LUISE (2023)

Taking D.H. Lawrence’s novella THE FOX as starting point*, director Matthias Luthardt and writer Sebastian Bleyl have kept the time frame (1918 - tail end of WWI) but moved the place (an isolated Alsace farm) to make this intriguing three-hander.  Beautifully observed, warmly shot & acted, but the film makes a big ‘ask’ to work thru its tragic romantic triangle, one you may or may not buy into.  Luise, barely on the cusp of young womanhood when we meet her, by default runs the small family farm on her own after her mother dies.  But a young Frenchwoman and a young German soldier separately passing thru will unexpectedly stick around, ‘guests’ who bring sexual baggage with them.  The Frenchwoman, a lesbian who had been trying to reach Holland where she’s heard of more personal freedom; the soldier, a deserter after four years of combat.  Luise will be attracted to each in turn (or is she simply trying out possibilities?), before choosing one and triggering a veritable Greek tragedy of mortality; and more off-screen.  The ‘ask’ comes in the easy acceptance by Luise, who’s plenty smart, but also a simple country girl without any sexual experience, of what must have seemed in 1918 a most unconventional offer to take off with this female she’s just met.  On the other hand, the deserting soldier’s offer to stay as husband and share duties on the farm seems a far more likely proposition.  But even with a hand placed on the scale that shows the women’s warm/caring physical intimacy vs the soldier’s rough bedroom manner, the film pulls you into their bubble, letting the war proceed on the other side of the forest while these three tread sexual borders that prove equally deadly.  An impressively balanced chamber piece from all concerned.  And who is this Sebastien Pan, a French composer who wrote the subtle & moving chamber-like score.

DOUBLE-BILL:  *THE FOX was filmed in 1967 by Mark Rydell (normally a pretty coarse director) with the intriguing cast of Sandy Dennis, Keir Dullea & Anne Heywood.  (not seen here)