Two Lives Plus One

Eliane Weiss (almond-eyed, mischievous-under-a-smooth-surface Emmanuelle Devos) is an elementary schoolteacher in Paris who is fiercely attentive to the needs of everyone in her life, from her old-fashioned husband, to her daughter, to her neurotic widowed mother, to her pupils. Attentive to everyone, that is, except herself. So her friends and family are puzzled and their tongues sent a-wagging as they notice their obliging Eliane suddenly taking her writing practice seriously and becoming, mon dieu!, independent. She takes up smoking, buys a laptop, and spends a few too many late nights with a handsome young publisher. What is happening to Eliane? Idit Cebula’s charming comedic drama tracks Eliane’s gradual awakening to her own voice as a writer (her illustrated journals as well as her own personal charm catch the eye of the publisher), set against the conventional stresses of her daily life. Her husband, a kitchen-equipment salesman (the wonderfully expressive Gérard Darmon), is tolerant of her interests at first but soon comes to resent Eliane’s “other” life, while her needy, funny, Yiddish-speaking mother is clueless about her daughter’s artistic ambitions despite weekly encounters at raucous family Shabbat dinners. Only in poignant graveside conversations with her late father does Eliane find a soul mate and a compass as she navigates the choppy waters of self-fulfillment. Women’s lib should be old news in Eliane’s world, but it is touching to watch Devos’s character bloom, awkwardly, to the befuddlement of those around her (a fine cast including the director herself, in a cameo as Eliane’s writer-mentor). Tres charmant!

Best 2008 Festival: Director, France Idit Cebula was born in Paris to Jewish parents from Poland and started acting in high school when she integrated the theater club. A mother since her early twenties, she entered the prestigious acting school Cours Florent in 1985, where she met some of her good friends who would act in her films later on (Academy Award winner Emmanuelle Devos, Academy Award nominee Lionel Abelanski, ...). As she was acting in theater, films, television and commercials, Idit observed the different set-ups with a particular focus on the director's role. In the mid 1990's she decided to write her first screenplay with photographer Céline Nieszwaer and, in 1998, directed the 20 minute-long "A Table!", which was awarded in the Festival de Cannes that same year and toured in festivals around the globe. The same characters, played by the same cast, would be found in her second short, the 30-minute long "Varsovie-Paris" (2002). In 2006 Idit eventually directed her first feature film, "Deux Vies Plus Une" which has already been awarded for Best Comedy Screenplay (Raimu, Dec. 2007) and Best Director (Oct. 2007). Idit is currently working with two other screenwriters on a comedy involving seven kids and all of their step parents. She will direct this new movie in the Fall 2008.