Moshe Mizrahi’s Les stances a Sophie
falls a little short of feminist classic status, but it’s a spikily enjoyable work
from start to finish, excellently drawing on Bernadette Lafont’s distinctive crossing
of slightly removed amusement with unerring seriousness of purpose. She plays Celine,
a low-overhead arty type, who in the film’s opening stretch meets and sort of
falls for businessman Philippe, accepting his marriage proposal in part because
of what she calls “gravitation.” She’s hardly suited to the world he inhabits (a
scene early in their marriage has him trying to drum the details of the coming evening’s
social commitment into her head while she’s entirely preoccupied with trying to
remember the previous night’s dream), but benefits from her friendship with Julia
(Bulle Ogier), wife of Philippe’s best friend Jean-Pierre, who shows her some
of the rich woman ropes (which, in one of the film’s less progressive notions, largely
seem to involve buying clothes); in turn, Celine’s greater appetite for sex
seems to help Julia out of her “semi-frigid” state, and the two eventually start
collaborating on a theory-informed study of gender relations. But the film thwarts
any expectations of a sexual free-for-all: in particular, Celine’s response to
a pass that Philippe makes on her is withering, and the exact nature of her close
relationship with Philippe’s sister is left unclear. Mizrahi has some fun with masculine
car obsessions and their dim view of female drivers, until the joke turns
bitterly sour, leading to an ending that delivers the expected note of
liberation and self-determination while weaving in some intriguing notes of
regret, abiding affection and male desolation. The film’s reputation is much bolstered
(in some quarters entirely constituted by) the score by The Art Ensemble of
Chicago, its only such feature-length assignment; their work soars and pivots
and counterpoints, bolstering the sense of investigative complexity.
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