|
BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
|
 Posted - 12/31/2012 : 01:20:40
|
Swiss actress turned writer/director Ursula Meier proved with her previous film Home that she understands how to find subtle and engaging ways to present the complexities of modern life.
Home was set in the milieu of a community threat from a new highway. Sister occupies a posh ski resort in season, an appropriate locale to deal with the contrast between those of the leisured class and those who find occupation in servicing them.
The film's French title translates as The Kid from Up There.
To personalize such a mix, and more importantly to present it in a completely unsentimental or simplistic way, Meier and her co-writers have created a central relationship that's fresh and unexpected.
I won't reveal any of the surprises that keep the engine of this vehicle ticking over, but you're in for a ride that goes up, down, around corners, holds your hand over the rough bits, and leaves you wanting more.
In a year offering some wonderful child actors, here's another in the person of pre-teen Kacey Mottet Klein as Simon, a resourceful petty thief. He also featured in Meier's Home.
Here he shares his catch as catch can life with the eponymous Louise [the excellent L�a Seydoux, one of the Seydoux theatrical dynasty]. We don't find these two in the most salutary circumstances, made more poignant by their very physical location.
They constantly scan up to where rich tourists take the ski lift, hoping at least temporarily for a way out of their crummy lives.
While Seydoux careens from demeaning cleaning jobs to sex work, Klein relies on cunning, petty theft, and a talent for organization, a weird kind of leadership that has the local kids in thrall.
Key to Meier's vision is collaborator Agnes Godard, one of France's most talented cinematographers. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the majesty of the Alps, but without sacrificing anything, Godard presents us with a place that may stun the tourists, but to the locals - it's just where they live.
Mention, too, must be made of a cameo by Gillian Anderson who's understated and strangely moving as a rich mom who tries to befriend Simon, but who turns as cold as the slopes when she catches him betraying her.
The effect the encounter has on the boy spins the story in another unexpected direction. And so it goes until at last we're left with the sad reality that such different worlds cannot quite meet, connected as they are by a fragile cable car that can see everything while remaining untouched.
|
|
Sister [aka: L'enfant d'en haut]
