It's hard not to be drawn in by Luba Bocian's sweet sadness as Sophia, a solitary theatrical costume designer, working in, with intended paradox, a very public profession.
Her good looks and soulful countenance work against her, however, making it a tad difficult for the viewer to believe she is as socially and emotionally reticent as the story suggests.
Bocian's wide, searching eyes seem not to be seeking heretofore inexperienced passion and adventure, but to attempt to recapture the same after some mysteriously self-imposed romantic sabbatical. We see a girl more world-weary than unworldly and wonder what life events have transpired to position this otherwise appealing and adept young woman in such a lonely place.
So when a fantasy sequence is introduced, we assume, erroneously, that it is a flashback, answering our questions about her history. Or was this an intentional ambiguity common to the French New-Wave films the director emulates?
Any confusion is cleared up for the most part by the film's climax in a scene that is universally relatable and objectively realistic in its offer of only faint hope.
Her good looks and soulful countenance work against her, however, making it a tad difficult for the viewer to believe she is as socially and emotionally reticent as the story suggests.
Bocian's wide, searching eyes seem not to be seeking heretofore inexperienced passion and adventure, but to attempt to recapture the same after some mysteriously self-imposed romantic sabbatical. We see a girl more world-weary than unworldly and wonder what life events have transpired to position this otherwise appealing and adept young woman in such a lonely place.
So when a fantasy sequence is introduced, we assume, erroneously, that it is a flashback, answering our questions about her history. Or was this an intentional ambiguity common to the French New-Wave films the director emulates?
Any confusion is cleared up for the most part by the film's climax in a scene that is universally relatable and objectively realistic in its offer of only faint hope.