FilmCriticLalitRao For most directors a first film is a major event of their artistic lives. It can make or break many a career. French actor/director Jalil Lespert was not so lucky as a director when his first film '24 Mesures' turned out to be a colossal commercial as well as critical failure. It was so unpopular that not many viewers bothered even to think about it. It is nice to learn that he has not repeated old mistakes of the past in his latest film "Des Vents Contraires" which reveals itself as a more mature work. It concerns the impact which a married woman's disappearance has on her husband and children. Being an actor himself,Jalil Lespert has revealed himself as an actor's director by showing remarkable maturity especially in the manner he has handled leading actors. Apart from its insistence on an inquiry, two minor themes have been covered namely brother-brother relationship and getting used to life in a new surrounding. As an actor playing the part of a single father who is forced to look after his children Benoît Magimel is brilliant. He conveys the genuine angst of the person whose life is turned upside down when his wife disappears. His performance enable viewers to ascertain how and why things go wrong in a relationship to such a large extent that a partner is compelled to leave the household ?

writers_reign There's a philosophical/moral question to be posed here: is it acceptable to lure potential viewers into an Art House movie by giving prominent billing to high-profile actresses who are on screen for barely ten-fifteen minutes each and share no scenes. I wouldn't cross the street to see Benoit Magimal if his co-stars were run-of-the-mill but show me the name Isabelle Carre and I'll make a real effort, throw in Audrey Tautao - who admittedly I can take or leave and it suddenly becomes a viable proposition. We learn from the first scene that Tautao and Magimal are a married couple with two small children. She is disenchanted because he leaves virtually all domestic chores to her (he's a writer) and she is holding down a job in a hospital where, as she tells him, children are dying. After five or ten minutes of squabbling she leaves for work and never returns. In the fullness of time Magimal quits Paris in favour of his childhood home on the Brittany coast where his brother runs a Driving School and gives him a job. At the school gate Magimal meets another father and turns a blind eye when the man kidnaps his son. This brings cop Isabelle Carre onto the scene but she appears for two minutes here, one minute there and whilst it would be logical for her and Magimal to form a relationship this never happens. I've always grouped Magimal with Romain Duris and Gaspar Ulliel, all three cocky, arrogant, full of themselves, ho-hum actors at best albeit clearly attractive to female viewers. Here he is, as always, quick to anger but to be fair he does make a half decent fist of the role. It's not something I'd go out of my way to see again but certainly watchable.

n-mo There's not enough good things one can say about this film, which is a perfect reflection of the misty gray-skied Breton beaches in which the action takes place: beautiful and sad. (That, incidentally, is how I feel about Brittany, personally.)Benoît Magimel is splendid as Paul Anderen, a married father of two children whose wife Sarah has gone missing. We watch as pain and vulnerability creak into his natural masculinity and do not erase it, but challenge and rub up against it. Paul meets the challenge splendidly: his tender affection for and clear authoritative stance vis-à-vis his children and his friends prove that he is not, as a man, destroyed by his terrible experience.How terrible? You almost have to have been through this kind of a loss to understand. The flashbacks to his married life are very poignant, and we know what he must be thinking: WHAT ABOUT MY LIFE? This was the woman FOR HIM, the one he gave up the freedom of his youth to build his adult life with. And now he wonders, will he have to build that life on his own?And he DOES. All the while it is harder and he misses his wife, but he manages.The film's portrayal of the public authority figures/civil servants--the public elementary school teacher and the police--is less than flattering: the institutions they serve come off as invasive, condescending and downright terrifying (actually, "terrorizing" would perhaps be a more appropriate word). Yet if you look closely, you can see that the individuals themselves are not so completely devoid of life, even if their good points tend to be masked by the bureaucratic monstrosities that hold their lifelines. When they step outside these boundaries, they shine so brilliantly.A wonderful little treat! Highly recommended.

GUENOT PHILIPPE That's the second feature directed by Jalil Lespert. His first try was released in 2007 - I don't remember the title - and was also a very intense film, downbeat and depressing at the most.This second film is another good one, powerful drama, played by convincing actors. Benoit Magimel gives here an incredible performance as a writer, a novelist, whose the wife suddenly disappears, leaving him alone with their two kids and his despair. A touching, poignant movie that hits you to the heart. The ending is very close to another french film I commented three months ago: RIF.A real must.