Céline

Jean-Claude Brisseau's 1992 French film is about the meeting of two women. After her father's death Céline leaves most of the inheritance to her stepmother; the fiancé who was waiting for the money leaves her and she makes a series of attempts on her own life. Geneviève, the nurse who looks after her in hospital, is dealing with her own depression, and during the recovery the two withdraw to a house in the country. From there the film moves in a mystical direction: Céline begins fasting, meditating and taking long walks, and passes into a state those around her cannot explain. Brisseau does not present this as a supernatural event but offers no wholly rational account either. The telling is plain, the camera still and the film short. Who it's for: viewers who like the experimental strand of French cinema and films about belief. Who it's not for: anyone waiting for explanation; the film keeps its uncertainty.