SHE'S ONE OF US
Directed by: Siegrid Alnoy.
Produced by: Béatrice Caufman.
Written by: Siegrid Alnoy, Jérôme Beaujour & François Favrat.
Director of Photography: Christopher Pollock.
Edited by: Benoît Quinon.
Music by: Gabriel Scotti.
Released by: Leisure Time.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France. 100 min. Not Rated.
With: Sasha Andres, Carlo Brandt, Catherine Mouchet, Eric Caravaca & Pierre-Félix Gravière.

A tall and gangly wallflower, Christine Blanc (Sasha Andres), 35, is a blank. Working as an office temp - the bottom of the corporate rung - she absorbs information like a sponge, awkwardly regurgitating facts to suit an occasion. She thinks nothing of barging into an office to express her happiness in working for the firm. Lonely, she invites her boss to dinner, providing an overabundant spread under intimate candlelight. As played by Andres, resembling a younger Fiona Shaw, Christine hides behind her dark hair. Overtly timid and cautious, she has flunked driving school twice and literally shakes in the company lunchroom, not knowing where to sit. Director Siegrid Alnoy reveals just enough to draw you while creating an air of mystery, building to a shocking twist. As a result, Christine is almost another woman (it’s surprising what bright lipstick can do). It’s the type of character transition that Naomi Watts took on with relish in Mulholland Dr. With her hair now up, Andres’ piercing blue eyes are shown to an advantage. Overlooked no more, Christine becomes a commanding executive, landing friends and a real boyfriend (as oppose to the one she made up to impress her parents).

Alnoy creates a fascinating interior world for Christine, which includes a possibly imaginary and needy friend. The gliding tracking shots capture her city like a ghost town with its lack of pedestrians. Against its sterile strip malls, even the French Alps are shrouded in mystery. And the unsettling score by Gabriel Scotti complements this continuously startling film.

She’s One of Us does contain some arty flourishes. Christine eventually finds her soul mate in a shy office boy, who trades enigmas with her: ‘The thieves of solitude are everywhere to us,” “I’d like to laugh without feeling I have slapped someone.” And there are many shots of Christine or Degas (Carlo Brandt), a police detective solving a crime connected to Christine, staring opaquely into the camera. Overall, Alnoy’s audacious first feature film is a more cutting approach to solitude than In My Skin and a more sardonic take on middle-class success than Time Out, two other recent French films centering on the workplace. Kent Turner
January 21, 2005