A SINGLE GIRL Movie Review

La Fille Seule

At an early morning meeting over coffee, a young woman tells her boyfriend that she's pregnant and that she's not sure what she's going to do about it. After a bit of tense discussion, she leaves abruptly and walks the short distance to a small Parisian hotel, where she begins her first day on the job as a room service waitress. For the next hour or so, we follow the woman in real time as she brings breakfast to guests’ rooms, intruding on couples as they fight or make love, conversing briefly with men on their way to business meetings, arguing with co-workers. The star of A Single Girl (La Fille Seule), Virginie Ledoyen, is on screen for virtually the entire running time of the movie, and her face is expressive enough to let us in on her reactions to the sights and sounds she encounters, but it's also mysterious enough to keep us from feeling like voyeurs. Indeed, we feel not only privileged to accompany her, but invited, too. Benoit Jacquot's film is every bit as fresh and surprising as his star; he transforms the physically tedious repetition of her delivering orange juice, croissants, and coffee into a surprising voyage of spiritual self-discovery, without letting us see how he pulls it off. A Single Girl is a magical balancing act that probably shouldn't work but does; it carries us along with Ledoyen on her rounds, and behind each door she opens is a clue—for both her and us—to the innumerable possibilities of life, and the responsibility we all have in deciding our own fates. It's never strident or preachy, and its simplicity is almost purifying. This is a director—and a star—to keep your eyes on.

NEXT STOP … The Ceremony, The Lacemaker, La Désenchantée

1996 90m/C FR Virginie Ledoyen, Benoit Magimel, Vera Briole, Dominique Valadie; D: Benoit Jacquot; W: Benoit Jacquot, Jerome Beaujour; C: Caroline Champetier; M: Kvarteto Mesta Prahi. VHS FXL