Lila Says (2005) (AKA Lila dit ca)
Although its outcome should be obvious
to us well before it occurs, "Lila Says" is such a
sweet, subtle and beautiful movie that we become easily
captivated. This seduction of the audience by the
film allows it to ease slowly and assuredly to its
inevitable and honest conclusion without once ever
suggesting where it is heading. This is a marvelous
and assured film.
We met young Muslim immigrant Chimo,
played pitch perfect by Mouhammed Khouas. Chimo is
a teenager living in France with his mother. The two
have been abandoned by the patriarch of the family
when he ran off with a French woman. This subtle culture
clash and divide between the immigrants and the natives
of the country they inhabit is always in the background
and subtext here. Those of us who are ignorant of
the cultures that we are seeing here have only a general
understanding of what is going on. We have to put
it in the simplest of terms, immigrant vs. native,
but that is enough to understand what we are seeing
here as the story unfolds.
Chimo begins to spend time with
Lila (Vahina Giocante), a newly arrived French teenage
girl in his neighborhood who flirts in a very sexual
way with him. Chimo, unlike his crass and typical
teenage male friends, is shy, tentative and honest.
He responds to the flirting in this way as well. Watching
these two characters, performed perfectly by the young
actors in the piece, come together, begin to talk
and begin to fall in love is just magical. Even with
its sexual overtones, the piece is romantic and delightful.
Of course, things eventually begin to spiral out of
control as the culture clash heightens within the
community and this relationship becomes a symbol of
that conflict in a very subtle and disturbing way.
"Lila Says" is a brave, honest and
passionate film. It is intriguing to see a foreign
film and to try and glean some knowledge of the character's
cultures and lifestyles. This is only the beginning
of the film. For, as it plays out, we begin to fall
in love with the charm and the romance of the two
main characters. We fall under each of their spells
as easily as they themselves do. This makes it easy
to become engrossed and moved by this wonderful film.
Notes:
In French with subtitles.
Directed by Ziad Doueiri who has
done much camera work on Tarantino films.
Based on a book by someone named
Chimo, which is also the name of the main character
here.
Much of the music in the film is
by a fantastic vocalist named Vanessa Daou, and one
of her CD "Zipless" is shown in the film.
The film has well done subtitles
which, for example, are smart enough not to translate
all the "oui's" in the film. But it uses the old style
pure white subtitles, without shading, which are,
at times, difficult to read.
The film has played several film
festivals since debuting at Toronto in 2004. It premiered
in the U.S. at Sundance in 2005. Samuel Goldwyn Films
have picked it up for a U.S. Arthouse run to begin
in 2005.
Viewed at SXSW in March 2005.
