KARACHI: On the first day of the film festival organised at the Alliance Francaise, when an audience member asked director Michel Spinosa during the panel discussion why French cinema, despite churning out high-quality movies, wasn’t as big as Hollywood, he said it was a political question which had to do with language, big companies and imperialism; otherwise, it was as big as Hollywood. Watching his film Son Epouse (His Wife) on the second and last day of the event on Tuesday night was an endorsement of his claim in the context where content reigns supreme and technology takes a back seat. In fact, it would do Hollywood a world of good if it (re-)started making movies like the one that Spinosa has made.

Son Epouse tells the story of a French couple Joseph (Yvan Attal) and his love interest Catherine (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Catherine is a tortured soul, a heroin addict. So when Joseph asks her to marry him, it doesn’t help her cause. Then the film cuts to the point at which Catherine disappears from the scene. Things take a strange turn. She is found, for some inexplicable reason, on the shores of Madras (Chennai). There we see a young Tamil woman Gracie (Janagi) who has recently been married to Anthony (Mahesh). Gracie, like Catherine, probably more than her, is a disturbed individual. She gets agitated at the drop of a hat. It is revealed that Gracie has Catherine’s spirit in her. Joseph is contacted where he is told that his wife is found on the shores of Chennai and that a local girl has been consumed by her spirit. He finds it hard to believe, initially.

Son Epouse is a poignant study of the inherent complexities in human relationships for which Spinosa should be wholeheartedly commended because he doesn’t allow the story to look or sound outlandish at the cost of being exotic. All actors, especially the two women — Charlotte Gainsbourg and Janagi — give note-perfect performances. But the highlight of the movie, for this writer, is its lyrical cinematography. The cinematographer captures every single shift of mood in the tale with the honesty of a nature poet.

Before the screening of the film Michel Spinosa had a little chitchat with a group of (TV) artists. Responding to a question, he said the film had nothing to do with spirituality. He just had an opportunity to meet people belonging to a different culture. Therefore the film was about two cultures dealing with one situation. He’d like to categorise the subject of the film as an existentialist story because it’s to do with people’s ‘inner problems’.

Spinosa said art-house cinema was still alive in France. It may be dead in Italy because of issues pertaining to financing; but in his country art-house cinema was being financed. Directors from countries such as Iran were coming to France to get the funding for their movies.

Spinosa seemed pretty displeased with Hollywood. Referring to the fact that Hollywood was concentrating more on technology and less on content, he argued that the moviegoers in that part of the world were ‘young’. As a result, what Hollywood directors were producing was ‘big video games’.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2014