Sagan (2008)

Best movie of this year hands down!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This film started as a TV miniseries; it was chopped down to feature length for general release. I don't think it is an important film, being rushed and skimpy on character development. Guy Schoeller meets Francoise at a book signing and ten seconds later, they're getting wed, and shortly after that, divorced. It was very hard to keep track of the many characters who drop in to the story, then abruptly exit. Just when did Mme. Lebreton enter Francoise's life anyway? Sylvie Testud does a tremendous job of playing Francoise Sagan; she must have been a sort of Rimbaud of the moneyed class, and Testud captures all the wild, impulsive, spendthrift behavior Sagan was noted for. Pierre Palmade as Chazot walks through an underwritten part (all the supporting parts are underwritten) but is interesting to look at.

It leaves you a weird feeling afterwards, if, like me, you enjoy and believe in free life-styles. Because she was really free, in advance on her time, never cared about other's opinions... which is something I entirely admire and quite try to do. But she ended up alone, pathetically alone. And this makes you wonder if this life-style you aim to reach is a good choice. Strangely I am convinced it wasn't the aim of the movie, to make you wonder about the emptiness of her life. So maybe it's me again who is projecting (some worries nowadays about where my Independence drives me?). Or maybe, as we say in French, you can't have the butter and the money for the butter, meaning, every life-style choice has negative consequences: chose freedom, you will end up alone; chose love and commitment to others, you will end up feeling coerced. In any case, happiness is not at the end, so enjoy the moment...

It seems to be a trend in French mainstream movies nowadays, to film the story of celebrities' lives. "Sagan" is just another example.This author lived a quite unhappy life, being used but also letting herself be used by flatterers and others. They all disappeared and betrayed her, like she betrayed many people, including her son.But this story is told in such a common way. The main character is complex, but still made very easy to understand. It's all simplified in a moralizing way. Not that you can object much about moralizing over this destructive life and surely, this is entertaining and absolutely not stupid. But Sagan deserves better.

Why another biopic? Why biopics at all? Writer-director Diane Kurys doesn't know. Perhaps so you have something to take your mother to. But chances are she'd fall asleep. Francoise Sagan may have had an exciting life, but you certainly wouldn't know from this movie. It feels like the entire cast and crew were high on 875, that mysterious morphine Sagan was a slave to half her life. Because nothing ever happens, you will quickly find your mind wandering to the fringes of the screen. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's even a cinematic strategy, but I wouldn't bet on it. Take Florence Malraux, the eminent writer's daughter. Played by Margot Abascal, she is so much more vibrant and adorable than everybody else you wonder why the movie isn't about her. Or take the shady guy: When Francoise and Peggy, drunk as hell, check into the Hotel Raphael for a little lesbian loving, they pass a nameless stranger walking the other way. I wonder what his story is. Where is he going, wearing giant shades, in the middle of the night? Perhaps I should have followed him.