L’intouchable

Isild Le Besco carries this film the way she previously carried Jacquot’s intriguing A tout de suite. As black & white as that film was, so colourful is this one. Le Besco plays the young, promising not yet successful actress Jeanne. Her French mother had for a long time remained silent about who her father was, but on her birthday she finally finds out that her father was probably an Indian. And also a so-called untouchable Indian, someone from the very lowest social class. She reacts impulsively. She turns down a great role in a play by Brecht, directed by her lover, and decides to earn as much money as she can quickly for a journey to India. With visible disgust, she shoots a well-paid erotic feature and leaves. Without any indication where her unknown father might be.
Jacquot follows his actress in an occasionally documentary-like way on her quest through this exotic and chaotic country from Delhi to Varanasi. This again reveals all too well the talent of Le Besco who is literally and metaphorically the focus of the film. The director chooses a clear break between the two continents: France is filled with boredom while India is full of colour, life and the unpredictable. Jeanne seems to get closer and closer to her destination, but for a long time it remains unclear what kind of answer she will get to her questions. A cinematographic quest for the significance of asking the question, rather than giving the answer. (SdH)

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