Hold Me Tight

Vicky Krieps scores another triumph in a French drama of an unusual kind.

Although Mathieu Amalric’s chief claim to fame is as an actor, he is also well established as a director and as a writer and it is in those roles that he gives us Hold Me Tight. The film derives from a stage work of 2003 by Claudine Galea entitled Je reviens de loin but Amalric’s adaptation is such that one cannot imagine how the piece could have worked on the stage. Hold Me Tight is boldly cinematic as it seeks to put the viewer inside the head of the leading character, Clarisse played by Vicky Krieps.

Amalric has given us a film that is consistent from start to finish but which daringly leaves it to the audience to make what sense they can of what is going on. Early scenes show Clarisse leaving the house where she has been living with her husband, Marc (Arieh Worthalter), and their two young children, Lucie (Juliette Benveniste) and Paul (Aurèle Grzesik). The nature of Clarisse’s departure is such that one is reminded of Nora walking out on her husband in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House but intercut shots show Marc and the children functioning alone. The images showing them take place in daylight while those of Clarisse occur at night thus making the continuing juxtaposition odd. However, a brief pre-credit sequence has shown Clarisse pondering photographs placed on a bed, becoming very agitated and declaring out loud "Let's start again". She is clearly disturbed in her mind and the narrative that follows will reflect that.

Quite early on Hold Me Tight reminded me of Agatha Christie – literally so because it made me think not of her detective stories but of her real-life disappearance which led to her being found in a hotel in Harrogate booked in under the name of the woman who, as she had then discovered, was her husband's mistress. Just what Christie’s state of mind was has remained a matter of speculation and both the mental chaos she was in and how much she understood of her situation remain a matter of debate to this day. All of this is very much akin to what we see in Clarisse as she travels around in her car and ends up at a ski resort in the mountains. What we are shown of Marc and the children could reflect the reality of their lives at this time or her imagined version of those lives. Indeed, as the film progresses we even see through Clarisse's eyes what could happen to the children in the future, especially to Lucie (played in these scenes by Anne-Sophie Bowen-Chatet) whose interest in the piano could take her to the Paris Conservatoire.

From early on there are hints as to what the real situation is that has so disrupted Clarisse’s mental balance. Nevertheless, when Clarisse declares “I'm inventing. I imagine that I left.” one can take it as the truth or regard it as part of the delusions that she is undergoing. In time, the truth becomes obvious to us, but for most of the film’s length the viewer is challenged to decide which scenes are indeed imagined by Clarisse and which are not. This could be very off-putting, especially for those who like a clear narrative, but here Amalric is greatly helped by his choice of leading lady. All of the players are good, but it is Clarisse who is the crucial figure and Vicky Krieps grounds the film through the conviction that she brings to the role, not least on account of what she is able to convey through her expressive features. Although she has been acting for some time (her first role in a feature film came in 2009), it was 2017’s Phantom Thread in which her starring role gave notice of an exceptional talent. Coming up soon is Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage in which Krieps appears as Empress Elisabeth of Austria and both the film and her performance in it have been acclaimed at festival screenings. Meanwhile, we have Hold Me Tight as witness to the fact that she is ready to take on difficult material and to embody a role by sinking fully into the character. Krieps is very impressive here and her work prompts a comparison with the acting style of Tilda Swinton.

Ultimately, though, for all the brilliance of what Krieps achieves here, reactions to Hold Me Tight will depend on what one feels about Amalric’s attempt to portray the confusion in Clarisse’s mind from the inside. Speaking personally, I find that the elaboration of the images suggests not so much the reality of such a state as a filmmaker’s exercise in expressing it. That puts me on the outside looking in despite admiring greatly such aspects as the contribution of Vicky Krieps and Amalric’s deeply considered use of music, mainly classical piano works.

Original title: Serre moi fort.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Vicky Krieps, Arieh Worthalter, Anne-Sophie Bowen-Chatet, Sacha Ardilly, Juliette Benveniste, Aurèle Grzesik, Aurélia Petit, Erwan Ribard, Samuel Mathieu, Sylvain Micard.

Dir Mathieu Amalric, Pro Laetitia Gonzalez, Yaël Fogiel and Felix von Boehm, Screenplay Mathieu Smalric from the play Je reviens de loin by Claudine Galea, Ph Christophe Beaucarne, Pro Des Laurent Baude, Ed François Gédigier, Costumes Caroline Spieth.

Les Films du Poisson/Gaumont/Arte France Cinéma/Lupa Film/Canal+/Ciné+-Mubi.
97 mins. France. 2021. UK Rel: 30 November 2022. No Cert.