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Review: The Disenchanted (1990) ★★½

The Disenchanted (1990)

&NewLine;<p>Sometimes&comma; you walk away from a piece of European Art Cinema and feel affected&comma; for better or worse&period; Films like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;24&sol;confronting-rape-in-the-new-french-extremity&sol;"><em>Irreversible <&sol;em>&lpar;2002&rpar; may leave you feeling disgusted<&sol;a>&comma; while <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;03&sol;10-existential-films-for-philosophy-students&sol;">existential films<&sol;a> like <em>The 400 Blows <&sol;em>&lpar;1959&rpar; may leave you feeling depressed&comma; moved&comma; or just generally introspective&period; However&comma; some films just leave you feeling that you’ve wasted your time&period; Unfortunately&comma; Benoît Jacquot’s <em>The Disenchanted<&sol;em> &lpar;1990&rpar;&comma; or <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B085S7KVSL&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B085S7KVSL&amp&semi;linkId&equals;b065d4643b31195ce7e920a7058eb049" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" aria-label&equals;"undefined &lpar;opens in a new tab&rpar;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">La désenchantée<&sol;a><&sol;em>&comma; falls in the latter category&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The story follows a teenage girl&comma; Beth &lpar;Judith Godrèche&rpar;&comma; who feels dissatisfied with her love life&comma; her family&comma; her school&comma; and her inability to escape the tiny world she occupies&period; When Beth tells her boyfriend that she loves him&comma; he refuses to say the same&period; He then encourages her&comma; somewhat cynically&comma; to go find an ugly boy with which to have sex&period; This&comma; he says&comma; will help her know if she really loves him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Beth immediately runs from the room to go find an ugly boy&period; The remainder of the film revolves around her troubled relationship with her boyfriend&period; She also finds nothing but trouble at home&comma; where she must care for her invalid mother and avoid the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Sugardaddy” that keeps her family out of abject poverty&period; Thus&comma; <em>The Disenchanted<&sol;em> is a coming of age story about a free-spirited young girl who is forced to enter adulthood too soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; it’s not easy to reach this conclusion&comma; as the film is just shy of an hour and twenty minutes&period; <em>The Disenchanted<&sol;em> is at once too short and too long for its own good&period; It is too short for the audience to fully appreciate the heroine but too long to accommodate a poorly-paced story&period; In this respect&comma; Benoît Jacquot managed to find the most imperfect balance of notably &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;French” film techniques&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>That said&comma; plenty of other French films meander without feeling like a burden to watch&period; <em>Breathless<&sol;em> &lpar;1960&rpar;&comma; <em>Cleo From 5 to 7<&sol;em> &lpar;1962&rpar;&comma; <em>Going Places<&sol;em> &lpar;1974&rpar;&comma; and even Jacquot’s own <em>Diary of a Chambermaid<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; all find a way to strike a delicate balance between the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;tenants” of European Art Cinema and the more Hollywood-esque feature of entertaining the audience&period; Unfortunately&comma; <em>La désenchantée <&sol;em>struggles to find its footing while reaching for either goal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;07&sol;Disenchanted1&lowbar;lg-1024x537&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Disenchanted &lpar;1990&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-image-2031"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Disenchanted <&sol;em>&lpar;1990&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though Judith Godrèche and the supporting cast all work well together&comma; few of the characters seem real&period; This disconnect is perhaps the film’s greatest and most frustrating fault&period; On the surface&comma; the film portrays the realistic struggles of a young&comma; but far from naive girl&period; Beth must deal with a dying mother&comma; a problematic boyfriend&comma; and a predatory &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Sugardaddy” who pays the bills&period; She navigates these issues as she tries to find her own voice and place in the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In its visual style and narrative structure&comma; <em>The Disenchanted<&sol;em> has a feeling of realism&period; However&comma; Benoît Jacquot’s only wants to flirt with realistic portrayals&comma; rather than bringing them forward with full force&period; Jacquot portrays Beth as a frustrated young woman who wants to express herself artistically in an indifferent world&period; At the same time&comma; she must deal with the realities of an unfortunate upbringing&period; Herein lies the realism&comma; but as she meets new people along the way&comma; the cracks begin to show&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Few of the characters feel like actual people&comma; which takes away from the dramatic heaviness of the film&period; The mother just sits in bed&comma; staring blankly at the wall&comma; the victim of some unknown illness&period; She functions as little more than a prop somewhere in the background&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While fighting off her boyfriend&comma; Beth finds a kindred spirit in an older&comma; knife-wielding man who likes to write poetry&period; The interactions between Beth and her new friend feel at best&comma; surreal&comma; and at worst&comma; laughably forced and unrealistic&period; Yet&comma; he helps her find her voice&comma; to one degree or another&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As a fan of Benoît Jacquot&comma; it pains me to write such a negative review of one of his films&period; That said&comma; no director hits the mark 100&percnt; of the time&period; <em>The Disenchanted<&sol;em> &lpar;1990&rpar; may come across as an exemplary piece of French art cinema on the surface&comma; but after a while&comma; viewers will realize that it’s just a poorly-done coming of age story masquerading as something more&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch Benoît Jacquot’s <em>The Disenchanted<&sol;em> &lpar;1990&rpar;&comma; the film is currently available to rent or purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B085S7KVSL&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B085S7KVSL&amp&semi;linkId&equals;b065d4643b31195ce7e920a7058eb049" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" aria-label&equals;"undefined &lpar;opens in a new tab&rpar;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; consult the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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