Betty Fisher et autres histoires

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Movie
German title Betty Fisher et autres histoires
Original title Betty Fisher et autres histoires
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 2001
length 103 minutes
Rod
Director Claude Miller
script Claude Miller
production Yves Marmion
music François Dompierre
camera Christophe Pollock
cut Véronique Lange
occupation

Betty Fisher et autres histoires is a French literary film adaptation by Claude Miller from 2001. It is based on the detective novel The Masks of the Mothers by Ruth Rendell .

action

Brigitte grew up with her mother Margot, who was ill with porphyria and who severely injured Brigitte with scissors when she was a child. Margot now lives in Spain with Brigitte's father, but comes to Paris to have her health checked and stays with her daughter. She lived in New York for a while and has now left her husband, the writer Edouard. She has lived in a house with her son Joseph for three weeks. In turn, she was able to buy the house with the proceeds of her first book, which she published under the name "Betty Fisher" about her time in New York and which became a bestseller.

Shortly after Margot's arrival, Joseph falls out of his nursery window, falls into a coma and dies. Margot takes care of Brigitte, who can hardly cope with the death of her child and becomes depressed. To help her, Margot quickly kidnaps the boy José, who looks like Joseph. Brigitte presents the child as the son of friends who have gone on vacation and left her with José to look after. Brigitte is horrified at first, but then takes care of José, whom she calls Jo.

José is actually the son of Carole Novacki, who treated him badly, never has money and does drugs. Carole hardly cares that her son has disappeared. Her friend François Diembélé, who has only recently lived in France, is considered suspect. François, in turn, suspects Alex, a former lover of Carole. He, in turn, is a small crook and specializes in comforting widows. When his current love affair goes on vacation alone and lets him live in their villa without money, he decides to sell the villa for a sham and start a new life with the money. Brigitte, in turn, receives a visit from her ex-husband Edouard, who initially thinks José is his son, whom he has never met. Brigitte claims to him that the boy is only with her to take care of her. The version also hears doctor Jerôme Castang, who was present at the death of Joseph and who fell in love with Brigitte. Brigitte, on the other hand, knows from newspaper and television reports that Margot kidnapped the boy. Unsure at first, she nevertheless decides to keep José as her child, especially since the boy has come to trust her and regards her as a mother. She also knows from the numerous bruises that José was abused by his birth mother.

Carole has looked for new, dodgy employers who can stand her. Tired of being kidnapped, François dispatches the police to Alex. However, José cannot be found in his supposed house. Convinced that Carole is still with Alex, François eventually plans to shoot her. Edouard, in turn, realizes that Joseph is José and uses his knowledge to blackmail Brigitte. He wants the two of them to be a couple again. He also arranges a meeting with Carole because he plans to buy José from her. François believes that Carole and Edouard's meeting is a rendezvous.

All threads come together in one day. Alex has had enough, sells the house for ten million francs in cash and goes to Orly Airport to escape with the money. Carole meets Edouard in the bar. Before François can shoot Carole, Carole and Edouard are shot by Carole's former employer, Milo. Brigitte and José also go to Orly to flee to Singapore. At the airport, Alex briefly takes care of the son of a passenger. So he falls on the investigator Martinaud, who had already searched Alex's house unsuccessfully. He thinks the boy is José and wants to arrest Alex. He flees and loses his money in the process. Brigitte and José easily get to Singapore, where they start a new life. Brigitte's mother tells her in a letter that she thought that her son's name was never Joseph, but always José.

production

Betty Fisher et autres histoires was shot in 2000 with a budget of 50 million francs. The shooting took place in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , among other places . The costumes were created by Jacqueline Bouchard , the film structures are by Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko .

The film premiered on September 1, 2001 at the Montreal World Film Festival . On October 24, 2001 it was shown in French cinemas, where it was seen by around 213,000 viewers. In Austria, Betty Fisher et autres histoires ran on December 6, 2002 as the opening film of the French Film Week in the Burgkino in Vienna and was shown in Austrian cinemas from June 2003, where it was shown with subtitles.

criticism

The Neue Kronen Zeitung called the film a "disturbing psychological thriller that blames the love of a mother with criminal traits". "Enthralling from the topic and brilliantly played by Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia and Mathilde Seigner," said the Wiener Zeitung . Claude Miller knows “to build tension. With cutting humor, he gets to the heart of events that are difficult to find words for, ”wrote Die Furche . It is true that the story occasionally “gets stuck in idle mode. Compensation for this is provided by the tense showdown with surprising twists ”. For Die Presse , "the acting and technical oiling of the Betty Fisher narrative clockwork was also a weak point: apart from the clearly noticeable class differences, many motifs of the material [...] remain underdeveloped in favor of the seamless flow of the episodes" and the film only develops a " considerable surface stimulus ”.

Awards

At the Montreal World Film Festival, Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia and Mathilde Seigner were named Best Actresses. The film also won the festival's FIPRESCI award and was nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques. Sandrine Kiberlain and Nicole Garcia won the Silver Hugo for Best Actress at the Chicago International Film Festival . Also in 2001, Sandrine Kiberlain was awarded an Étoile d'Or for Best Actress for her performance .

At the 2002 César , Nicole Garcia was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Edouard Baer for Best Supporting Actor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Betty Fisher et autres histoires - Budget on allocine.fr
  2. ↑ Betty Fisher et autres histoires - Box Office France on allocine.fr
  3. ^ French film week in the Burgkino in Vienna . In: APA W&B , December 1, 2002, category: Culture.
  4. ^ Betty Fisher et autres histoires . In: Wiener Zeitung , June 5, 2003, p. 25.
  5. ↑ Birthday Girl 1/2… . In: Neue Kronen Zeitung , December 5, 2002, p. 44.
  6. ↑ Violence, adventure, fanaticism and the numerous varieties of love . In: Wiener Zeitung , December 5, 2002, p. 9.
  7. ↑ N. Albiez: Painkiller son . In: Die Furche , June 5, 2003, p. 16.
  8. ↑ Christoph Huber: Lurking from a divine perspective . In: Die Presse , June 7, 2003, p. 39.