For sure Sylvie Pialat, famous director Maurice Pialat's widow, did the right thing in choosing Patrick Grandperret to carry through "Meurtrières" (not the title originally chosen), one of her late husband's pet projects for years. Pialat had even started filming it back in the seventies only to call it quits after a few days, as he was dissatisfied with the pair of lead actresses he had hired. He tried again in the eighties with Sandrine Bonnaire but did not even begin shooting. After "Le Garçu", his last movie, Pialat still considered directing it. Now that Maurice is in a more peaceful world, who else but Grandperret could do justice to the master, flesh out the twenty pages written by Pialat (from actual facts), update these facts dating back to 1972 and find two believable young actresses?
Grandperret is the right choice for two main reasons. First he is a very estimable director who, not having been able to work for the cinema for ten years, needed a second chance. Second, he had been Pialat's first assistant-director for two years and he was the person best suited not to betray his mentor. Sylvie Pialat was aware that Grandperret's personal matter-of-fact style was in harmony with her late husband's touch. The finished product must not have disappointed her, as the basic material really inspired Grandperret, making "Meurtrières" his best film to-date.
The director quite rightly chooses to plunge the viewer as of the very first scene into the heart of the tragedy. In the first sequence a dazed girl covered in blood wanders about a road in the middle of the night. She has just murdered someone, no doubt about it. She is soon joined by another young lady, as reddened by blood as she is. As a result, when a flashback makes the viewer travel back before the facts, they know that the two girls are doomed, even if the circumstances of the drama have not been described yet. The two protagonists can't possibly escape their fate and what the viewer wants to know now is not "WHAT will happen to them?" but "HOW will the circumstances lead them to this fatal end?" And just like in Greek tragedy, fact after fact will turn against the two characters, whether or not they hold a share of responsibility in what happens to them. But what makes "Meurtrières" a modern tragedy and not a classical one- is that it is not the gods who play with humans like puppets but it is today's society, based on money and individualism as it is, that causes the two girls to fall down. It is BECAUSE they are penniless that Lissy and Nina are left out of everything. In such a selfish world as ours they just can't expect any support, any help. As the waiter of a café coolly tells them (and that could epitomize consumer society as a whole): "either you buy something or you beat it!" And they beat it
until they go beyond the point of no return.
As I said above, the tone adopted by the director is matter of fact, neither too sentimental nor too moralizing, and all the more effective for that, as things speak for themselves. And the form is the right one as well: in this "absurd road movie", the girls are always on the move but they do not go from one point to the other, they go round in circles until they are back to their starting point. The places are very definite geographically speaking: all the action takes place in the French "department" of Charente-Maritime, with clearly identified spots such as La Rochelle, l'Ile de Ré, and so on
Most of the time they are connected with vacation and luxury, which, by contrast, makes the lot of the unfortunate heroines all the harder.
Hande Kodja and Céline Sallette, two talented newcomers (who also contributed to the script), give a breathtaking performance. It is amazing to think that they are beginners. They are surrounded by an excellent cast ; all are so natural that we forget they are actors.
Let's hope Grandperret is off for a new start. "Meurtières" should constitute a precious visiting card for the director. And thank you to Sylvie Pialat for trusting him the way she did.
