In her early forties, Rachel leads a life that satisfies her enough. With infinite dedication to her profession as a teacher, she feels fulfilled. Open to love without looking for it at all costs, she meets Ali, with whom the current passes immediately. The same goes for the latter’s daughter, five-year-old Leila. However, while the new couple tries in vain to have a child, the presence of Alice, the ex with whom Ali remained on good terms, is more assiduous. Portrait of a woman unique in its kind, in that we have hardly seen anything like it in the cinema, Other people’s children is a marvel.
Accurate at all times in the role of Rachel, Virginie Efira, who won the Lumière prize for best actress for her performance, has a lot to do with it. The movie star Victoria, Goodbye idiots And Benedetta indeed composes a whole and true character of a woman whose growing desire for motherhood is the butt of a succession of blows of fate.
Because she exudes obvious intelligence and lucidity, as well as human warmth, Virginie Efira makes each of the small and large upheavals that occur during the story captivating.
A story, in this case, very autobiographical, as director and screenwriter Rebecca Zlotowski told us in an interview. Hence, no doubt, this impression of absolute authenticity that emerges from the film.
By his tone and his direction of actors, Other people’s children recalls at times happy memories of the last films of the late Claude Sautet, such as A heart in Winter And Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud. In this respect, that of Rebecca Zlotowski belongs to a certain French cinema, fundamentally intimate and deeply “authorist” – a somewhat neglected school, alas.
fine writing
The writing of the filmmaker is particularly fine. Never agreed or coming from platitudes, the situations come under the meaning of a realism “as in life”. We also always believe in the characters, their actions and motivations, especially because clichés are absent from the equation.
For example, Alice, Ali’s former companion and Leila’s mother, is not the sibylline figure that a majority of films would have favored. Chiara Mastroianni gives her a very touching vulnerability, especially during an honest exchange between Alice and Rachel.
Rachel who, through her new couple relationship, takes on the role of mother-in-law which only exacerbates her desire to have children. However, here again, Rebecca Zlotowski’s film refuses the easy way. Far from suggesting that a woman only truly fulfills herself by becoming a mother, Other people’s children shows on the contrary the limits of this traditionalist, even reactionary thesis.
At the end, like Rachel, you realize that often the feeling of accomplishment depends on what you choose to focus your attention on. The blinkers fall, and here it is showing up where we least expected it…