Films can put too much on the screen, or too little. For many LA VIE PROMISE puts too little. Personally, I prefer too little; I can always fill in what I need to make sense, enjoy, understand, etc. Fortunately, in LVP, Isabelle Huppert's face tells the whole story. She's a woman who is looking for her life and thought she found it in her medical record (she was hospitalized in a psychiatric institution). She senses she lost her memory, but learns that she had lost nothing. This is a woman who has no substance, and if you don't understand what that means, you won't appreciate this film. Hers is a great tragedy, a double tragedy; she is nothing, and now she knows it. Still, she grasps at life and may.... I first saw LVP in JAN2004 at the PSIFF and was glad to fill in more with another viewing.
Review of La vie promise
