This is the kind of stories that saves us the beginning and the end, peels the whole package and gives us the ambrosia. This only happens in a few weeks, enough time for the principal characters to know each other and recognize in each other: Claire is a teenager that thinks she can overpass her pregnancy without help until she mets Madame Mélikian, grieving for the recent death of his son. To the recipe comes Guillaume, the young man who blames himself for that death. These marked characters, with inner scars, would try to heal each other out of pain. The plot may not sound much special but the way to tell it is exceptional. Told at a slow pace, in a minimalistic narration of the ordinary things that happens every day, "Brodeuses" elaborates a beautiful movie with the colors on the scene and the tones in the meanings. Sentimental in a good way it really invites you to feel what the characters are passing through. Lola Naymark transmits her feeling through her eyes in the middle of silence. Ariane Ascaride gives a sober and superb acting. The cinematography is quite just, revealing and offering the whole Rhone Alpes to us. And finally, the score that tonifies the actions is enough reflexive to accompany the actions. Art cinema, author's cinema, this is a small big gem in a french cinema that was beginning to take a detour to commercial films. If you love the minimalistic storytelling, with parsimonia and gusto, you will enjoy this one. Others beware.

"Brodeuses" (2004) aka "A Common Thread"- a first feature by Éléonore Faucher is a simple, moving and beautiful film about two unhappy and lonely women, a pregnant unmarried teenager Claire and Madame Mélikian (Ascaride), an older woman grieving over the death of her only son in a motorcycle accident. Claire becomes an assistant for Madam Melikian, an embroiderer for haute couture Parisian designers. Slowly, both women come to need and value each other; they form a close bond through their mutual love for embroidery. Their true friendship will be one of the reasons for Claire to make a very important decision about her future baby. Visually, the film is a work of an exceptional beauty. Almost unknown, it is as exquisite as "Girl with a Pearl Earring" - Lola Naymark (Claire) could've been easily a Vermeer's model with her face of rare charm that shines in every frame and her impossibly beautiful long red hair. Both Naymard and Ariane Ascaride (Madam Melikian) gave outstanding performances in the movie with no bad performances at all.

This is the kind of film that gives 'Art House' a good name. Given the title and style it compares favorably with La Dentelliere and that is praise indeed. The story is simplicity itself; a young supermarket worker, Claire Moutiers (Lola Naymark) with a passion for embroidery and a life that is going nowhere becomes pregnant almost in passing. Having no real attachment to the father she has to decide how to deal with the situation. Her first move is to approach a local embroiderer, Madame Melikian (Ariane Ascaride) for a job. M. Melikian has her own problems; her son has recently died in a road accident and by chance, his friend Guillaume (Thomas Laroppe) who survived the tragedy albeit at the expense of a badly scarred face, is the brother of Claire's friend Lucile. Soon after starting her new job Claire finds M Melikian comatose in the wake of a suicide attempt and alerts the authorities. From then on the film becomes a story of friendship, trust, healing and love. I doubt if there is a speech longer than two sentences from beginning to end, instead there are stunningly simple visuals like Clair cutting cabbages (in French 'cabbage' is an endearment as in ma petite chou) or Madame Melikian's hand touching that of Guillaume when Claire brings them face to face. The film builds its effects the way the two leads assemble a tapestry, slowly, painstakingly, one stitch at a time. In a film where every performance is way above average the two leads stand out like twin beacons, one (Naymark) remarkable and one (Ascaride) magnificent. One of the finest films of the last few years.