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Monday, 20 October 2014

The New Girlfriend: best of the London Film Festival 2014, part three

If you love films, you probably love Hitchcock. If you love Hitchcock, you should love Francois Ozon. The French director - probably best known for 8 Women, The Swimming Pool, Potiche, In The House and Jeune & Jolie - reaches a personal zenith with The New Girlfriend, combining the steely, cynical plot twists of Hitch with a never-before-witnessed heart and soul.

Hopefully the trailer, the posters and the critics will not give away the key plot development that the film hinges upon (and it happens early in the film, so don’t arrive late for the screening!).

Briefly, the perfect woman dies, leaving her best friend, played in a star-making turn by Anais Demoustier, to look over Romain Duris’s widower and her god-son.

The range of emotions that Demoustier’s Claire goes through are written on her face and pour out of her eyes – it’s one of the performances of 2014.

As the widower David, Duris simply reinforces how good he is: it’s hard to conceive of any other actor carrying off this role with such aplomb and empathy.

Funny, moving but still within Ozon’s territory of questioning sexuality and the confident veneer of the petit bourgeoisie, The New Girlfriend is damned near perfect.

Score: 9/10

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