La Lectrice(The Reader)

La Lectrice(The Reader) is directed by Michel Devillle in 1988. The actress Miou Miou was around her early 30s. My first impression about Miou Miou was formed after watching her acting in the latest film called Avril(2006). She played an austere religious woman in it. Therefore, I was very surprised to see her young face in La Lectrice. She dyed her hair blond, so that creating a feeling like "femme fatale" for the character. I found out that the roles of Miou Miou is diversified in her films;her range is pretty wide. For example,in Elles(1997),she played an amiable professor, who was perplexed about the love and lust with one of her student, who is also the son of her good friend. It's very interesting to see different faces of Miou Miou.

The plot of La Lectrice is about a woman who read the bed story for her husband. In the beginning of reading, she found out that she had the obvious same feature like the character in the book. They both had nice voice. Then in the process of reading,she gradually had the empathy for the character, she was able to experience things from the character's perspective. That's why she felt agonied when she finished reading the story. She didn't want to let the character finished because in some degree it means that the character is dead and so did she. So she cried out loudly that "the character is finished but not me." She clarified her identification with the character, and seemed to get the epiphany or awakenig for her real life.

I think the main story is simple, and the detailed presentation is tangled. The direcor inserted the stories of the character of the book, and mingled them with the real life of "the reader". I made the association with Luigi Pirandello's drama "Six Characters in Search of an Author." about the part that "the reader" searched her identity.

I felt a bit confused for the color of the image. I wonder if it's the problem of the quality of the film, or it's the image that the camera man created on purpose? Because the images sometimes looked like blurred and read,so I felt that the image is somewhat rough. But in general, I like the rhythm and the angle of the camera.

I think the decoration and the costume in the film is interesting,too. For instance, "the reader" wore green and blue when she visited the disabled boy. I felt these two colors created a cool and tranquil feeling, which brought out a dramatic power when "the reader" tried to arouse the boy's desire. Because lust equals the color of red, so the image in my mental picture is the color of purple, which is also the symbol of lust, and loyalty. The image is that the boy seemed holy,elegant and uninvasive,but his mind is contronted with his desire. For another instance, the chairs in the businessman's house indicated the amboguious game that his reader played with him.

I enjoyed this film a lot.