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Gender: Male Location: Paris, France |
Sotto falso nome / Le Prix du désir (2003)
Summary : Meet Daniel Boltanski [Daniel Auteuil] , a well known writer you've never heard about. He has never revealed who he truly was, but he's been celebrated all over the world since his first masterpiece under the pseudonym of Serge Nowak. Daniel, hiding in Switzerland, is heading to Capri, in Italy, to attend the wedding of the son of his wife [Gretta Scacchi]. On the boat that is taking him to Capri, Daniel meets a femme fatale [Anna Mouglalis] and spends a passionate night with her.
The following day, at the Church, Daniel realizes that his mysterious lover was actually the bride.
The bride, whose name is Milla, progressively enters his life, as they carry on their affair. In the meantime a girlfriend of hers tries to blackmail him, using that affair and threatening to disclose both Daniel's real name and the dubious origin of his first novel, which is the reason of his success.
Review : This is a intriguing film using both sexual attraction and blurred identities to build its plot. There is no real suspense, but the whole thing is aesthetically agreeable (good photography). The story is pleasant thanks to dramatic efforts undertaken to make this movie attractive. Through the photography and the locations (Capri & Italy, Geneva,...) and though the actors. Cast to match the general atmosphere, they offer a strange show of smooth faces and hidden emotions. The character of Milla as a femme fatale is a good example of it: she unleashes as little emotion as she can and has to stay in that character – nearly a doll, only a living object of fantasies, still like a picture, cold as marble – during the whole film, acting out briefly at the end, then resuming her role.
But when the characters barely moves, one comes to understand that the real issue of the film is elsewhere : if you wanna know, if he loves you so, it's in his....eyes... Exactly.Every single ounce of desire, feeling or passion goes through them. The look is what “Sotto falso nome” is all about. First, Milla's eyes, often stongly highlighted by makeup, and that show both desire and coldness, that burn and mesmerize Daniel and the spectators in the same time. Second, the eyes of the protagonist, played by Daniel Auteuil, a talented French actor whose most powerful skill in acting is reserve and self-restraint ; cheating on his wife, hiding behind a pseudonym, trapped and yet consumed with desire, every single emotion is amplified by his restraint. These eyes love, are lost, don't know what to do, make choices, suffer. They suffer especially in front of Milla, whose character can almost be summed up by this intense, yet unreachable, look (stare ?). Finally, the eyes of Daniel's wife, which will clearly appear when crying in despair.
And it works. Director Roberto Ando creates a perfect frame, that enables the actors to build a very pleasant film. More than the script, the general atmosphere and the acting are clearly worthy of an ovation.
Too bad this film had to suffer from a bad promotion.
8.25/10
Italy/Switzerland/France
Directed by Roberto Ando
With Daniel Auteuil, Greta Scacchi, Anna Mouglalis, Michael Lonsdale
2003
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