Frankie

For four years, the director Fabienne Berthaud and the leading actress Diane Kruger met up regularly, between other commitments, to complete work on this ultra low-budget feature début. At that moment, Diane Kruger had voluntarily turned her back on her life as a top fashion model to become an actress. Soon afterwards, she made an international name for herself in the feature Troy. In Frankie, she personifies the shady side of the profession in which he was very successful. Frankie is the sad and very credible story of a top model who ends up in a psychiatric institution at the age of 26 because her glory is fading and time has overtaken her beauty. The immense loneliness that is inherent in the profession overcomes her. From the isolated world of psychiatry, she looks back in flashbacks on the casting sessions, photo shoots, the continual journeys between bars and hotels. It gradually becomes clear how this fragile personality, young and ignorant, has fallen prey to perverse photographers. Ethereal, static shots of the institution where the protagonist is surrounded by psychiatric patients, who play themselves, contrasts sharply with the hectic and urgent dynamics of the studios. Berthaud gave the actors plenty of freedom and strove for a documentary style. The sometimes seemingly improvised dialogues contribute to the feeling that Frankie is not acted. (SdH)