Sur mes lèvres
| Sur mes lèvres (Read My Lips) |
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 theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Jacques Audiard |
| Produced by | Philippe Carcassonne Jean-Louis Livi Executive producer: Bernard Marescot Alix Raynaud |
| Written by | Jacques Audiard Tonino Benacquista |
| Starring | Vincent Cassel Emmanuelle Devos Olivier Gourmet Olivia Bonamy |
| Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
| Cinematography | Mathieu Vadepied |
| Editing by | Juliette Welfling |
| Studio | Sedif Cine B Pathé Image France 2 Cinema Canal Plus CNC |
| Distributed by | Pathé Films (France) Magnolia Pictures (US) |
| Release date(s) | 17 October 2001 |
| Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $1,600,000 |
Sur mes lèvres (English title: Read my Lips) is a 2001 French film by Jacques Audiard, co-written with Tonino Benacquista. The film stars Vincent Cassel as Paul, an ex-con on parole, and Emmanuelle Devos as Carla, a nearly deaf secretary whose colleagues treat her disrespectfully, causing her to suffer. Despite their different backgrounds and initial fear of each other, they end up intimately related and helping each other.
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[edit] Plot
Jacques Audiard combines disability, insecurity, love, revenge, and intensity to form this modern thriller. The film is set partially in the unwelcoming offices, and partially the dirty underworld, of Paris. A lonely woman, burdened by the lack of respect her deafness brings her, takes comfort in a younger man who enters her life. Together they advance through scandalous operations while also falling in love.
Carla, the main protagonist, is introduced immediately with a shot of her putting her earpiece in. However, the audience is made to feel empathy not due to Carla's partial-deafness, but due to the abuse suffered by her on account of it. Audiard ensures that the distressing nature of this is as pronounced as possible, forcing the audience to watch her cope with her job as an overworked and under-appreciated secretary for a construction company. It isn't until she literally cannot take the stress anymore — the point at which she faints from the exhaustion of the litter, the spilled drinks, and the snide remarks of her unpleasant fellow employees, that Carla accepts the boss's offer of hiring an intern to lighten her load. Carla's suppressed but still desperate loneliness is expressed by the very gender-specific criteria she uses to advertise for the position of her new assistant.
The man she ultimately hires, Paul, is an ex-con who is not nearly technically qualified to be Carla's assistant, but Carla is very much attracted to his looks and his demeanor, and decides to take him on. She quickly yearns for his intimacy but is afraid of and troubled by those desires at first, knowing his past. Quickly, however, the two are willed together by organic friendship and attraction. Carla decides to take increasingly outlandish chances with the man, including awareness of an underground scheme being committed by some former fellow inmates of Paul's. Paul's affable nature and "bad boy" spirit possesses the cure to Carla's loneliness, and as personal situation grows increasingly complex — ultimately involving a robbery they plan using Carla's lip-reading skills — Carla's passion for Paul overflows, and the two happily become a couple.
[edit] Cast
- Vincent Cassel as Paul Angeli
- Emmanuelle Devos as Carla Behm
- Olivier Gourmet as Marchand
- Olivia Bonamy as Annie
- Olivier Perrier as Masson
- Bernard Alane as Morel
- Cecile Samie as Josie Marchand
- David Saracino as Richard Carambo
- Christophe Vandevelde as Louis Carambo
- Pierre Diot as Keller
- Serge Boutleroff as Mammouth
[edit] Awards and nominations
- César Awards (France)
- Won: Best Actress – Leading Role (Emmanuelle Devos)
- Won: Best Sound (Cyril Holtz and Pascal Villard)
- Won: Best Writing (Jacques Audiard and Tonino Benacquista)
- Nominated: Best Actor – Leading Role (Vincent Cassel)
- Nominated: Best Cinematography (Mathieu Vadepied)
- Nominated: Best Director (Jacques Audiard)
- Nominated: Best Editing (Juliette Welfling)
- Nominated: Best Film
- Nominated: Best Music (Alexandre Desplat)
- European Film Awards
- Nominated: Best Actress (Emmanuelle Devos)
- Nominated: Best Screenwriter (Jacques Audiard and Tonino Benacquista)
- Nominated: Audience Award – Best Actor (Vincent Cassel)
- Nominated: Audience Award – Best Actress (Emmanuelle Devos)
- Newport Film Festival (USA)
- Won: Best Actress (Emmanuelle Devos)
- Won: Best Director (Jacques Audiard)
[edit] External links
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