Variety Critics´ Choice 2002 / Betty Fisher et autres histoires / France, Canada 2001
This brilliant film, which centres on the kidnapping of a small boy, is an unclassifiable mix of thriller, crazy comedy, drama and crossword puzzle, involving all sorts of characters. The compact script drives the plot forward with incredible force and, while it never offers more than carefully measured doses of information, it still soon manages to entirely engulf the audience.
Slowly morphing from the serious to the playful, and with a script that coaxes the viewer into an elaborately spun web of separate narrtaives, "The Newcomer" is a delicious, utterly confident jeu from one of France´s most discreetly maverick directors, Claude Miller. Pic emerges as an unclassifiable blend of psychological thriller, caper movie, comedy-drama and multi-character criss-crosser, as the kidnapping of a young boy sets off a complex train of events. Compact script moves with incredible forward momentum, never giving an iota more info than it wants and thoroughly involving the viewer in its rapidly spun web. Though some characters´ paths hardly cross, there´s a sense of broad ensemble in the performances, from Sandrine Kiberlain´s initially abstracted, later complicit Betty to Nicole Garcia´s initially agitated, later caring mother. Derek Elley
102 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Claude Miller
/ Screenplay Claude Miller, podle románu/based on the novel by Ruth Rendell
/ Dir. of Photography Christophe Pollock
/ Music Francois Dompierre
/ Editor Véronique Lange
/ Producer Annie Miller, Yves Marmion
/ Production UGC, Les Films de la Boissiere, Go Films
/ Cast Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia, Mathilde Seigner, Edouard Baer, Luck Mervil, Roschdy Zem, Pascal Bonitizer, Stephana Freiss
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