happy and break into songs at the drop of a hat or the flutter of a scarf. The movie was one giant carnival in motion. And you were left with a feeling of happy contented childhood till you realized that the director had been traumatized by the world wars and his films were actually the medium he used to escape the harsh realities of his life.

Let me give you another example:

A bored young girl from a family that boasts pedigree and wealth married to a man who is a successful professional and a doting husband decides to check out a brothel and gets hooked to the high of being treated as a mere sex object. Her dalliance with the varied customers of the brothel brings her in contact with a dangerous young man who kills for pleasure. She allows him to think that she loves him and thus sparks of incidents that cause his own death as well as making her husband a wheelchair-bound mute patient dependent on her for his very life. Through Belle de Jour you sway between hating the woman for jeopardizing a lovely marriage and sympathizing with her as you see her grapple with the socially acceptable versus her innermost desires.

This film reminded me of Aastha - the Rekha, Om Puri and Navin Nischol starrer which showed Rekha succumbing to her greed for a more affluent life by falling in the trap of a scheming woman who guides her towards prostitution as a means to earn the quick money she so desired. However being a hindi movie it had to show a repentant Rekha realizing her mistake and also the very understandable vice of greed which motivated her. Where the French film scores is not being apologetic for the ‘different-from-the-norm’ sexual desires of the woman and it finishes the same way it had started - with the woman day dreaming about a sexual escapade.

A lot more films come to mind as I write this post… that gave glimpses into the life of the contemporary French man or woman. Others that showcased lives of the French speaking people across the world. And of course those that brought us close to those who have made France their home coming from far off Africa or Asia.

A film that spoke about the lives of two young people who are in love and wish to be married since they have just discovered that they are soon going to be parents was touchingly portrayed. The guy was an Arab muslim while the girl belonged to a very French jewish family. The apprehensions of both families and the quarrels the couple get into in trying to defend faiths and beliefs they themselves don’t really adhere to but feel the need to be loyal are beautifully sketched. The final resolution as both families come together to support and bless them was a tear wiping one for even the most hard hearted in the audience I believe.

So there I have narrated quite a few stories to you….and if a bit of our addiction rubs off on you I will only be glad to know.