| Karin
Viard, Pierre-Loup Rajot , Catherine Frot , Sergi López, Mireille
Roussel , Nozha Khouadra.
La Nouvelle Eve is a bittersweet comedy
about an independent woman, thirty-ish and single, and her unexpected
need for the affections of a forty-ish balding family man with no
interest in acquiring a mistress. Camille (Karin Viard) works as
a lifeguard at an indoor swimming pool in Paris. The idea of domesticity
bores her to tears; she would rather see herself having kinky sex
in elevators or restrooms than carrying a baby in her arms. But
something has been missing in her life, and she's absent-minded
and irritable. When she trips on the street and falls, Alexis (Pierre-Loup
Rajot) offers her his handkerchief. Camille is self-destructive
in her obsession to possess Alexis. But Alexis is not totally indifferent,
either. Acting is quite remarkable, particularly the performance
of Karin Viard as a modern woman who is completely confused with
her old-fashioned emotions. The film pokes fun at the bourgeois
family life as well as the singles scene. La Nouvelle Eve, which
was produced by Paolo Bronco, was screened as part of the Panorama
section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. |