FILM: SPECIAL TREATMENT
Review By Con Nats
Director: Jeanne LABRUNE
Cast: Alice Bergerac Isabelle HUPPERT Xavier Demestre Bouli LANNERS Pierre Cassagne Richard DEBUISNE Juliette Sabila MOUSSADEK Hélène Demestre Valérie DRÉVILLE Robert Masse Mathieu CARRIÈRE
Synopsis: Alice is a high class prostitute and plays out her client’s fantasies. When one client goes too far Alice moves out and reflects on life and her chosen career. The marriage of Xavier and Helene – both analysts – is falling apart and Xavier moves out to reflect on his life and career. Xavier decides to find solace with a prostitute and Alice decides she needs the support of an analyst. They try to help each other when their paths cross with psychoanalyst Pierre Cassagne which sets off a subtle change of events which leaves them changed.
Review: Special Treatment was co-written by director Jeanne Labrune and actor Richard Debuisne and draws obvious parallels between the roles of call girls and psychiatrists. They rent their time for a fee and are exposed to the deepest shadows of their clients mind’s, with little real connection to them. It’s an interesting theory to delve into.
The direction is cool and distant as are its muted colours. Any titillation is off screen and the humour is not played for. Each scene is given time to breathe and allow reflection and the leads are given time to reach into their characters which produces some nice moments. The best are when Isabelle Hubert and Bouli Lanners have their awkward interludes and try to pretend they are meeting by chance. There should have been more of them as the script starts to sprawl aimlessly and seems intent on losing its focus or addressing the issues it raises.
Debuisne is the kindly, quirky catalyst as psychoanalyst Cassagne but his role is over played. And there are too many pointless scenes when nothing of real note happens. There is an interesting premise to investigate here, but Labrune prefers to use the symbolism of a gaudy angel statue which they each seem to pass around. It only serves to prove that money doesn’t buy taste.
Fortunately, the performances of Hubbert and Lanners come to the rescue and provide the warm human touches the script cries out for. It is fine to produce a film which raises more questions than it raises, but you need to make the audience care a little more about the answers.
