Santiago Amigorena co-wrote one of my favorite French movies of the last few years, Marion Vernoux' Rien a faire, so I checked out Quelque Jours en settembre with high hopes. Whilst it would be untrue to say those hopes were dashed this IS a film that in refusing classification will alienate as many, if not more, than it intrigues. Any movie that boasts John Turturro as a hit man named William Pound - or indeed as a hit man at all - has to be intriguing to say the least but almost as if that were not enough for Amigorena he embellishes the character by having him spout poetry in addition to being in analysis via cellphone. The film veers wildly and erratically between black comedy, thriller, incest, world politics and travelogue and to expand on just one of those labels it's a thriller shot at the pace of a Merchant/Ivory period piece. The out-of-focus sequences favored by Amigorena break the rules because they are NOT always from the point of view of Juliette Binoche - who periodically removes her eyeglasses to justify the effect but against this the camera-work plays down the two principal locations, Paris and Venice, and is refreshingly free of 'touristy' angles. It was, of course, only a matter of time before someone got around to speculating on the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and this is, I suppose, as relevant as any but will inevitably seem like a let-down to the bubble-gum set should they wander in by mistake. For the rest of us it's highly watchable on several levels which is more than sufficient.
Review of Quelques jours en septembre
