Eager Bodies

Giannoli's outstanding 1998 short L'Interview, the story of an exasperated journalist's attempts to parlez with Ava Gardner, boded well for a career in features. Eager Bodies, based on Christian de Montella's novel, turns out to be an effective but extremely low key, DV-shot story of young love imperilled by illness and suspicion. Students Charlotte (Smet) and Paul (Duvauchelle), both 20, struggle to cope when she's diagnosed with cancer. The arrival on the scene of her sensual cousin Ninon (Denarnaud) only complicates matters further. Firmly avoiding the 'weepie' trap, Giannoli crafts an unsentimental depiction of a thoroughly convincing personal crisis. Though often slow, and punctuated with silences and stillness, there's no mistaking the pain and passion that drives these three desperate people into, and out of, each other's arms.