La vie d’une autre (2012)

Directed by: Sylvie Testud | 97 minutes | drama | Actors: Juliette Binoche, Mathieu Kassovitz, Aure Atika, Danièle Lebrun, Vernon Dobtcheff, Yvi Dachary-Le Béon, François Berléand, Marie-Christine Adam, Massimo Brancatelli, Claude Breda, Nicolas Carpentier, Dean Constantin Gaigani, Nilton Martins, Jean-Michelton Martins Nepper, Eric Prat, Marina Tome, Astrid Whettnall

Actress and writer Sylvie Testud could immediately make use of big names in the field such as Juliette Binoche and Mathieu Kassovitz for her directorial debut. Unfortunately, they can’t fix the fact that ‘La vie d’une autre’ is a hopeless snack. However impressive the oeuvres of the actresses and actor may be; it’s clear that none of them are leaving easy-going mode for this film, which is wafer-thin and blown away in no time.

The fact that a 41-year-old woman can no longer remember the past fifteen years of her life is played out very easily. Pretty much every scene seems to have the sole purpose of making Juliette Binoche look surprised because she has a son, a nice house, or a well-paid job. The conclusion that the film seems to be working towards already makes the violins swell, but it doesn’t come. A false promise, then, but that makes ‘La vie d’une autre’ even less than an amusingly simple film; it becomes his hopeless variant.

Binoche is one of France’s greatest actresses, but in her extensive film career also has to take on the occasional easy job and then plunge back into great drama, which she does best. Kassovitz, in turn, has been shouting from the rooftops for years that he no longer feels like acting, because he is a director by birth and lives for it. This becomes visible every second that he is in the picture. Finally, director Testud has played in enough interesting films as an actress, but fails to give her directorial debut a color, a voice. ‘La vie d’une autre’ could have been directed by anyone; it lacks a stamp of a person who knows what she wants to say. Testud apparently did not know this and puts the audience in front of a snack that is so mindless and trivial that even the most passionate Francophiles will have a hard time with it. A total failure.