LILA SAYS
France, 2004, 89 minutes, Colour.
Vahina Giocante, Moah Khouas, Karim Ben Haddou, Carmen Lebbos.
Directed by Ziad Doueiri.
This is quite an interesting drama, made by a Lebanese director Lebanese, set in Marseilles, characters who are French, some from Poland, and others from North Africa.
The central character is called Chimo, a 19-year-old whose father has deserted him and his mother. He has a group of friends who are rather rough, get into trouble.
Then he encounters Lila, a 19-year-old who rides a bike, is friendly, the touch of the flirt. They get on well together.
But, Lila is sex-preoccupied, though that is in theory and in her imagination and talk rather than in reality. She talks about sex rather incessantly, making Chimo feel uncomfortable at times. Lila lives with her aunt, a strange woman. At one stage, to torment her aunt, she tells a story that she has encountered Satan (with the aunt’s summoning a priest who interrogates Lila, but also getting rid of the young men who are leering and curious).
Chimo is able to do better, a good writer, one of the teachers encouraging him and his mother that he should apply for a scholarship to Paris and train as a writer. He has opted to stay, fearing that he is something of a loser, with his friends.
Things come to a crisis when one of his friends brutally attacks Lila. Chimo violently defends her, their all being arrested. However, Chimo is cleared, asks the policeman for the phone number of Lila who has disappeared from Marseilles. There is a declaration of love on the phone, Chimo opting to go to Paris for the scholarship. And the film ends with the audience wondering what will happen to each of them in the future.
1. A slice of life? In France, Marseille? The French, the Arabs? At the beginning of the 21st-century – in the aftermath of 9/11?
2. The vistas of the city, the streets, apartments, the waterfront? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus on Lila as a character, age 19, beautiful, background from Poland, her parents, visits to the cemetery? Photos? The aunt and her aggressive sexuality? Riding her bike, befriending Chimo?
4. Chimo, telling the story, writing the story, the scraps of paper, the notebook? The title and his experience of Lila? At home, his mother, the father leaving, her anger? Aggression, reconciliation? The teacher suggesting the scholarship to Paris for writing? His not taking it up? A sense of being a loser, his loser-friends? Working or not? Petty crime? In trouble? The encounter with Lila and its changing his life?
5. Themes of friendship, affection, love, sexuality and sexual experiences?
6. Lila and her preoccupation with sex and sexuality? Her language, personal exhibitionist, on the swing, on the bike with Chimo? Provoking him? The talk, the effect on Chimo, asking about his observing her in sexual action, the issue of pornography films? The stories, going to the United States, the red barn, the farmer with the forklift? Fantasy and reality?
7. Chimo’s response, the bike ride, his being reticent, a delicacy in treatment of Lila? Privacy? His visits, the cemetery?
8. The aunt, odd, religious? Lila and her story of the devil, the visual descriptions, the aunt’s reaction? Screaming, calling for the priest? The priest, ousting the men, listening to Lila’s description of the devil?
9. Chimo and his friends, talking, peer pressure, the Asian prostitute, Chimo’s reaction? His friend following Lila? The destruction of the bar? The buildup to the rape? Chimo, his anger, his physical attack, the arrests? The interrogation, the friend witnessing that he was not part of the plot? Being let go?
10. Lila, the rape, her vulnerability, sexual reality versus her fantasy? Chimo present? His leaving?
11. Chimo, breaking with his friends, reconciling with his mother, the visit of the teacher, her reading his story, going to Paris?
12. Following the police officer, asking him for Lila’s phone number, persevering? Phoning her, declaration of love and her acknowledgement?
13. The importance of this experience at age 19? His future? A future?
