re:mote voices

Title: Fear And Trembling [Stupeur Et Tremblements]
Cast: Sylvie Testud, Kaori Tsuji, Taro Suwa, Bison Katayama, Yasunari Kondo, Sokyu Fujita
Director: Alain Corneau

young lilly was followed by fear and trembling, which i hoped would be more engaging, and to some degree it was. based on a belgian book, it was the story of a girl who was born in japan and raised there till she was 5. returning to belgium with her family she retained memories of her child hood and was determined to return once she was old enough. now qualified as an interpreter she returns to japan as a foreigner and manages to get a job with a japanese company. however things don't go entirely to plan and she quickly finds that she has no work to do. this leads her to try and make herself useful, but one incident leads to another and she quickly descends from from token tea lady to token toilet cleaner. there is a certain level of spite given with each demotion as she continually manages to prove how un-japanese she is with each step, despite her resolve not to quit, because to quit would be to lose face. in some ways fear and trembling is a funny film, with sylvie tetsud bringing the characters plight to life with a certain farcical expression. however there is also something a little depressing about how near she comes to a break down, in fact there are points where you could be forgiven for thinking that she has gone well over the edge. the choice of soundtrack is a curiosity, while going for traditional japanese music may have been a cliche it may also have been more appropriate than the selection of twangy irritating bach that the director opted for instead - a sound which quickly becomes grating, and feels like it really doesn't fit for a film set in japan.

-the french film festival is running in a selection of locations across the UK for the next week or so, no doubt a further selection of films will be seen in that time.