neumu [ cinematronic ]




	The Girl From Paris
	Christian Carion Michel Serrault, Mathilde Seigner, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Frédéric Pierrot, Marc Berman, Françoise Bette 2001		A generation gap and a cultural gap create the dramatic tension in director/co-writer Christian Carion's "The Girl From Paris." It's a scenic, contemplative French film about a young urban woman and an elderly rural man who need to find common ground despite the woman's overweening enthusiasm and the man's misanthropic, reclusive attitude. Mathilde Seigner brings a lot of fortitude and very little vanity to the role of Sandrine, a discontented Parisian computer programmer. Sick of city life, Sandrine decides that she wants to live in a more pastoral setting. Specifically, she wants to work on her own farm. She learns farming skills in a government-sponsored program and is given a chance to buy and single-handedly run a farm that's for sale in the French Alps. The seller is Adrien, an antisocial widower played by the distinguished Michel Serrault. Distressed about giving up his land, yet aware of his increasingly fragile health, Adrien agrees to transfer the farm to Sandrine, with the caveat that he can stay on the property until moving in with his son in Grenoble. Sandrine's successful summertime renovations earn her Adrien's thinly disguised hostility, but winter proves daunting for both of them.