Les Complices

In rhythm with her peeling of vegetables and fruit, an elegant lady peels away at her globetrotting family history. With a constant smile on her face, she leaps through seven scenes of her and her parents' worldwide wanderings, with an ever-increasing number of brothers and sisters in tow. Her personal history runs parallel to a succession of significant changes in society: one moment we are hearing about her grandparents' escape from St. Petersburg after the Russian Revolution, the next she takes us to a brother in Morocco. That was where she, her mother, and her siblings stayed while her father fought in France in the Second World War. The woman seems alone but not lonely, and appears to enjoy her memories. Gradually, it becomes clear that she is passing her history on to the children playing around her. In this manner, the everyday activities of the present get a role in the film. We see the future in the eyes of an attentive little boy who looks like he just stepped out of a Caravaggio painting. He is the lady's accomplice, the one the title refers to. Together, they form a dream couple, beautifully lighted and filmed in the rich colors of 16mm. Every shot is a moving work of art, the highpoint being a touching scene in which the lady, dressed in a lovely white dress, dances back into the past.