White Wedding (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | White wedding |
| Original title | Noce blanche |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jean-Claude Brisseau |
| script | Jean-Claude Brisseau |
| production | Margaret Ménégoz |
| music | Jean Musy |
| camera | Romain Winding |
| cut | María Luisa García |
| occupation | |
| |
White Wedding is a 1989 French drama film directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau .
action
At the end of February in the city of Saint-Étienne : Philosophy teacher François Hainaut reacts indignantly when 17-year-old Mathilde Tessier finally comes into class shortly before the end of school. She is late for the first time in class in 17 days. He throws her out and tells her that she should think about why she's constantly skipping school. On his way home he sees Mathilde, who has passed out in a bus shelter. He brings her home and realizes that she lives alone in a chaotic apartment. A look at her school files brings further information: Mathilde's parents live in Paris, she has two brothers. In Paris, too, she had hardly come to class. She owes her admission to the Abitur class in Saint-Étienne mainly to a teacher who had stood up for her but is no longer at the school. Mathilde's remaining at school is in danger because numerous teachers are campaigning for her to be expelled. François returns to Mathilde, who tells him that her father is a psychiatrist, while the mother is depressed and has tried to kill herself several times. So that she doesn't have to stay with her mother, her father preferred to send her to Saint-Etienne alone. When she asked, François told her that his wife was a bookseller and occasionally writes articles for a newspaper. Although he wants to go home, he lets Mathilde persuade him to have dinner together. In the end she kisses him lightly on the cheek.
The next day Mathilde did her homework and was able to give a perfect lecture about the unconscious, for which the classmates even applaud her. François succeeds in obtaining a final test for Mathilde by Easter at a scheduled teachers' conference. He begins to study with her, but is annoyed when she seems to have secrets from him. Mathilde, in turn, starts calling him regularly, even though he hasn't given her his number. Due to their persistence, they both also speak on terms. François' wife Catherine reacts suspiciously and lets her husband tell her all about Mathilde. She asks him to be careful not to fall in love with his student. He calms her down, but Mathilde falls for it more and more. When she doesn't show up at school one day, he goes to see her and they finally sleep together. Shortly afterwards, Catherine receives an anonymous letter stating that François loves another woman. François weighs it down. Shortly before the Easter break, Mathilde's performance improved so much that she was allowed to stay at the school. She secretly goes to François after class and a colleague sees them both continuing together.
François plans to spend the Easter holidays with Mathilde, but she has to go to Paris because her mother has made another attempt at suicide. Shortly before her departure, Mathilde François confesses that she used drugs when she was eleven and later prostituted herself for three years. Her brothers also worked as dealers. When Mathilde is in Paris, she keeps calling François. His wife is exasperated and finally leaves him for the Easter holidays. After a while, Mathilde visits François at home and wants him to leave his wife, but François refuses. They sleep together. At the end of the vacation, Mathilde moved in with a schoolmate with whom she aggressively flirted during class. She ignores François' jealousy. Meanwhile, Mathilde is terrorizing Catherine, who wants to finish her off. She keeps calling and insulting them, smashing and smearing the windows of her bookstore, and organizing an accident with her car. After several bomb threats, her collaboration with the newspaper is also put on hold. François then takes Mathilde out of class. Because she announced that he would continue to cause trouble for his wife because she loved him, he first beats her, but in the end they both sleep together in an empty changing room. Here she sees one of François' colleagues. She first wants to cover him up and deny others access to the room, but then leaves her guard post. Numerous pupils see teachers and pupils making love.
From the narrator, the viewer learns the further events: François is transferred to Dunkerque , Catherine leaves him. Mathilde's mother dies and Mathilde disappears from François' life.
The film ends with the events a year later: François teaches at a school in Dunkerque. One day at home he is called by the police and asked to come to an apartment in this city. There Mathilde lies dead in her bed. She committed suicide after sitting by a window for two months, according to the caretaker. This offers a view of the door of the school building that François walked through every day. A book written by François was found with the dead woman, on the cover of which she had noted François' name, address and telephone number, but without ever having contacted him again.
production
The shooting of the White Wedding took place at the Lycée général et technologique Jean-Monnet in Saint-Étienne and at the Lycée Jean Bart in Dunkerque. María Luisa García designed the costumes and films . The book La Philosophie Mystique de Simone Weil , which was written by François Hainaut in the film, is actually by Gaston Kempfner , who is thanked in the credits.
White Wedding opened in French cinemas on November 8, 1989 and was also released in German cinemas on June 7, 1990. The film was released on video on June 20, 1991 under the title Baby Blue . It was shown for the first time on German television on September 30, 1991 on ARD.
It was the acting debut of Vanessa Paradis, who was 16 years old at the time of filming. In retrospect, Paradis called the filming "terrible [...] the director Jean-Claude Brisseau finished off everyone on the set."
criticism
The film-dienst called the White Wedding an "occasionally involuntarily comical French variant of the theme from the American hit film ' A fateful affair '". The film is "optically meaningless, full of stale wisdom", but Vanessa Paradis' game is impressive. Even Der Spiegel wrote that director Brisseau "Unfortunately, [...] too often embarrassing cliches [decay]". “Brittle, but sexy and sensitive,” said Cinema .
Awards
Vanessa Paradis received a César for Best Young Actress in 1990 . The film was also nominated for Césars in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Ludmila Mikaël) and Best Movie Poster .
Web links
- White wedding in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ No more teenagers . In: Der Spiegel , No. 48, 1995, p. 140.
- ↑ White wedding. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ White wedding . In: Der Spiegel , No. 40, 1991, p. 350.
- ↑ See cinema.de