RIVIERA

France, 2005, 95 minutes, Colour.
Miou- Miou , Vahina Jiocante, Elie Semoun.
Directed by Anne Villaceque.

Riviera is a portrait of a mother and daughter living on the Mediterranean coast, on the Riviera. Veteran actress Miou- Miou is the mother, idling at home, conscious about her age and her beauty. However, she is devoted to her daughter. This includes procuring for her at the hotel in which she works. To this extent, the film is about a morally anchorless society, where personal relationships are important but can be exploited. The daughter then wants to assert her independence over her mother but is trapped to some extent in the life that she leads in the hotel, in the relationships with the male customers.

This is a brief, rather depressing, but sometimes insightful picture of men and women at the beginning of the 21st century in contemporary France.

1. The Riviera as a place, a symbol of luxury, beauty? A place of evil under the surface?

2. The Riviera locations, the beauty of the sea, the beaches? The background of the hotels, clubs, apartments? The musical score?

3. The feminine perspective, the director, the mother and daughter, their relationship, the possessive mother, the daughter finding her independence, the mutual frustrations? The relationship with men – erupting into violence?

4. The realism of the plot – the long takes, the close-ups, the time for the audience to contemplate mother and daughter?

5. The morally anchorless society, any moral framework for mother and for daughter? The daughter and her behaviour, relationships, seduction? Experiencing violence? Her final choices – especially for the pornography industry? The mother, her frustration, seductive, murdering the salesman? An anchorless society?

6. The portrait of the mother, at home, watching beauty competitions on television? No background about her marriage? Her love for her daughter, protective, yet letting her be a dancer in the clubs? Procuring for her daughter? The humdrum work of cleaning the rooms? Her relationship with the staff at the hotel? Meeting the salesman, his rejecting her? Leading him to her daughter? Hearing about him, seeing the violence on the daughter, her strangling him?

7. The daughter, her beauty, age? Relationship with her mother? Relationship with boys, the drive with the Italian? At the club, her dancing, seductive? At home? The encounter with the salesman, at the club, going out with him, intimacy, enjoying the experience? His turning on her, the violence and beating her, the aftermath? Comforted by her mother? The owner of the club and his rejection? The Italian boyfriend with another girl? The pornography industry – a future for her? What kind of future?

8. The portrait of the men, the owner of the club, his demands on the women? The Italian boyfriend, getting what he wanted, callous rejection?

9. The salesman, seemingly timid, at the hotel, the deals with the Japanese and the meetings, the money? At the club, the encounter with the mother, the daughter, his not knowing the connection? The calm scenes, intimacy? His primness in the hotel - and not tipping? The sudden eruption of violence and the motivation for beating the girl? In the hotel, murdered by the mother? The money?

10. A portrait of contemporary European society – the place of women, the place of men, the role of sexuality, violence? The need for moral framework?