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Inspired by
The Seagull, Claude Miller's
La Petite Lili takes place in present day Brittany. While Chekhovs play was set in a theatrical milieu, longtime Truffaut associate Miller (
Alias Betty) sets his film in a cinematic one (a l
Day For Night). The title character is an aspiring actress (Ludivine Sagnier,
Swimming Pool), who is seeing experimental filmmaker Julien (Robertson Stvenin). She would prefer to be working with an established commercial director like Brice (Bernard Giraudeau,
Ridicule), who is involved with
his leading lady--Julien's mother, Mado (Nicole Garcia). By the conclusion, Lili will have achieved her goal, but at what cost? Well, unlike
The Seagull,
La Petite Lili isn't a tragedy, so no one character will make out too badly. And as in Franois Ozon's
Water Drops on Burning Rocks, itself based on a play (by Rainer Werner Fassbinder), Sagnier and Giraudeau make for a strangely compelling screen couple.
--Kathleen C. Fennessy
