HKIFF: Party Girl 舞吧！夜遊天使 (2014) – France

Reviewed by Andrew Chan

Reviewed at 39th Hong Kong International Film Festival, 2015

Date: 31 March 2015

Director: Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis

Cast: Angélique Litzenburger, Joseph Bour, Mario Theis, Samuel Theis

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Films about your family are not easy to portray on-screen, let alone using your mother to play her own life and your whole family in supporting roles. “Party Girl” manages to explore difficult, but realistic issues about how one should go about their lives and the notion of understanding yourself and the ultimate connection between your family. Starring one of the co-directors, Samuel Theis’s own real life mother Angelique Litzenburger, the acting is raw, natural and hugely engrossing. This is a brave first time performance (apart from a short film 5 years earlier) and in the scene where she so blatantly chat with her son, it is intensely realistic that one can only sympathises with her. There is really no right or wrong in this film and absolutely none of those politically correctness either. “Party Girl” is simply at its core about someone doing what she enjoys and no shinning knight in white armour can change that fact.

In many ways, “Party Girl” feels like a family reunion of sorts and it follows the lead character with documentary techniques capturing the finer cinematic details of Litzenburger’s interactions with her children and the awkwardness in face of physical intimacy with her soon to be husband. The fact that  we as the audience can see how much more she is at home in each cabinet scenes than the nice cosy home, creates a powerful message within our minds.

Being able to be yourself is something that is of absolute paramount and it is nothing to do with age. Plucking a 60 something cabinet veteran out of her comfort zone and instilling her with daily chores, regular lifestyle and a stable marriage is not wrong, but just not right for her. It reminds me of a quote, “never let anyone tells you that you can’t do something, not even me.”

All in all, “Party Girl” is one heck of a ride and one that can only truly act out based on real life experience. I cannot imagine anyone doing a better job in her role as at the essence of it all, it is simply her life and reality. The three directors, Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis (winning the the Un Certain Regard Ensemble Prize and the Camera d’Or award at 2014 Cannes) did a marvellous job in allowing non actors to simply shines in their own respective way. It is a powerful feeling and effect that translate to the audience well. The final soundtrack of the same title sums up the film and its core message and strikes the audience with an understanding that stays with you. For first time directors, this is truly a brave and bold film about an unconventional life that we can all relate to. (Neo 2015)

Recommended film and endorsed by HK Neo Reviews.