Title: Au bout du conte (Under the rainbow)
Director: Agnès Jaoui
Starring: Agnès Jaoui, Agathe Bonitzer, Arthur Dupont, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnes Jaoui, Benjamin Biolay
Fairytales can be mocked, warped and actualised, leading to outstanding results. The ultimate movie shot by Oscar-nominated Agnès Jaoui attempts to play around with these archetypes, but the results aren’t so successful.
‘Au bout du conte’ – which literally means at the beginning of a tale, but has been translated to ‘Under the rainbow’ (probably to tease the ‘Over the Rainbow’ fantastic interregnum) – opens with a dream sequence that sets the stage for its fantasy-tinged storyline about an innocent twenty year old sophisticated girl, Laura (Agathe Bonitzer), falling in love with an aspiring composer, Sandro (Arthur Dupont). The love idyll won’t last too long, as soon as the womaniser music impresario, Maxime (Benjamin Biolay) seduces the young girl. But the movie gradually builds into a multi-plot since all the characters, that roam around the youngsters’ relationship, get major focus as time goes by.
The script by and large reproposes intergenerational love dilemmas, that have been better portrayed in other films. Technical choices are contrasting: the actors are well directed and shot, but the digital effects that should give a sense of the fantasy themes are very bad-looking. The cast plays at average standards the same state of mind: the contrast between expectations and the hard facts of daily life that give rise to inevitable demise.
The idea of portraying how flawed – real life – princes and princesses “DID NOT live happily ever after” was a good start, but the result of Agnès Jaouni’s storytelling doesn’t meet expectations.
Technical: C+
Acting: B
Story: C
Overall: B-
Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
