MES SEANCES DE LUTTES/ LOVE BATTLES

France, 2013, 99 minutes, Colour stop
Sara Forestier, James Thieree.
Directed by Jacques Doillon.

This is something of an offbeat drama, a two hander which might have been a play in the theatre but is opened out in scenes within a house and in the countryside as settings for the emphasis on dialogue.

She, Sarah Forestier, has suffered the loss of her father and is in quite an emotional state, bad memories of him, wanting a piano as part of her heritage. He, James Thieree, the grandson of Charles Chaplin, is a quiet man, writer, working in his garden.

The two have met, have a sexual intensity but it has not been consummated. She returns to confront him. He tries to offer sympathy for the death of her father. What ensues is a great deal of dialogue, discussions about the relationship, the emotional dimensions, the psychological dimensions. What happens is that there is a lot of physical contact, physical fighting, physical wrestling, several episodes of this – a touch of passionate sado-masochism.

So, the dynamic of the film is for the audience to wonder about her, her effect on him, his responses, the impact of the physical wrestling, sexual culmination…

Direction is by the veteran, Jacques Doillon.

1. A drama of love, physical, psychological, perspectives of sado-masochism?

2. The homes, the gardens, the water? The confined sets?

3. The emphasis on dialogue? The screenplay which could have been a theatre drama? Opened out for cinema? The musical score?

4. The situation? The death of the woman’s father? His not having loved her? No inheritance? Her emotional void and anger? The meetings with her sister, the issue of the piano, the ball, her sister and the family inheriting?

5. The computer contact with the adviser-friend, the discussion of the situation? The adviser coming to visit?

6. The relationship with the man? His age, at home, writing, working on the grounds?

7. The past relationship, intimacy, no sexual encounter? The effect on her? On him? Emotional, sexual?

8. The series of encounters, the dialogue and the discussions, with the woman and her situation and emotions, her sister, the attraction to the man? The man and his reaction to the woman, attracted, yet distant? The range of the dialogue, the topics covered?

9. The physical contacts? The range of wrestling encounters? The effect on each of them?

10. The growing sexual intensity, clothes, nudity? Sexual encounters? The wrestling in the mud?

11. The aftermath of the encounters, the keeping of distance, the couple together? What future?