Director Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s delicate feature My Friend Victoria is that rare film whose loveliness and complexity emerge quietly. A French melodrama spanning some twenty years, Victoria touches upon almost every aspect of contemporary life: matters of race and family in particular, but also class, politics, gender, and the search for one’s identity. Despite such weighty subjects, this is not a film that is studded with volcanic confrontations. There are upheavals and sorrow, but what truly lingers is the awkward small talk, the insensitive blunders, and the yawning chasms occupied by things unsaid.
The tale’s heroine is the titular Victoria (Keylia Achie Beguie, and later Buslagie Malanga), a black Parisian who doesn’t know where she belongs in the world. Raised first by an ailing aunt, then adopted by a family friend, Victoria is wracked by contradictory longings. As a child, she daydreams about a wealthy white residence where she once overnighted, and years later she has a relationship with Thomas (Pierre Andrau), the youngest son of the house’s owners. As the years pass, she bears children, marries a charming man, and suffers heartbreaking losses. She drifts from one low-paying job to the next, wondering incessantly if she’s in the wrong place or on the wrong path.
Adapting a Doris Lessing story, Civeyrac’s script dilutes some of the material’s acidity, favoring realism over satire. Victoria’s adopted sister Fanny (Nadia Moussa) narrates the film, providing her own doubting interpretation of the protagonist’s mindset. As Victoria, Malanga is all pensive uncertainty, her evolving hairstyles underlining her persistent restiveness. My Friend Victoria is a film that demands close observation: It obliges the viewer to listen for the subtle social tensions that ripple through the dialog, and to watch Victoria’s intricate, often wordless reactions. Fortunately, listening to and watching Victoria proves to be a fruitful pleasure.
My Friend Victoria screens November 13 at 2:00 p.m. and November 15 at 2:00 p.m. Both screenings are at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema. For tickets or additional information, visit the Cinema St. Louis website.
Full Disclosure: Andrew Wyatt is serving as a juror for the New Filmmakers Forum's (NFF) Emerging Director Award at the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival.
