Love Like Poison (Un Poison Violent)

This is the first film made by Katell Quillévéré. It is an extremely good coming of age film about Anna, played by Clara Augarde. She lives in a small French town, or even a village, and participates in the religious life of the community, She would not rule out a future of religious devotion and lives with her slightly unstable divorced mother and her grandfather. She misses her absent father who does visit her in the course of the film.

The prominent people in her life are her mother, her father, her grandfather, her possible boyfriend, and the village priest (shown in the image). We see her preoccupied by the ethical and moral issues provoked by the church, her emerging sexuality, and her relationships with her family and possible boyfriend.

There are some marvellous musical moments when the camera pauses in the narrative and a lovely song plays on the soundtrack, and we are allowed to stare at the texture of this village and way of life. The strongest parts are Marie's and the priest's, played by Stefano Cassetti. There is a marvellous scene when Pere Francois briefly relinquishes his priestly demeanour and plays football, very presentably, with the children, expressing economically the issues she is facing in confronting her emerging sense of the otherness of males and her attraction by the church.

I thought that some of the casting was slightly less than perfect (for perfect casting I still think of the similar in many ways Of Gods And Men). I thought the mother, with her black hair and bright lipstick didn't look much either like an inhabitant of this community or Marie's mother, and I thought the grandfather was a bit too quirky, like a comedian playing a straight part; but this is nevertheless a sublime film.