Films worth seeing in San Jose at Cinequest 21
COPACABANA
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Esméralda (Lolita Chammah) reunites with her mother, Babou (Isabelle Huppert) in Ostend, who recently gets a promotion in her new job selling time-shares. |
No serious International film festival is complete without an appearance with the great French actress, Isabelle Huppert, who transcends just about any role that is offered to her. In this French comedy, directed by Marc Fitoussi, she plays Babou, an unconventional, independent, and eccentric single mother living with her 22 year old daughter in Tourcoing, a city in Northern France. Babou doesn’t want to be tied down to any jobs, responsibilities, serious relationships, or even confined into any one routine. Rather, she would rather be free and imagine herself in new and untraveled places that she hasn’t been to, such as Brazil, even though she can only imagine it, since she cannot afford to fly there.
Babou’s daughter, Esméralda, (Lolita Chammah, who is Huppert’s daughter in real life) after returning home from a night with her boyfriend, tells her mother that she is planning to get married and wants to live a normal middle class life, instead of the bohemian lifestyle that her mother lives. She also tells her that she doesn’t want her to be present at the wedding, not only because she is too poor to afford it, but because she is self absorbed and is too embarrassed of her behavior to have her there.
Emotionally hurt about the announcement, Babou decides to leave her home, as well as her social circle of friends, including Burt; her male friend who is secretly in love with her. She lands a job handing out flyers to help spur interest for potential customers to buy time share apartments in Ostend, a seaport city in Belgium, during the off-season. There, we meet quite a cast of characters that both befriend and clash with her, including a young homeless couple, Kurt and Sophie, whom she helps find shelter when she can; Lydie (Aure Atika), who plays the part of a tough woman boss in order to motivate her “flyer” helpers increase sales calls, but shows she can put her “act” away when she lets her guard down; and for comic relief, her suspicious roommate, Irene, whom never trusted Babou the moment she met her, well played by Chantal Banlier, who probably gets the most laughs in this film.
Fitoussi, who also wrote the well paced story, focuses mainly on Babou, as Huppert, whom is almost in every single shot. The camera and supporting cast revolve around her quite adequately, but it is Huppert who makes the film shine.
Copacabana is not just about a relationship and unconditional love between a mother and a daughter, but also about not having to abandon your personal values to stay true to yourself. After all Babou, is determined to gain back her daughter’s love anyway she can, and will do it at any risk.
Reviewed by Marcus Siu
Watch trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7O1A2p-5pU
Director: Marc Fitoussi; Producer: Caroline Bonmarchand; Writer: Marc Fitoussi; Cinematographer: Helene Louvart; Editor: Martine Giordano; Music:Tim Gane and Sean O’Hagan; Cast: Isabelle Huppert , Lolita Chammah , Aure Atika , Jurgen Delnaet, Chantal Banlier; Country: France; Language: French (w/ English subtitles) ; Length: 90 min.; Genre: Comedy
Copacabana plays on March 2nd at 9:15pm at the California Theatre, March 4th at 12:30pm at the Camera 12, and March 7th at 7pm at the California Theatre.
Buy Tickets: http://www.cinequest.org/event_view.php?eid=1500
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