PLANETARIUM

France, 2016, 104 minutes, Colour.
Natalie Portman, Lily- Rose Depp, Emanuel Salinger, Amira Casar, Pierre Salvadori, Louis Garrel, David Bennent,, Damien Chappelle.
Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski.

This is a rather interesting and intriguing at times drama from France, with dialogue in French and, because the two central characters are American, also in English.

The setting is the late 1930s in France. Two sisters are in a cabaret circuit able to hold seances involving an incredulous audience. (Interestingly, the compere and manager of the cabaret is played by the rather haunting little boy from The Tin Drum, David Bennent.) The sisters attract an entrepreneur, Korban. Originally from Eastern Europe, Jewish and later stigmatised for this, who is involved in the film industry of the time. He is particularly interested in filming a seance after he himself has had an extraordinary experience, imagining that he was being pushed back in his chair and throttled by sinister figure. He is played by Emanuel Salinger.

The two sisters are played by Natalie Portman and Lily- Rose Depp, daughter of Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp). In fact, Natalie Portman was 34 at the time of filming and Lily- Rose Depp only 16. The sisters are Laura and Kate. Kate is the medium, going into a trance after serious breathing enabling her to be in touch with the other world. Laura is the much more practical manager.

Korban persuades the sisters to become involved in filming, wanting to capture a seance to intrigue the public as well is to make money, and he is seen in many discussions with his patrons, producers and financiers. Ultimately, filming the seance is not a success, most people not seeing the barely perceptible changes in Kate. Korban is the victim of anti-Semitism, accused of fraud and jailed.

Laura has a career in films, giving the audience the opportunity to see something of the styles of filmmaking at the time, cameras, screenings, the work of the actors, interactions and the work of the technicians.

Kate has fragile health and dies.

An unusual film, an opportunity to go back into France in the late 1930s and enjoy the performances of the two actresses.

1. A French perspective on friends in the 1930s? Interest in seances in contact with of the worlds? The French film industry of the time?

2. The re-creation of the period, costumes and decor? Cabaret, film sets? Paris, the Riviera? The coast? Apartments in hotels? The venues for seances? The musical score?

3. The title, the focus on the stars?

4. A portrait of two sisters? The older in her 30s, the younger in her teens? The bond between the two? The performances of the actresses, distinctive characters? The opening, Eve returning to visit Laura, the death of Kate? The flashbacks?

5. The sisters, Kate and her powers, concentration, otherworldly? Laura as practical and the manager? The performances? Cabaret? The woman unwilling, yet having an experience of what was hidden? The compere and his management? Korban, presence in the audience? Is interest?

6. The character of Korban, from Eastern Europe, French citizen, Jewish and the prejudice against him? His interest in the two sisters? His having the sittings and his own experience, reaching back from the chair, imagining someone pulling and choking him? Intrigued, the business side, his involvement in filmmaking, his wanting to film such episodes, audience interest, moneymaking? His interest in Laura, her ability and acting, fostering her career? The interactions between himself and the sisters? Their living in his house? The meals, visitors? Film sets? The re-enactments? His faith and them? Others critical there was nothing to be seen? His financial difficulties, the sponsor, the withdrawal of money? The anti-Semitism and his regard?

7. Laura and Kate, inseparable, the bonds? Laura, interest in the films, her auditions, the success? Performance, the lines, acting? Her involvement with in the film world? The contract with Kate, otherworldly, yet fascinated by what was going on, a young age?

8. Kate, in the sittings, her breathing, sensing of other worlds, the characters? Their experience? Of this experience? Interest in the film world but are not becoming involved? Her illness, her death?

9. Laura, relationship with Korban, suspicions of him? The actors? Her interactions with permanent, his character, in the film, with Laura, her separation from him?

10. The, her interest in phenomena, the visits, society, her background? Are interest in the sisters? Friendship? Her returning to visit Laura after Kate’s death?

11. The film crew, the practical look at film styles of the period, Korban and his wanting inventiveness, cameras and their capacities? The technicians, the contribution, the editing room, the screenings?

12. The fate of Korban, imprisonment and the blackening of his reputation?

13. A rather different portrait of two sisters in a rather different context of the 1930s, film, finance, anti-Semitism?