Louise Wimmer (2012)
Directed by Cyril Mennegun

Film Review

One of the most startling French films of 2012, Louise Wimmer proved to be a revelation not only for its director, Cyril Mennegun, but also for its lead actress Corinne Masiero.  The combined efforts of these two highly talented individuals is a film of raw emotional power that is both drastically timely and totally captivating.  Indeed, it might well be considered the most pertinent piece of social commentary on the present economic downturn since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008.  The  film's sobering realism undoubtedly derives from Mennegun's prior experience as a documentary filmmaker, his previous work including Tahar l'étudiant (2005), a revealing portrait of the actor Tahar Rahim who went on to find fame though Jacques Audiard's Un prophète (2009).

Superficially, Louise Wimmer has some similarity with the social realist dramas of the Dardenne brothers.  Its portrayal of a solitary woman struggling to keep body and soul together in the face of extreme hardship has a resonance with the Dardennes' Rosetta (1999) - but Mennegun's film has a subtle poetry of its own, and is nowhere near as grim and downbeat.  This is not a film about coping with the misery of destitution; rather, it is about the struggle to regain control of one's life, an individual's retaliation against a spell of misfortune.  Its protagonist is no pathetic hard-luck story; she is a born fighter, an ordinary middle-aged woman with an extraordinary sense of dignity and self-preservation.

Louise may have fallen on hard times but it is clear right from the outset that she has no intention of wallowing in self-pity or demeaning herself by openly seeking charity.  Nina Simone's song Sinner Man, which she plays incessantly in her car, becomes her battle anthem.  "Oh Sinnerman, where you gonna run to?  Oh Sinnerman, where you gonna run to...?"  Down to her last few euros, Louise has nowhere to run to.  Now she must stand and fight, and God help anyone - male or female - who gets in her way.  It is a tough world that Louise has to cope with - and her quest to put a roof over head appears to be interminable - but she soon convinces us that she is even tougher.

What is most fascinating about Corinne Masiero's portrayal of Louise is that the actress makes no attempt to soften her, to make her sympathetic.  The character is not someone who is easy to like - she keeps her feelings to herself and often comes across as abrupt and stony faced.  When others show her kindness, she doesn't respond with a forced show of gratitude but merely accepts it with the slightest softening of her icy regard.  Rarely, in the moments when she is alone, do we glimpse the real person behind the mask of stoicism, the sensual, liberated modern woman who looks forward to the day when she can be reacquainted with tenderness and genuine human feeling.

The casualty of a harrowing series of personal disasters (the full extent of which is never revealed to us), Louise clearly is not yet ready to trust others.  She seeks neither pity nor long-term companionship.  She satisfies her physical needs as a wild animal must, stealing moments of pleasure like a rodent snatching scraps of food in the street.  Hers is a solitary crusade, and she is determined to climb her way out of the abyss by her own efforts.  Yet, as rigorously antipathetic as Masiero's portrayal of Louise is, we have no choice but to to engage with her.  She may be cold and unprepossessing, but she also has qualities, of nobility and strength, that make her an admirable heroine.  Louise's story is one that, for all its stark simplicity, resonates with truth and humanity, and the fact that it ends well offers a glimmer of hope in what feels like an endless season of recessionary gloom.  It is always darkest before the dawn.

Film Synopsis

Louise Wimmer is nearly fifty.  She should be looking forward to a comfortable retirement but instead she has lost virtually everything she had - everything except her pride and her resilience.  In the aftermath of a painful separation, she is homeless and very nearly penniless.  Her few possessions she keeps in a storage unit.  As she looks for a roof over head, she lives in her car.  Encouraged by Nina Simone's music, her one consolation, Louise sets out to rebuild her life.  She may have taken a few knocks, but she is determined to get herself back on her feet, by making the most of the opportunities that come her way...