These Films Sleep Well: The Auteurs Website and Riviera (2005, Villaceque)

The local cinematheque is, to some, a church. Through the heavy glass doors, past the volunteer ticket takers and the small independently run concession stand, down the narrow corridor lined with crumpled waste and popcorn kernels, is an altar, so to speak, a place of worship where one can find their fill of artistic oddities and classical rarities. To others, the cinematheque is a joke, a place to go and watch old films for the express purpose of laughing at them, with their dated dialogue and awkward sexual innuendos, seasoned with hammy acting and wishful thinking.

With the opening of The Auteurs website, the creators hope to tap into the first category's obsessive nature as well as their natural disdain for the latter category. The idea is to provide a place to watch small, foreign, and independent pictures for free, with forums for discussion of film without the hassle of leaving your house. A digital cinematheque, if you will. While still in it's beta testing stages, the site is functionally competent, and is fairly easy to navigate. At this point the forums are rather fledgling, but in top shape in terms of both behavior and intelligence. Discussion is relatively amicable while provocative, with some genuinely original conversation is playing out.

To test the streaming video, I browsed through the available films (so far there are only eight, but worthwhile ventures always start small) and decided on Riviera, a little-known 2005 French film by sophomore director Anne Villaceque starring French celebrity Miou-Miou as Antoinette, mother to Vahina Giocante's Stella. Antoinette is a maid at an upscale hotel, and in her opening scene gets awkwardly imprisoned in a bathroom while guests loudly engage in intercourse. The theme of sexual exhibition as well as Antoinette's repression is constantly explored throughout Riviera.

Stella, Antoinette's beautiful and popular daughter, is a carefree French girl with long blonde hair and a stunning figure. She is employed as a go-go dancer at a trendy night club called Milk, frequented by businessmen, and is engaged in an on-again, off-again relationship with Fabrizio (Mathieu Simonet), a gorgeous young man with a nice car and an air of entitlement. She is suffocated by her constantly calling mother, who is not particularly worried, just lonely. Antoinette attempts to express her sexuality by making moves on a pizza boy, but is turned down after her constant assurances that her daughter is 'beautiful' and that he could never 'get a girl like her' leave the boy upset and confrontational. He leans in close as she tells him to stay and whispers a single word — “slut”  — then drives away.

Article Author: Joshua Wiebe

Joshua Wiebe is a low level ex-government hack, carrying on about movies and music like it's something to do. It is, you know, something to do.

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