French drama set in 1970s Haiti, starring Charlotte Rampling and Karen Young as middle-aged women who entice sexual favors from the locals, but things change as Haitian politics enfringe on their pampered way of life.
Not Rated
Directed by: Laurent Cantet
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Menothy Cesar, Lys Ambroise, Louise Portal
Director Laurent Cantet's fourth feature abandons the contentious French workplaces of HUMAN RESOURCES and TIME OUT for sunnier climes, but this Haitian idyll is an equally excoriating look at labor and exploitation.
...Cantet's easygoing and intimate direction is by and large so assured, and his gorgeous milieu so entrancing, that these missteps seem far less important than Pierre Milon's gloriously unruffled, palm tree-dappled cinematography and Rampling's tightly wound performance as Ellen, a resentful old maid whose brazen protestations in favor of hedonism mask a deep-rooted yearning for amorous affection.
...in choosing female Western characters over male ones, he [Cantet] has muddied the water. Lonely, bitter, insecure and clearly unstable, the women are meant to level the emotional playing field and add depth to what is, at heart, a story about the exploitation of poor nations by rich and powerful ones.
People
Leah Rozen
7
This thoughtful drama makes its points, both sexual and political, delicately.
This movie is available on DVD/Video