“Une Jeune Fille a la Fenetre”
(“A Girl at the Window”) (Canada 2001) **
Directed by Francis Leclerc
During one piano lesson scene in Quebecois writer/director Francis Leclerc’s debut feature, “A Girl at the Window”, the piano teacher advises the heroine, Marthe (Fanny Mallette) to slow down her playing and take the music to heart. Director Leclerc has apparently taken this piece of advice seriously in his 20’s period romantic period piece about life and joie de vivre, for his film flows leisurely and often uneventfully from start to end. The story traces the path of Marthe, (with whom Leclerc inserts a defect in the form of an ailing heart) the young girl of the film title, as she leaves the countryside to satisfy her dreams of city living. Once arrived, she indulges in the new pleasures of smoking, dressing up and dancing. Her new friends are no saints but they provide her some solace from loneliness. Finally due to ill health, she quietly returns to the country.
The setting of Leclerc’s simple tale allows him to expose a beautiful countryside complete with running streams, green grass and trees in an era when people don pretty outfits from flowery bonnets to flowing dresses and 20s music can be heard from the accordion, piano, a jazz band or even a church organ. Leclerc’s script, however, skims only the surface of the characters’ inner feelings. Characters interact only to create a mood and ambience of the 20s city life. For instance, no real reasons are given for the mother’s hesitance over her daughter’s leaving or to the uncomfortable closeness of her brother. At least the actors, most of them of theatrical background, interact well during the conversational scenes. A few timely incidents like women voting rights and coloured issues are introduced but just given the token nod.
Leclerc has directed over 20 short films, some of which have garnished prestigious awards. If there is any truth to the claim of Leclerc’s film bearing any resemblance to those of Kieslowski or Bergman’s as the press notes state, “Girl” does occasionally reveal a Nordic/Polish look, with the wintry white scenes and frequent camera shots of the sultry actors’ faces. There is one scene in which the screen is all white with a speck that turns out to be a horse-driven sleigh. Despite the occasional impressive cinematography, Leclerc’s film lacks signs or hints of the depth, subtlety and complexity of his mentors’ films. Like other recent Canadian flops at the box-office, “Century Park” being a recent prime example, “Girl” is a pretty-looking film with no bite, less substance.
The film’s title comes from Marthe glancing down from the window of the 4th floor of a ‘pension’ she is renting. She sees most of what is happening – the events affecting her and the changes occurring around her. If only Leclerc would himself stand back and observe a little, for his film is tight, too constructed and fails to capture the joie de vivre of the 20s era. He should have heeded the other half of the piano teacher’s advice when she offers Marthe a glass of sherry telling her also, to loosen up.
