L'Origine de la Tendresse and Other Tales

Anthologies are usually a mixed bag, and L'Origine de la Tendresse and Other Tales (the latest in the World According to Shorts series) is no exception, compiling six French films ranging in length from 8 to 32 minutes, representing various styles including documentary, fiction, and animation. Alain-Paul Mallard's L'Origine de la Tendresse (1999) offers a sharply observed portrait of a woman museum attendant who lives a lonely life, while Olivier Bourbeillon's The Last Day (2007) presents a poignant record of the final workday for the only three laborers still employed at a factory in Brest. Of the rest, Guillaume Martinez's Penpusher (2006) is an amusing trifle about two subway passengers who strike up a conversation by underlining words in the books they're reading, and Alice Winocour's Kitchen (2005) is a darkly comic piece about a wife whose efforts to cook two live lobsters for dinner lead to domestic disaster. Less impressive are Felipe Canales' My Mother, Story of an Immigration (2007), which uses a collection of stills to illustrate an Algerian family's difficulties in attempting to assimilate into French life, and One Voice, One Vote (2007) by Jeanne Paturle and Cécile Rousset, which situates audio of a man and a woman rambling on about their political views against a backdrop of impressionistic animation. Still, this compilation features the kind of works audiences don't often get to see except at film festivals, making it recommended, overall. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)