Le pacte du silence (2003)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Graham Guit

Writers:

Marcelle Bernstein (novel)
Roselyne Bosch (writer)

Release Date:

5 March 2003 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

The truth behind the secret is a lie.

Plot:

Everyone has a secret. Twins Sarah and Gaëlle near 25; for ten years, Sarah has been a fundamentalist Carmelite in a Brazilian convent...

Plot Keywords:

Twins | Priest | Carmelite | Convent | Paris

Cast

Gérard Depardieu	...	Joachim
Élodie Bouchez	...	Gaëlle / Sarah
Carmen Maura	...	Mère Emmanuelle
Isaac Sharry	...	Morel
Tsilla Chelton	...	Mère Joseph
Estelle Larrivaz	...	La soeur archiviste
Anne Le Ny	...	La soeur infirmière
Wojciech Pszoniak	...	L'archevêque (as Wojtek Pszoniak)
Isabelle Candelier	...	La psychiatre
Hervé Pierre	...	Marcel
Manuela Gourary	...	Chantal
Philippe Du Janerand	...	Chaumelle, le scientifique
Marie-Sohna Conde	...	Mica
Lucie Le Bras	...	Gaëlle / Sarah à 14 ans
Charlotte Bonnet	...	Suzanne Chaumelle

Also Known As:

Pact of Silence (USA) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence and language.

Runtime:

France:95 min | Canada:89 min (DVD) | Argentina:95 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Denmark:11 | France:U | Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Argentina:13 | Philippines:R-18

Company:

Canal+

The Pact of the Twins

Films about identical twins are always interesting, especially when they are so gorgeous your two eyes are out on stalks looking both ways at once. Elodie Bouchez is my idea of the kind of twin I would like to have all round me, what a gal! That is the kind of double-vision we would all like to have all the time! In the story, the twins have had a hard time of it, one locked up in prison for a murder ostensibly committed at the age of 14, and the other locked up in a hideously fundamentalist Carmelite nunnery (don't you just hate all that Catholic masochism stuff?) Carmen Maura plays a mother superior who is in love with the twin who is the nun, and she is very convincing. Into this mix steps a priest named Father Joachim, played by Gerard Depardieu. He is extraordinarily good at this, despite the fact that we know in real life he is one of France's leading bon viveurs. Strangely, in this role we do not really expect him to pick up a wine bottle and drink it all in one go, or wipe his lips after having had some snails. Instead, we really believe that he is that ascetic renegade priest 'with a past'. When he gets sacked by the horrible hypocritical Monseigneur, we want to cheer because he is free of the crap and now has time to take more interest in - which twin is it? Well, there's the problem. Even he loses track of which twin it is. Each one feels the other's pain, and there is a strong paranormal element with the story, and the twins are in constant telepathic contact. This is a very intriguing and gripping tale, well made, and with the performances of Elodie Bouchez being so spell-binding (her allure is indefinable, which is what all allure should be, but it has a spiritual dimension) that this is one of those really good gripping French movies that we wish they made so many more of.