The career of LOOK AT ME writer, director, and star Agnès Jouai (right) will be celebrated at Lincoln Center this week
LOOK AT ME (COMME UN IMAGE) (Agnès Jaoui, 2004)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday, June 1, 2:00; Wednesday, June 2, 8:45; Thursday, June 3, 4:15
Series runs June 1-3
212-875-6500
www.filmlinc.com
www.sonyclassics.com/lookatme
Agnès Jaoui directed, cowrote, and stars in this fabulously French film about literature, music, love, and loyalty. Lolita (newcomer Marilou Berry) is an overweight young woman with dreams of becoming an opera singer. However, people seem to take an interest in her only when they learn that her father, mean-spirited Etienne (cowriter Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jaoui’s partner), is a famous novelist and publisher. Indeed, that is the case when her vocal coach, Sylvia (Jaoui), finally agrees to help Lolita’s singing group prepare for a special performance. Meanwhile, Etienne takes Sylvia’s husband, struggling novelist Pierre (Laurent Grevill), under his wing, even as he ignores his daughter’s calls for love. Berry is simply marvelous in her first major role, utterly charming and heartbreaking as she reaches out to her father, puts her faith in the wrong relationship, and battles to express herself in a smothering world of hangers-on, wanna-bes, and, if she looks hard enough, true love. There’s a reason this film was chosen to open the 2004 New York Film Festival. Don’t miss it.
LOOK AT ME is part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s series “Social Deceptions, Wry Perceptions: The Films of Agnès Jaoui,” which also includes a sneak preview of Jaoui’s latest work, LET IT RAIN, on June 1 at 6:15, with Jaoui present. The short series features three films by other directors in which Jaoui stars: François Favrat’s 2004 film THE ROLE OF HER LIFE (June 1, 4:10), Alain Resnais’s 1997 tribute to Dennis Potter, SAME OLD SONG, cowritten by Jaoui and Bacri (June 1, 9:00, and June 2, 2:00), and Cédric Klapisch’s 1996 drama, FAMILY RESEMBLANCES (June 2, 4:15), in addition to Jaoui’s 2000 directorial debut, THE TASTE OF OTHERS (June 2, 6:30, and June 3, 2:00). Jaoui is a tremendous talent who should be much more well known in America, not just the darling of cineastes and critics.