MY FRIEND VICTORIA (2014) Rendez--Vous With French Cinema 2015

Love it or  hate film concerning Victoria, a young black woman in Paris who skates over life but never really is part of it. As young girl she meets a rich white family who take her in for a night. Years later she has a one night stand with the son of the family and becomes pregnant. She doesn't reveal this to the family until several years later at which point the family offer to take Victoriaa's daughter in.

Told from the point of view of Victoria's friend who is a writer the film feels more like an illustrated story than a proper film. thanks to the constant narration. For me the fact that we are told so much defeats the purpose of this being a motion picture since to me everything seemed to be revealed in the narration. Twenty minutes in I wanted to get up and go find the Doris Lessing story upon which its based and read that.

For me the problem is Victoria herself. She is much too passive and a cipher. Everything we know about her is told to us int he narration. She is the embodiment of the line from Brian DePalma's HOME MOVIES where the main character is called an extra in his own life.  I think that fits Victoria perfectly since she drifts from job to job and thing to thing and just sort of lets things happen to her.

I know some other reviewers have talked about the discussion of race the film kicks up, and have like how its matter of fact attitude,I never connected enough and got really bored really fast. While it's well made, well acted and all of that I never cared enough about Victoria to care about the film. Yea I stayed to the end but it was time I could have spent rearranging my sock drawer.

The film plays at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema For information and tickets go here.