Riviera (2005) Online

The story follows a beautiful young go-go dancer, her cleaning lady mother who has reached middle age and whose loneliness is apparent, and a lonesome, wealthy business man who becomes infatuated with the daughter. The differences between the mother and daughter are apparent from the start and the film does well to contrast their lives, along with portraying the mother as not only loving but also envious of her daughter's lifestyle. The ending I have mixed feelings about, although the more I think about it the more it seems to fit with the tone of the film. The cinematography was gorgeous, best represented during a scene of the daughter and her boyfriend freewheeling down the French Riviera sun-drenched roads where no dialogue is spoken but the close-ups and setting sun create an evocative portrait of passing youth. This was definitely my favorite film of 2005 and I'm glad I had the chance to see it since such obscure films are hard to come by for me.

I liked it because it could have been adapted from a short story by Guy de Maupassant. Two women are drifting away, poor ones in a luxury microcosm (the French Riviera), and their drift is described in a minimalist but attractive mode. They are only a palace hotel maid (the mother, Miou-Miou), cleaning spotted sheets, emptying bath-rooms dust-bins and sometimes used as passive looker-on by crass couples -and her young spoiled stupid (but handsome) daughter (Stella , Vahina Giocante), who thinks she can progress in the job of "go-go girl" and emerge without being someday forced to become a whore. Sex and money are the main issues in this world, and they try both to escape from it and to get scraps of it...The mother shrinks down with solitude, totally dependant on her daughter, and when she is out comes to inebriating a pizza deliverer to lay him down for comfort - the daughter cowers in front of the leader of a "vitelloni" (wink to Fellini, Italy is only some km away along the coast...) gang, a useless brat, and thanks him for driving her around in his Benz spider with a blow-job, and then is dropped down : what more common (but what a success if it were signed by Jean-Luc Godard !). The mother, passing a very decent little guy in the hotel corridor, slips under his door the card of the joint where her daughter pole-dances. And fatality enters the stage, the shy little man (Elie Semoun) goes to the bar and meets Stella, and the second part of the film begins, with an end Hitchcock (think of "Frenzy"...) would not have disclaimed. And after that life goes on as before, and even worse...

Special thanks to the luminous photo of France southern sea-side, to the analysis of the social background on the Riviera, and of working women condition in our palaces back-rooms and bars, and bravos to the actor performances of Miou-Miou, Vahina Giocante , and Elie Semoun (reminds me of Peter Lorre in "M"...) PS : What has become of the attaché-case full to the brim with bank-notes ? I infer from the last images that it has been lost : what a pity...

The settings are attractive in this movie. It is nice that it doesn't follow Hollywood conventions in its storytelling. In the beginning, you just enjoy that the film takes its time to portray the details. Then you realize that the details are neither pretty nor has an value for the rest of the film.

Also, this movie is ridiculously slow, in the end to no use. The slowness doesn't add any extra value. It's just boring. The other problem is that it's filmed so close to the actors and the props that you don't really get many nice, interesting pictures from it. You understand less and you don't gain anything. The movie is pretentious, yes.

The very end is surprising and exaggerated and it's difficult what it has anything to do with the rest of the movie. It's thin.

At least, the movie portrays a real setting (the French Riviera) in an OK way. Occasionally, the pictures are nice, almost by mistake zoomed out, it seems. And the movie is not predictable. I also like that it doesn't feel like it desperately need a story from start to end. It just is.

I get tired of watching films that try to be too "arty." Riviera, a film that, if done right, could have been decent or even good, suffers from this problem. What essentially should have been a character study about an off-kilter mother and her wild teenage daughter became a tedious, pretentious bore. The film is not very long, but I had trouble maintaining my focus on it, taking breaks every few minutes because it was that unbearable. The only thing that saves it is the fact that the two lead actresses did very well and were convincing in their roles, despite those roles lacking any sort of substance. Riviera is a train wreck of a film and should be avoided at all costs.

The story is not a unique one. Riviera is basically the story of a middle aged mother, Antoinette (Miou-Miou), who works as a maid in hotels. She's a bit unstable, depending on her daughter Stella (Vahina Giocante) to provide meaning in her life. Stella, however, is branching out on her own. She works nights as a go-go dancer in a club frequented by all kinds of shady men. Stella is obviously trying to get away from her mother, spending less and less time with her. Antoinette is upset by this, calling her daughter all the time and asking about her every move. Eventually, Stella meets a real estate agent who is staying at the Grand Hotel, where her mother works. He's considerably older than her, but he seems to be falling for her. His interest turns to obsession and things pan out of control for both mother and daughter.

As I stated previously, the film's only highlights are the performances by Vahina Giocante and Miou-Miou as the mother/daughter duo. The two are only seen together in one scene, but the relationship between the two is evident through other scenes. Miou-Miou especially is effective. She shows her character's inner struggle by her expressions and words. These are the film's only real assets and the writer/director is crazy to have not given the two actresses more scenes together to exploit the chemistry.

The film does not work on so many levels. Stella, the daughter, does not show enough character for the audience to really care what happens to her. She's not the most likable person in the world and I felt very indifferent during the film's climax, not really caring what happened to the girl either way. The scene I'm referring to is supposed to shock the audience as it shocked the character, but it's easy to see where the film is going. I rolled my eyes at the predictability of the whole thing. The film also suffers from too much emphasis on sex. Sometimes this is OK in a film, but several of the sexual scenes in this film did nothing to further the plot and left the film at a standstill until these scenes were finished.

I guess it's obvious that I did not enjoy Riviera. It's a boring, overly long film even for it's short running time. It's easy to see why the film has not garnered enough recognition to merit even a single review that I've found. This is one that is definitely best if forgotten.

2/10