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40 out of 46 people found the following review useful: An intelligent, witty and comical look at fame and its consequences, 24 November 2004 Author: www.Film247.net from London, England
20 year-old Lolita (Marilou Berry) aspires to be a singer.More than this, she desperately wants attention - any attention - from her father Étienne (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a self-absorbed novelist whose neglect of his daughter and rudeness to those around him borders on the cruel.Overweight and lacking in self-confidence, Marilou isn't helped by her assumption that those who befriend her view her only as a route to her famous and successful father. This certainly seems true of Lolita's singing teacher Sylvia (Agnès Jaoui), whose husband Pierre (Laurent Grévill) is an aspiring writer himself.And although Sébastien (Keine Bouhiza), whom Lolita meets by chance, seems genuine in his intentions, Lolita's fragile self-esteem and obsession with her father seem destined to thwart any future they might have.Emotionally damaged, self-serving or merely flawed, this ensemble of eminently believable characters is superbly played under Agnès Jaoui's fluid direction. Add in an intelligent and witty screenplay (co-written by Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri) and you have a poignant yet subtly comical film that goes to the heart of the issue of fame and the affect on those in and around its spotlight. If this were Hollywood, you might expect a sugar-coated resolution to the relationship difficulties portrayed. Here, the characters remain true to themselves and the integrity of the film.© Copyright Diana Betts / Film247.net 2004
31 out of 31 people found the following review useful: All About Image, 9 April 2005 Author: mackjay from Out there in the dark
This brilliant film is called COMME UNE IMAGE (LIKE AN IMAGE) because it is really about the surface images, the appearances to which we attach value without knowing, or even caring sometimes, what's under the facade. The title is perhaps mildly ironic: not just 'like' an image, but exactly that. Almost every character in the story can be seen to fall under the influence of appearance. The appearance can be physical--beautiful or non-beautiful--but it can also be the appearance of what we want to see in others, or for our own lives. Lolita, the overweight heroine of the film, judges herself so harshly in terms of appearance that she is unable to accept the possibility of another not judging her so. She pursues a boy who is not truly interested in her, while dismissing the attention of a kind, handsome young man who is attracted to her as she is. Lolita is a desperately unhappy girl, yet she has inside of her a beautiful singing voice. At one point, another character even says he would not have thought she'd have a good voice to look at her. A probable source for Lolita's bad self-image is her father,Etienne, a successful, but petty, jealous, and self-obsessed novelist. As satellites for Lolita and Etienne we also have Vincent, a self-effacing hanger-on, and Karine, Etienne's second wife, a beautiful younger woman who's self-esteem is under constant pressure from both her husband and Lolita.Opposed to this unhappy menage are Sylvia and Pierre. The latter is a bitter novelist who aspires to greater success. His wretchedness in only fueled by his wife's Sylvia's attempts to console or inspire him. As a singing teacher, Sylvia herself appears to find little satisfaction in her own life. In their company are also introduced Pierre's literary agent and a friend who feels exploited by the aspiring writer.So, these two unhappy, and often unpleasant groups eventually find an intersection when Sylvia discovers that one of her pupils, Lolita, is the daughter of a famous author. Suddenly, the petulant student becomes interesting to her (she sees her differently, although she has not changed). Before long, Pierre and Etienne meet and the connection leads to success and new publishing offers for Pierre--although he seems not a bit happier because of them. There is no need to explain the plot any further without spoiling the unalloyed pleasure of watching it unfold. This screenplay contains many brilliant examples of the way people respond to the wrong aspects of others, the way two people can see the same situation completely differently, the way it is so easy to misinterpret the intentions of others; and the way we are almost destined to exploit other people for our own ends. There is much commentary on the way society judges women on their appearance, and how "interesting" attractive or successful people can appear to be. The film has some great humor, and wonderfully ironic moments, like Pierre's embarrassed appearance on a ridiculous TV variety show after he finally achieves success; or the way Lolita's casual gesture of covering a fainted man with her jacket leads to a potential romantic connection.COMME UNE IMAGE is a film about how strong the "image" of what we want, or think we want, can be, and how utterly it can delude us. As actors, Jaoui, Bacri, Berry, and Bouhiza are downright brilliant in this film, And it is particularly impressive to realize that Jaoui directed herself so well in a film she co-wrote with Bacri.
13 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Triple Triumph:, 27 October 2005 Author: Galina from Virginia, USA
The breath of fresh air - refined, funny, ironic, in the best traditions of Chekhov's plays, this movie is a triple triumph for its writer/director/star Agnes Jaoui. "Look at me" is the story of 20 years old Lolita (rarely a name mismatches a girl so much. Lolita is a pudgy young woman with a very low self-esteem even though she's got a beautiful voice and passion for singing) who desperately craves her father's attention. Ironically, her father, one of the most famous writers in France, known for his deep, observant and subtle novels is an arrogant, self-centered, and self-involved man who hardly acknowledges Lolita - just to criticize her. He never finds time to listen to the tape Lolita made especially for him in hope to get his interest and approval. The beauty of the script and the movie is that Agnes Jaoui does not use only black or white colors to paint her characters. They turn with their different facets to the viewers and the film itself is a precious gem. The acting is superb by everyone. As a bonus treat, we will hear some of the most beautiful music every written, including the pieces by Monteverdi and Handel.9/10
15 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Not a false note in the whole film!, 21 May 2005 Author: Red-125 from Upstate New York
Comme une image (2004) was co-scripted and directed by Agnès Jaoui. (The film is known as Look at Me in the U.S. It's a reasonable title--just not the title the Director gave it.)The plot concerns a group of educated and successful Parisians whose lives intersect in both Paris and Burgundy. The protagonist is Lolita Cassard, played by Marilou Berry. Lolita is a dedicated vocal student, whose most serious problem is that her father--played by Jean-Pierre Bacri--is too self-absorbed to pay much attention to her. Étienne Cassard is a noted author and publisher, who cares about his work, his position of power, and, to some extent, his beautiful trophy wife and their young daughter (Lolita's half-sister). Lolita's life is more trouble to him than he cares to accept, so he chooses to ignore her or belittle her.Lolita is overweight, and acutely conscious of this because she is surrounded by elegant women of all ages who are slender. Lolita blames her problems on her weight and--reasonably enough--she can't bring herself to accept her father's lack of interest, let alone his lack of compassion.Into this equation comes Sylvia Millet, Lolita's vocal coach. Incredibly, director/screenwriter Jaoui also stars in this pivotal role. (It's hard to believe that Jaoui can be both an outstanding director and an experienced star. It's even harder to believe that she can direct herself in such a nuanced and intelligent performance. She must be Wonder Woman!)Sylvia has true compassion and affection for Lolita, but she's not a saint, and is not above using her influence with Lolita to advance her husband's writing career.To my mind, Agnès Jaoui represents the perfect French film star. She looks talented, intelligent, and strong, and she's also very attractive in a non-conventional way.One reviewer wrote, "Look at Me is about nothing and everything simultaneously." I disagree. It's not about everything, but it is about love, friendship, ambition, hurtfulness, and betrayal.Classical music is played and sung throughout the film, and it's outstanding. Be prepared to hear songs and arias by Verdi, Offenbach, Monteverdi, and Mozart. Jaoui (with her costar Bacri) won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes. With great acting, direction, music and script, this movie is not to be missed!
11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Wonderful, 16 May 2005 Author: MikeF-6 from Dallas, Texas
A superb comedy/drama. Agnés Jaoui, who co-wrote and directed, also has a major acting role in this story of several people who buzz around a self-centered, rich and famous writer and publisher. His teenage daughter, Lolita, who is desperate for his attention, is pretty and a talented singer, but overweight, with low self-esteem. She is resigned to guys asking her out in order to get the opportunity to pitch projects to her father. Jaoui is the Lolita's voice teacher. She also uses the young women to advance her husband's unsuccessful writing career, but later comes to regret her actions. Marilou Berry is fine as Lolita. Jean-Pierre Bacri gives a human face to the egotistical father. Bacri makes him a man who simply cannot understand how his actions – no matter how cruel – could possibly be taken badly. All of the other performers, including Jaoui, do outstanding jobs. This is the kind of character-driven comedy that we hope to get every time we see a new Woody Allen movie. But Woody has disappointed us for so long and so many times that maybe we can now recognize a new talented triple-threat. I am already looking forward to the next Agnés Jaoui film.
12 out of 14 people found the following review useful: A skillful, subtle movie, 13 May 2005 Author: wbryant1976 from United States
The film begins with a character speaking on her cellphone but unable to be heard because the taxi driver is playing his radio at such a loud volume -- which is a fitting preface to the rest of the film, in which characters try desperately not only to be seen (as in the title, translated only approximately from the French "Comme Une Image"), but to be heard. At the heart of the story is a daughter's inability to be heard, quite literally, by her father -- who will rarely acknowledge his daughter and refuses to listen to his daughter's cassette of her singing classical music. Aside from the main father/daughter relationship, the film is full of types that are at once fresh and recognizable (the unctuous friend of the celebrity, the slightly defeated wife of an author, who has subsumed her own passions for music to his passion to be a famous author). This will come as no surprise to those familiar with Jaoui's other work. Though not groundbreaking cinema, Look At Me is two hours very well spent in a theater.
13 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Individualism versus Egalitarianism, 8 December 2004 Author: donald7063 from Southampton United Kingdom
A beautifully crafted and acted film where the director Agnes Jaoui, who incidentally plays a leading role in the film supporting and coaching, Marilou Berry as Lolita a budding singer, for me the star of the film, who has to come to terms with her father's and his immediate circle of friends individualism.As in all good films the pace is wonderful as the protagonists are slowly bought together, egos waxing and waning as they seek out what is best for themselves and to hell with everyone else. That is except for Sebastian who early in the film senses Lolita's, unbeknown to her, egalitarianism. The film ends with Lolita's awakening to the richness of a sharing society, while the director announces where her sympathies lie courtesy of the father's hi fi player.Yet another French cultural swipe at Hollywood. Highly recommended.
17 out of 26 people found the following review useful: Everybody says, "Look at me!", 3 May 2005 Author: SBViewer from United States
I like the movie and thought it was interesting to see so many characters develop. Few popular American films can pull that off. The title made more sense to me after I thought for a while.EVERYBODY in the film was saying, "Look at me!" which I think was the title of Pierre's book that he got accepted in the movie.Lolita, of course, is saying to her father, Etienne, "Look at me, your daughter," as well as to everyone else, "Look at me for more than the chubby adolescent. I'm more than the daughter of the famous guy you want to curry favor with."Etienne is saying, "Look at me (and my beautiful wife young enough to be my daughter)" and always striving for recognition (well displayed at the party where he forces the mogul to come over to HIM).Sylvia, the music teacher, is certainly saying to her husband, Pierre, "Look at me, instead of obsessing over your 3rd book! For crying out loud, the other books got published and were well-reviewed." She tentatively enjoys it when the party guy really DOES look at her and they dance.Pierre says, "Look at me," in his burning quest for publication and chasing the association with Etienne.Karine, Etienne's young wife, probably was saying, "Look at me," when she married the famous author but then doesn't get enough of his time/attention, particularly because he's always checking out the new potential trophies. Their daughter is certainly saying, "Look at me," with all her attention-getting tantrums.Sebastien (Raschid) is saying "Look at me as a real person, more than the stereotyped Algerian/Moroccan/Turk, unable to fit smoothly into French society."
8 out of 10 people found the following review useful: What price glory?, 19 August 2005 Author: gradyharp from United States
COMME UNE IMAGE (LOOK AT ME) is a tough little film that practically defies the viewer to love it. Rated as a comedy, it has few chuckles of the usual kind, but the smart tidy script delivers more of the Reformation-type comedy - wit with a bite. Writer/director and star Agnès Jaoui (her co-author is her ex-husband Jean-Pierre Bacri who also stars) is obviously an intelligent, observant, caustic chronicler of contemporary French society who dotes on celebrities at the expense of their own self-respect. Not a single character in this film is likable, but each one is fascinatingly interesting and a bit warped. Their interaction provides the venom that in Jaoui's hands raises the bar on the range of comedy.Étienne Cassard (Jean-Pierre Bacri) is a famous writer whose latest novel has been 'transformed' into a schmaltzy film about which he is loathsomely embarrassed. He is caustic, acerbic, and emotionally negligent of both his grown obese daughter Lolita (Marilou Berry), who devotes her resentful life in an attempt to being a famous concert singer, and to his new wife Karine (Virginie Desarnauts) and little daughter. Lolita's music coach is Sylvia (Agnès Jaoui) whose demands on her students reflect her frustrated life being married to an unknown author Pierre (Laurent Grévill). Odd paths cross and it is through Lolita's influence as the daughter of a famous writer Étienne that Sylvia arranges for Pierre to join forces with Étienne and gain acceptance and popularity, but the consequences include Sylvia's increased tutelage for Lolita and her group of fellow madrigal singers.Lolita comes the closest to being a character about whom we care. She is distraught about her weight, her distant father, her stepmother and stepsister, her inability to gain the affection for the boy of her dreams, her struggle to become a significant performer - all of which prevents her from recognizing the man who could salvage it all - Sébastien (Keine Bouhiza) who literally falls at her feet! All of these characters interact in complex and at times trying ways, ever cognizant of the 'authority of celebrity' and the results of these engagements form the body of the film. The acting is on a high level, the dialogue is crisp and smart, and the musical background for this mélange is a gorgeous mixture of classical music ranging from Buxtehude through Schubert ('An die Musik' plays a big role!) and many others. This 'comedy' is more intellectual than entertaining, but if wit and elegance of acting brings you joy, then this is a film to see. In French with subtitles at a long 2 hours! Grady Harp
9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: An image to uphold!, 30 April 2005 Author: jotix100 from New York
The tremendously talented Agnes Jaoui, the director of "Look at Me", is a talented actress as well. The screen play is a collaboration with the principal actor in the film, Jean Pierre Bacri. The film's translation would have been better as "Like an Image", rather than the one it got. This is a film about disorientation and alienation between an impressionable young woman and her self centered father.Young Lolita is a talented girl. She had tried to be an actress and now, as the film begins she is taking singing lessons. Her voice, indeed, is a powerful and beautiful instrument. Her music teacher, the kind Sylvia, has too much to do with all her students to pay particular attention to this plump, but pretty, girl until she hears about Lolita being the daughter of the influential Etienne Cassard.The problem with Etienne is that he has married a younger woman who apparently loves him, but Karine has definite ideas about what is to have BCBG (bon chic, bon genre) among her circle. She's horrified to let her daughter have ice cream! Horreur! A chubby daughter, mais non! It is clear that Etienne couldn't care less for what happens to his older daughter, at the moment she most needs him. In a way, the image of the title is something this bourgeois man wants to maintain. He is one of the shallowest men in recent French movies! When at the end, during Lolita's triumphal recital, Etienne runs away from the church where the concert is being held, he does the ultimate coward act of his life; in a way he betrays the daughter who loves him and is trying to show she is worthy of his love.The film is well written, but the problem is that some of the characters appear to be one dimensional people. There is no warmth whatsoever between anyone with the exception of the love that grows between Lolita and Sebastien, the young man that loves her in silence.The lovely Marilou Berry makes a fabulous appearance. She is the only one in the film that gets our attention and compassion. Agnes Jaoui, is also the other one in the film that elicits our sympathy. Ms. Jaoui's Sylvia shows a complex woman turned off by all the shallowness around her, including her own husband Pierre. Jean Pierre Bacri, another excellent actor is given the terrible task to portray the horrible Etienne. The rest of the cast is good under Ms. Jaoui's direction.This is a film that feels cold from beginning to end. That said, "Look at Me" offers us a good character study of the people that move in the literary circles, not only of France, but all over. No doubt the talented Ms. Jaoui's next time out will be even better!
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