CANNES – I couldn’t tell you if Mother’s Day is celebrated in France, but there is some irony somewhere of having Vanessa Filho’s directorial debut, “Angel Face,” debut at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival the day before it does elsewhere in the world. Despite the best efforts of Marion Cotillard, this is one pointless melodrama about a very delinquent mother, Marlene, and her unbelievably self-reliant daughter Elli (Ayline Aksoy-Etaix). And the most positive thing we can say about the picture is if you have a rocky relationship with your own mother you’ll appreciate her much more after seeing this one.
Oh, and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman (“The Artist”) is game, so there’s that. But, I digress…
The film is set in a small city along the French Riveria where late thirtysomething and single mom Marlene is getting married for, what she jokes is, the fifth time (probably not a joke). Elli watches intently as her mother puts on fairy-tale makeup (borderline drag) and swigs on some alcohol before heading out for the ceremony. Cotillard leaves little subtlety in depicting Marline as a working-class woman with questionable fashionable instincts (on the other side of the Atlantic, the term “white trash” comes to mind) and Filho gives her more than enough ammunition. At the end of the wedding reception, her fiancé (a barely there Stéphane Rideau) and Elli discover Marlene having sex with one of the other guests. We’re about ten to 15 minutes into the film and you’re already wondering if and when child services are going to show up.
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Not surprisingly, Marlene doesn’t take the fact she screwed up another potential monetary provider and spends the next few days barely getting out of bed and watching reality TV (surprise, French television can aim for the gutter too). A child services representative does show up, however, and Elli apparently answers her questions satisfactorily enough to avoid any further inquiry (you’ll wish she hadn’t later). Marlene breathes a sigh of relief claiming they will never be separated again insinuating it’s been a rocky road so far. Meanwhile, her ex-fiancé cancels her credit card and, despite living in an ocean view apartment, she begins to feel financially desperate.
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It’s somewhat of a relief then that Elli’s summer vacation comes to an end and she finally has to go back to school. At least there will be someone there to properly look after her, right? Nope, that was too much to ask for. Instead, she’s mocked by classmates for having a “Cougar” as a mother (really), is bullied by others for one thing or another and only has the slight kindness of one young boy to count on. You wonder how her teacher isn’t noticing at least one of these incidents, but that seems to be a continuing theme Filho wants to explore -a little girl lost to the society around her. Actually, that might be a reach, but so is the movie so whatever.
As for Marlene, her BFF (Amélie Daure) comes around to try to wrestle her out of her collective funk with the promise of a fun time at the Queen club. It works, but Marlene brilliantly decides to have Elli tag along for the festivities. Yes, she brings her eight-year-old daughter to a loud, extravagant nightclub (well, for this town, at least). It’s a relief that at least one of the adults in her posse wonder why Elli is there, but considering Marlene has left her home by herself before why would she bring her this time? Oh, it’s because Filho wants you to see all of this through her daughter’s eyes. Except when she shows it all through Marlene’s eyes. Or when she wants to show it through another character’s eyes whom we haven’t met yet. Yes, the whole thing is a bit messy.
Oh, we’re probably just 30 minutes in at this point. We’ve got another hour and 18 minutes with credits to go. Hold on!
Not surprisingly, Marlene meets an interested, apparently well-off suitor at the club who wants to hang (apparently for quite some time) and puts Elli in a cab sending her back to their apartment. And then she doesn’t come home. For days. Eventually weeks. Actually, it’s not clear at all how long Marlene is gone, but beyond one voicemail telling her that she loves her, and having her ‘unprepared for this sort of gig’ BFF stop by to look after her (and failing miserably), Elli is literally on her own.
At the beginning of Elli’s independence, she smartly goes to school as though nothing is going on, but her loneliness is simply too much for her to handle. She starts drinking the alcohol in the apartment (signs of emulating her mother teased at earlier) and wandering the boardwalk. At a carnival, she runs into a loner (Alban Lenoir) who she immediately bonds with even if he seemingly wants nothing to do with her and the film goes off entirely in another direction.
From that point on, Filho and co-screenwriter Diastème (one word says it all) meander, unsure of where this is all ending up. The loner’s storyline and arc come out of nowhere, and the fact that child services never poke around again or the other parents in this small coastal enclave don’t inquire to why Marlene hasn’t been seen with Elli for weeks (again, weeks), strains any of the realistic credibility Filho is trying to fashion. Despite youngster Aksoy-Etaix’s commendable performance, not only will you not believe, you also won’t care.
But you may hug your own mom a bit more tightly the next time you see her. [C-]
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