POUR ELLE (ANYTHING FOR HER)

France, 2008, 96 minutes, Colour.
Vincent Lindon, Diane Kruger, Lancelot Roch, Liliane Rovere, Oliviere Perrier.
Directed by Fred Cavaye.

Pour Elle is an interesting drama, quite intense at times.

The film opens with Julien (Vincent Lindon) with blood on his hands in a car. There is a quick transition to a happy family, Julien with his wife, Lisa (Diane Kruger) and their young son. Suddenly, the police arrive at the door and the wife is arrested for murder and imprisoned.

While the film shows the effect of prison on the wife as well as the alienation of her son over the three years before her appeal, the focus is on Julien and his coping with his son but also with his efforts to free his wife. With the turning down of the appeal (and the audience knowing she is innocent and that this is a miscarriage of justice because of circumstantial evidence), he becomes ever more determined to get her out of jail. For the rest of the film, this is his obsession, minutely detailed planning and the suspense of whether he will be able to carry out his plan or not. A series of desperate situations, or turns of fate, means that the audience becomes more and more emotionally involved. It is something like us against them, the audience and the family against the police.

It is interesting to watch how ingenuity can win the day against the best police procedures – but the film ends with the reflection from a criminal who made several escapes: escaping is easy; it is staying free that is difficult.

1.A French thriller? Characters? Situations? Action? A satisfying combination?

2.The French settings, Paris, the city? The homes? Work? The streets and the drug dealers? The contrast with the prison at Meaux? Exteriors and interiors? The travel to Liage? The finale in Guatemala? The musical score?

3.The credibility of the characters, the plot, the situation? The action at the end – and the escape?

4.The beginning with Julien and the blood in the car? The mystery? The reprise of this sequence later in the film – and the consequences? Suspicions of Julien? The transition to his arriving home with Lisa? Their marriage, home, Oscar? The babysitter? Everything seeming normal?

5.The indications of time change, the last three years, the last three months, three days…?

6.The morning, ordinary breakfast, the police invasion, the arrest of Lisa? The accusation? Murder? Her going to jail? The lawyers? Circumstantial evidence? The three years in jail, the appeal? Julien going to the court, encountering the lawyer, the appeal turned down?

7.The importance of the flashback, the audience understanding what the circumstantial evidence was? Lisa being entirely innocent? The wrong culprit? The injustice of her imprisonment?

8.Julien and the three years, his having to be father and mother to Oscar? The domestic sequences? His own work as a teacher? His search for witnesses – and time passing? His going to the park, talking with the parents in the park? The domestic side of life? The contrast with the visit to the prison, their being screened, the meetings with Lisa? Oscar and his ignoring his mother? The pain for her? Her illness, the need for medication? The hospital?

9.Julien and his plan to get Lisa from prison, his wall and all the diagrams, the points, the photos? The sudden change and her being transferred to another prison? His decision to act quickly? The plan with the ambulance?

10.The need for money, trying to sell the house? Selling all the furniture? The house becoming bare? His relationship with his brother, the brother’s coming to see him, talking it over with him? His relationship with his parents, going to visit them, the meals, leaving Oscar with them? Their delight in having their grandson? The father and his knowing what was to happen, seeing the tickets, accepting this? The farewell?

11.Julien and the need for more money, the short time, looking at the bank, contemplating the robbery? The decision to attack the drug dealer, getting him in the car, getting him to take him to the boss? The hostility of the boss? The gun? Julien taking the money? The shooting, the dealer and his being shot, the boss and his death? Julien taking the dealers’ body in the car, the reprise of the opening scene, the blood, leaving the dealer on a seat in the street?

12.The police, the body, the investigations? The paint on the car, narrowing the field to Julien? Moving very quickly – but not quickly enough?

13.Julien, with Oscar, taking the hotel room opposite the hospital? Putting the plan into practice, the wrong files and his substituting others? Lisa and her surprise, taken to the hospital?

14.Julien and the gun, Lisa and her disbelief, trying to dissuade him? The white coats, the corridors, the pursuit in the hospital, the getaway? The decision to go to Liage for the flight? Getting through the roadblock – the hitchhikers and it not seeming like mother, father and son? Their being let through? Hiding the money on themselves? Getting through security?

15.The interesting presentation of an ordinary couple and their thinking, shrewdness, luck, evading the police completely?

16.The flight to Guatemala, settling there – a future? The scene where Julien interviewed the writer of the book about escapes and his comment that it was easy to escape but much more difficult to stay free? Would this apply to the family?