3 Films Directed by Benoît Jacquot

Benoît Jacquot is not as well-known as other French directors but he's a prolific and consistently interesting filmmaker. This collection presents three of his best films from the ‘90s. The Disenchanted (1990) is a drama starring Judith Godrèche as a sexually independent teen who has a callous creep of a boyfriend and a sickly mother, the latter surviving on the good graces of former lover “Sugardad”—whose interest now lies in bedding the daughter. Godrèche is precocious, confidant, flighty, and defiant, but Jacquot's somber view of youthful rebellion is neither titillating nor comic. A Single Girl (1995), Jacquot's first stateside success, stars Virginie Ledoyen as a tough young Parisian woman working her first day at a hotel, serving up a slice-of-life drama that unfolds in real time as she struggles with personal crises. Jacquot avoids melodramatic pitfalls by concentrating on the details of her activities, which entail lots of walking that is captured in long, unbroken traveling shots that are lovely to watch in their own right. Keep It Quiet (1999) is a satire starring Fabrice Luchini as a disgraced corporate CEO newly released from prison, Isabelle Huppert as the wife trying to fathom changes in his character, and Vincent Lindon as his brother, a talk show host who likes to stir things up. All three films show a director who is influenced by the freewheeling style of the French New Wave, interested in interior lives and conflicted characters, and driven to find new ways to tell stories through unexpected directorial choices. Extras include audio commentaries by critics Wade Major and Tim Cogshell, and interviews between Jacquot and critic Kent Jones. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)