A look at the filmography of Sophie Fillières like a stroll through the French Arthouse cinema. She often wrote down films as a co-author, mostly by directors. The best known in Germany are “Madame Sidonie in Japan” with Isabelle Huppert and “The flea market of Madame Claire” with Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni. But actually Sophie Fillières was primarily a trained director, she was part of the first year of the corresponding course at Femis, the renowned, founded semi -governmental Paris Film University in 1986. As a director, she had specialized in comedies that now with “My life, my thing“For the first time, one also finds the way to German cinemas – tragically only two years after their early death.
When Sophie Fillières died in Juno 2023, the shooting of “My Life, My thing” was just over. It should be her legacy and her most personal film, with a protagonist about whom she said that “maybe she was nice, maybe loved, maybe a great lover was and a good mother for her children”. A perfect description for this Barberie Bichette (Agnès Jaoui), which is not happy to be called “Barbie”, but occasionally appeals to himself. Barberie is in his mid-50s-and she has everything that is commonly part of a pleasant life: enough money, a safe job in an advertising agency, an adult son and a bitchy 17-year-old daughter. But Barberie is a maybe woman, unsure in everything she is doing and unhappy because she still doesn't know who she is and what the whole thing is about.
“My life, my thing” is a deeply melancholic film, which is already evident in the face of the protagonist.
She worked for her life, sacrificed herself for the children, probably also for her ex-husband. So she did what was necessary, but never what she felt like. And she has forgotten the fun of life. Now she wants to write her memoirs, but is not making ahead. So she makes an appointment with men, and there is also a problem. Instead, her best friend, which she prefers to swindle, instead of talking honestly about her problems, just to finally have her peace of mind. Because in truth, Barberie has many problems, she even goes to therapy, but so far unsuccessful. This could also be due to her analyst (Marc Strauss), whose comments are limited to grumble or approving nod.
After all, Barberie knows that it cannot go on like this. “I need new joie de vivre,” she says, who likes to speak to her reflection and shows himself the middle finger, but does not let it get so easy, not even from a collapse that transports her back to psychiatry. Because, despite everything, Barberie has considerable energy and many positive properties that she owes it that she has held out so far: she is smart and imaginative – and she has humor, which often comes very dry and occasionally goes towards sarcasm. Barberies poems that she writes from time to time reflect her personality and strength. Her verses are unusual, funny and sad at the same time, filled with love, imagination and of course uncertainty …
A congenial line -up
The melancholy of the poem runs through Barberie's life – and she always runs through the face of Agnès Jaoui, who apparently appropriates the role of Barberie and appears to be effortlessly and in this difficult, brittle personality who may be a prevented artist, but maybe also a completely normal woman, one of many who have never learned to assert herself or even to the mouth. Agnès Jaoui, even as an author (“Life is a chanson”) and director (“Champagne & Macarons”)), she plays so naturally that the permanently challenged Barberie becomes increasingly lovable.
Barberie's misfortune becomes tangible without ever being able to be pity or seems quenching. On the contrary: she remains humorous, as if she is constantly looking at herself with a wink. And if she breaks up towards England at some point to change something, if necessary also itself, then it is a bit touching, but above all funny.
A perfect line -up: Agnès Jaoui doesn't just play Barberie, she is completely in the role.
Agnès Jaoui wears the comedy with her vulnerability, with her smile and with all of her charm … and thus saves the film from the final destruction, because especially in the second half there are more strange jumps in action. The comedy only becomes bulky, then puzzling – and in the end a lot doesn't fit together. This has to do with certainty that “my life, my thing” at Sophie Fillières, who knew that she would soon die, was posthumously completed by her two children. But even if you know the tragic background as a viewer, the failure becomes understandable, but it is still a failure.
Perhaps her children, the actress Agathe Bonitzer and the director and actor Adam Bonitzer, Barberies Courage and her entire imagination, but also a portion of more comedy experience would have needed to make a conclusive finale from the existing material. So there are beautiful pictures from Scotland and a barberie that blooms under the cloudy sky of the north like a neglected potted plant that is finally cast again. But there are also some inconsistencies. After all, it becomes clear that there is a new beginning, and there is a lot of contagious optimism.
Conclusion: The women's comedy “My life, my thing” impresses primarily by the likeable leading actress Agnes Jaoui. She acts with a lot of humor and energy as an alter ego of the screenwriter and director Sophie Fillières, who died shortly after the filming at 56, after she had placed the film in the hands of her two children, which also worked in the film business. The two did what they could, but unfortunately that wasn't enough.