[Drame] Clean - 2004

Clean
(2004)

Aka : Clean

Pays : France

Réalisateur : Olivier Assayas

Cast : Maggie Cheung, Béatrice Dalle, Nick Nolte, Jeanne Balibar, Don Mc Kellar, Remy Martin, Laura Smet, Ian Brown, Tricky.

Synopsis :Quand on n'a pas le choix, on change. Emily sort de prison. Elle a perdu son mari, mort d’une overdos et n'a qu'une obsession : récupérer son fils Jay, que ses beaux-parents élèvent loin d'elle. Pour y parvenir, il il lui faut changer et se reconstruire... qu'elle devienne "clean".

Mon avis : Bouleversante, troublante mais évitant toute surenchère émotionnelle, Maggie Cheung parvient à se fondre dans une distribution impressionnante de justesse.

Quote : tout public

Note : 6/10

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there's something in this world that's more painful than death, it's letting you go... i think i can get anything in this world if i had enough money but, i can't buy time.... should i ask you to wait until i can get into your heart!

Thanks sushimi for posting this one! I saw it last night and it made quite an impact on me...More often than not this film was like a trip down memory lane...

I met my wife in Hamilton, Ontario where we both were attending University. Often our long hours of study were broken up by short breaks as we stepped onto her little apartment balcony. We’d look out across the bay and see the steel mills where huge towers of flame would launch into the night sky… we’d be witnessing scenes of Dante’s inferno. The opening scene in Clean shows a view of Hamilton that I had long ago forgotten. All that fire and smoke from the countless towers was beautiful but innerving too.

Then the film slips into a dingy little club where would be rockers perform live on stage. The music reminded me so much of the bar and club scene I spent years in. Dirty clubs, battered hopes and endless amounts of alcohol, drugs and sleepless nights; it’s a wonder I survived! Clean portrays this exceptionally well as it refuses to glamorize the music scene and shows it as it so often is…a hyper kinetic trap, so difficult to escape from.

As Emily (Maggie Cheung) attempts to escape from the death of her long-term boyfriend and begin life anew in France she runs into the dead end promises and negative stigma that follows an aged junkie / rock ‘n roller. Every road she travels seems to lead back to where she came. Hopeless, degrading and surrounded by endless opportunities to return to the drugged haze of heroin, she battles forward. Her goal being the return of her son is the foundation of her quixotic quest.

What I liked so much about Clean was the optimism that runs throughout, even though Emily’s world is dirty and convoluted. When she finally meets her son, the relationship is remarkably convincing and touching without being saccharine. Assayas directs a very emotional film that is miles away from the typical Hollywood Rock ‘n Roll silliness.

Rather, he has created a low-life, working class tour de force full of complexities and subtle touches of music hell that most anyone who has tried their hand in the industry can identify with. Maggie Cheung is an amazing actress, and in Clean she reveals many sides of herself…all so very convincingly. I must not forget to mention the wonderful performance of Nick Nolte playing the role of Maggie’s father – in law.

Clean is a brutally honest film that somehow managed to make me feel good about life. I'd give this film a very high rating...but maybe it's because it rang so true for me.