HIDDEN FACE

(France, 2007 - 93 min - French with English subtitles –

Directed by Bernard Campan

Review By Michael Ricciardi

From the initial, halting notes of an attempted Bach piano fugue, and then the voiced over, first person narration: “Sometimes waking up scares me…”, we are drawn into this well-executed, introspective film that is a throw back of sorts to the classic, art house, existential cinema so often associated with the French. The film is not about what happens, or is happening, physically, to the characters (a man and his wife and their circle of friends), but rather, what is happening within them, psychologically.

Transpiring over four weekends in their life, HIDDEN FACE is the story of a middle-age, married couple’s attempts to understand each other, during a time of detachment and personal crisis. But it is the man’s existential crisis—marked by his constant asking of ontological questions—that we see in sharpest relief, and which obscures a second crisis occurring right under his nose. We are given several clues to this, but they are ambiguous and we are beguiled into interpreting them differently. The film is punctuated by three short scenes—each time a different women—involving (apparently) a therapy session of some kind (shot in confessional, documentary style). It is not until the fourth/last time this happens that we suddenly understand the fuller reality of the couple’s marriage.

There is, again, not much happening in the film in a conventional sense; this is a dialogue/monologue-driven film (though not at all overly intellectual, and with some humor), where all the “real” action is internal to the characters.

So subtly compelling was this film that I forgot completely to notice the acting; there was not one “false note” to break the trance. Everything in the film seemed incredibly ordinary and believable, and incredibly real (vastly more so than any self-conscious “reality” program on TV).

After the film, I spoke with another reviewer and asked her what she thought of it. At first, her response was that she “didn’t like it.” Too French? Too existential? I offered. She concurred. But as we discussed the film more intently, we began to realize the depth and subtlety and sophistication of this work. Our discussion lasted a good 15-20 minutes. When was the last time you saw a film that provoked 20 minutes of thoughtful discussion?

See it. You’ll understand