SYNOPSICS
Contre toi (2010) is a French movie. Lola Doillon has directed this movie. Kristin Scott Thomas,Pio Marmaï,Jean-Philippe Écoffey,Marie-Sohna Condé are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2010. Contre toi (2010) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
An act of revenge takes an unexpected turn in this psychological drama from French Writer and Director Lola Doillon. Anna (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) flees a house on the outskirts of Paris and returns home, careful to tell no one where she's been or what she's been doing. The next day, after an ordinary day of work as an OB-GYN, Anna stops at a Police station and reports that she had been kidnapped. Several years before, she performed a cesarean section on a woman who did not survive, and the patient's husband, Yann (Pio Marmaï), driven mad by grief, abducted Anna and intended to punish her for the death of his wife and child. However, after spending several days together in Yann's basement, he and Anna discovered their contempt for one another was giving way to more complex emotions, which complicate both of their senses of justice. This movie was an official selection at the 2010 BFI London Film Festival.
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Contre toi (2010) Reviews
Disappointing
This is a movie about Stockholm Syndrome, where a middle-aged woman is kidnapped by a man holding a grudge and a relationship develops between the two. The English release title of In Your Hands is actually the director's preferred title, Doillon wanted the French equivalent Entre Tes Mains, but it was already taken so she went for Contre Toi, which has a dual meaning of being against you as in being your adversary, but also against you as in leaning against your body. For me it was a sick love story with no value, Átame! without the humour, however one of the women in the audience was close to tears when asking a question about the movie, which suggests to me that there is a lot of resonance for lonely professional women of a certain age, which kidnapped Anna (Kristin Scott Thomas) definitely is. The acting from Scott Thomas is superb, but I think the film pulled a punch by having kidnapper Yann played by an extremely handsome actor (Pio Marmai). Kristin Scott Thomas apparently had an "in" to the role as one of her friends had once been kidnapped for several days. For me the big nail in the coffin of the movie, is that it just isn't cinematic, there's hardly any added value over what you could get from the theatre, a total lack of ambition in terms of mise-en-scene.
SS Predictable
I suspect that Kristin Scott Thomas can't actually 'open' a film but she certainly should be able to. Her name on the credits even in a supporting role (Ne le dis personne) is a guarantee that at least one role in the film will be played to perfection. So it is here with Scott Thomas playing another doctor/killer which is, of course, both unfair and misleading because in the much superior film I've Loved You So Long, her doctor character 'killed' her much loved son when he developed an incurable illness whilst here a patient in her care died on the operating table and at the subsequent inquest she was absolved of all blame. Nevertheless the patient's husband is not satisfied with this verdict and determines to make Scott Thomas pay. This is, of course, impossible to achieve but he gives it the old college try by kidnapping her and confining her to a tiny space with a bucket for a toilet. Inevitably after a settling in period of mutual hostility they begin to bond until one day he leaves the door open and she takes it on the Jesse Owens. Within weeks they have tracked each other down and engaged in passionate sex, following which she walks into the police station while he is enjoying post-coital slumber and watches as he is arrested. Women, go figure.
A draw
I starts so well. The female doctor is kidnapped by the husband to a patient who has died due to the doctor's care. He doesn't really want revenge. He wants balance. That kind of story is not untold before. The two of them gets acquainted, because of what's called the Stockholm syndrome. The balance tips over and the moral is that it isn't really such a thing as balance. And if there is, there's anyway a prize for it, which is hardly reachable. But when you leave the theater, you feel that the not untold story anyway is told one too many times.
Stockholm with a twist
As this tale begins, we watch a woman running away from something, or somebody we cannot see. She finally gets into a taxi and goes home. Checking her messages, she discovers there are no urgent calls, except the ones from her mother, a bit concerned for not having heard from her in a while, although she knew she was on vacation. In flashbacks, the real story is told. Anna Cooper, a gynecologist, is seen walking home at a late hour. She is overpowered by an armed man who forces her into the trunk of his vehicle. The kidnapping is, at first, puzzling. Nothing is given away as to why the man has gone through such lengths, except one starts suspecting that whatever it is has to do with her job as a doctor. The man, Yann Ochberg, has lived through the tragedy of losing his wife after a cesarean procedure by Anna Cooper. Now, he wants her to suffer as much as he did when he lost his wife, even though there was nothing wrong in the operation and Anna was not found guilty. Yann keeps her locked in a room where he only has access to bring her the essentials. Little by little, Anna begins to have a change of heart about the way she feels about Yann. One day, Anna finds the door to the room open, and she escapes. While she was held captive, Anna promised Yann she would not report him to the police, but it is inevitable she makes a complain about the kidnapping and rape. Yann, in a bold move, shows up one day as though spying across the street. Anna finally entices him to her apartment and to her bed where they consummate a passion that has been dormant, perhaps in her heart and is killing her. The twist at the end, comes out of nowhere, as the viewer does not have a clue at the unexpected ending. A film by Lola Doillon that is a retake in the classic Stockholm syndrome in which the victim, being held against her wishes, begins to develop feelings to the kidnapper. First, the name of the man that traps Anna is revealing. He is named after Dr. Frank Ochberg, the psychiatrist who first recognized the attraction that is created when two people are in such close proximity and perhaps death is imminent. Ms. Doillon who is the daughter of Jacques Doillon and is married to Cedric Klapish, shows her talent in making this mostly claustrophobic film work, by creating a suspense that keeps the viewer wondering. The director could not have been more blessed in finding a great actress such as Kristin Scott Thomas to give life to her Anna Cooper. The joy in watching Ms. Scott Thomas in any film comes from her approach to her character. She always gives honest and convincing performances as she does here. Pio Marmai, although not in the same league as his co-star does a credible job of the man whose life is transformed because of a freak twist that never should have happened.