‘Mademoiselle Chambon‘ is the first film from Stéphane Brizé‘s filmography that I have the opportunity to watch. It was made in 2009 and the script, on which Brizé is co-author, is an adaptation of a novel by Eric Holder. It’s a low-key and unlikely love story between a man and a woman who have little in common, who meet by chance and discover each other’s loneliness and vulnerability. Love stories have no boundaries or rules, they say. Is it so?
The heroes of ‘Mademoiselle Chambon‘ are in mid-life. Jean is a bricklayer and a handyman, he does house renovations and is married to Anne-Marie in what seems to be a perfectly normal marriage and, if not happy, at least free of any grievances and problems apart from perhaps those of their ten-year-old son’s school grammar lessons. Véronique Chambon is a substitute teacher. For reasons never revealed, she teaches almost every year in a different place in France replacing the permanent teachers who are on medical or maternity leave. Her only passion is the violin, but she hasn’t played it in a long time, especially in public. When Anne-Marie is forced to stay at home for medical reasons, Jean takes her place in dealing with their son’s school and meets mademoiselle Chambon. An initially discreet and unacknowledged bond grows between the two. Jean is attracted by the woman’s vulnerable loneliness but also by the half-opening of a door to other horizons – the music she practices as a hobby, the different places she had known. Véronique discovers the man who represents perhaps what she lacked in life – stability and a support during the long periods of loneliness. The relationship evolves and reaches the point where a decision would trip the balance and change the directions of the destinies of the two heroes, but also of Jean’s family. What will be the decision? Does this relationship have any chance?
‘Mademoiselle Chambon‘ is a special film also because Stéphane Brizé chose to cast in the lead roles Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain who, in addition to being two wonderful actors, had also been a couple and then husband and wife for a decade before the shooting of the film. Their relationship had ended, but they remained on good terms and agreed to play together. It would not be their last collaboration on the screen. Their presence, the way they interact, the discretion with which they develop their characters and the way they build the connection between them on screen is formidable. However, a warning is also in order here. ‘Mademoiselle Chambon‘ is about psychological depth and subtlety and not about an externalization of feelings as we are used to in many other films with romantic stories. Impatient viewers might be lost in a few scenes where the stares, the silences, the half-open doors, the windows that offer a limited perspective of the outside world, the music played with internalized passion by Sandrine Kiberlain (who honed her violinist skills for this film) play the main role. There are long scenes, some static, that demand to be watched carefully. I was one of the patient ones and I think I had a lot to earn.