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Customer Reviews of The Disenchanted

"What I give away, no-one can take from me."
In the film "The Disenchanted," 17 year-old Beth lives in Paris with her invalid mother and 8 year-old brother, Remi. There is frequently little or no food in the house, and the family is dependent on cheques they are given by "Sugardaddy." "Sugardaddy" is a doctor, and Beth's mother was his mistress before she took permanently to bed. The film follows events that take place after Beth fights with her boyfriend, who is called Whatsisname by Beth and her brother.

The term "disenchanted" refers to the poet Rimbaud--his poster is on Beth's bedroom wall, but all the characters in the film are also disenchanted. There are no illusions here. Even 8 year-old Remi knows what Sugardaddy's role is, and Sugardaddy, now that his mistress is worn out, is looking for a replacement. Beth is the disenchanted object of desire of all the men in her life. They all want something from her--Sugardaddy, Whatisname, and even the most interesting of them all--Alphonse.

Beth is a remarkably self-contained teenager. There are no tears or temper tantrums here--probably because she can't afford them. Neither does she waste her time on recriminations, and she does what she needs to do--never giving away anything of herself in the process. It is Beth's chance meeting and brief relationship with Alphonse that proves to be the most revealing. The film is finely acted and runs smoothly. However, I had a vague feeling of dis-satisfaction at the end--as if I wanted something more to happen--displacedhuman.

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AVOID THIS MOVIE
EROTIC NOT IN MY LIFE TIME, NUFF SAID

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Parisian girl leaves adolescence behind
This is a charming little film made in the agreeable French tradition of Vadim, Techine, Kieslowski, et al, in which the film itself reflects the director's adoration for its pretty young star. In this case we have Director Benoît Jacquot adoring Judith Godrèche, who plays a poor but principled 17-year-old Parisian girl disenchanted with her life, in particular with the choices she has in males. Her boyfriend tells her she should sleep with somebody ugly. Just why isn't clear. He is referred to as "whatshisname." She meets an interesting man, Alphonse, played by Marchel Bozonnet, but he is too old for her and, at any rate, still enamored of another. And certainly she doesn't want her mother's lover, referred to as "Sugardad," who is in his sixties.

Godrèche herself is as natural and unself-conscience as a child. Dressed mostly in thin house dresses that cling lightly to her body, she displays the clear eyes, the clean jaw line and sculptured arms of youthful innocence. The camera adores her face and stays with her throughout. Clearly she is good and good to look at, but I would not say she is as enchanting as Krzysztof Kieslowski's Irène Jacob (La Double vie de Véronique (1991); Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994)) nor as talented as Juliette Binoche in Andre Techine's Rendez-Vous (1985). And of course not nearly as sexy as Brigitte Bardot in Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman (1957).

But comparisons are odious. This is a good film in its own right. The treatment suggests a short story from a literary journal, original, with quiet, unexpected tableaux of daily life leaving one to ponder. The climax appears without one's knowing it until the film begins the closing credits and then one understands what happened. There is a dark symbolic element throughout suggesting the bondage to the material world that comes when a girl is no longer a child.

Vietnamese-French actor Hai Truhong Tu is excellent in a small part as Godrèche's Chinese friend.