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Bookmark this pageA Common Thread (2004)
Director: Éléonore Faucher
Movie review
From Time Out London
Imperilled or alienated youth has proven a fecund theme in recent European cinema. Director-co-writer Eléonore Faucher eschews the strict minimalism of the Dardenne brothers’ spiritual enquiries or Lynne Ramsey’s visual expressionism in favour of a minor-chord lyrical naturalism for her sensitive debut, the story of an isolated, pregnant 17-year-old in rural Charente. Hiding her bloating tummy from sarcastic supermarket colleagues, aspiring embroideress Claire (the flame-haired Lola Naymark) takes a job in the house of a grieving haute couture designer (Guédiguian regular and wife Ariane Ascaride) and over the needlework a bond slowly forms. Impressive visuals (courtesy of Pierre Cottereau), sound design and effective if modernistically withholding performances combine with Faucher’s mood-sensitive attention to gesture and detail to a kind of therapeutic effect, conjuring an intriguing, non-specific feminised space. Sweet, too, to see how Faucher privileges the (creative) work of hands; a lovingly slow pan over a particularly beautiful sequined design becomes her low-key equivalent of the epiphanic bell-making scene in Tarkovsky’s ‘Andrei Rublev’.Author: WH
Time Out London Issue 1813: May 18-25 2005
User reviews of this film
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- judy said...
- Posted on May 26 2011 03:35 A stunningly beautiful film, crafted with creative brilliance.
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Cast & crew
Director: Éléonore Faucher
Cast: Marie Félix, Lola Naymark, Ariane Ascaride, M Lescuyer, Thomas Laroppe full cast
Rated: 12A
Duration: 87 mins
UK Release: May 20 2005
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