SIFF She Has a Face: Part III
posted by on June 7 at 10:12 AM
To crib a category from Kathy Fennessy, I have got to talk about Isild Le Besco’s face. Here she is:
But usually she’s playing very young and slightly unhinged sensualists. She usually looks more like this:
I write about Backstage (SIFF 2006) in the DVD column this week. I was impressed by her performance—not to mention her name (Le Besco? what does that mean, woodsy one?)—in that damp-eyed impression of celebrity mania. But she’s even better as a suicidal nurse named Fred in SIFF 2007’s A Parting Shot (original title Pas douce, a reference to Fred’s not-so-soft preferences in bed), which plays again Monday at the rather inconvenient time of 2 pm.
Le Besco has a great body—has she ever not taken off her clothes in a movie made after she was 16?—but her face is completely enrapturing. When she’s blank, she’s creepy. When she’s angry, she’s terrifying. When she smiles, it’s unreal.
I think the first movie I saw her in was Girls Can’t Swim (SIFF 2002). But I realize I’ve missed so many! I was disappointed when I found out that Scarecrow doesn’t have A Song of Innocence (La Ravisseuse), in which Le Besco, as a 19th century wet nurse, stars opposite (be still my heart) Gregoire Colín. But it’s not on DVD. I even checked Amazon.fr.
the first picture is scary. she looks like shes going to pull her head off her neck, gleefully.
When she first hit the scene, I wanted to hate her—so blonde, so pretty—but her talent won me over. She's also great in Roberto Succo and Sade (with Mssr. Colin). The latter is a dud, but I did get to see her introduce the Toronto premiere. She's more delicate in person than she appears on screen.
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