Themes: Rape & Sexual Abuse, Crime Sprees, Wanderlust
Main Cast: Clementine Amouroux, Catherine Rétoré
Release Year: 1979
Country: CH/FR
Run Time: 117 minutes
Plot
During the heyday of the French Revolution, the days of the week and the names of months and seasons were renamed in an attempt to deepen the effects of the rebellion through linguistic means. Messidor was the name given to the harvest season at that time. In this story, two contemporary Swiss girls are called the "Messidor sisters" by a policeman, indicating that they grew up in prosperity. Despite the comfortably banal outward appearance that the two have serene and secure lives, the girls experience many difficulties, including an attempted rape. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Review
On one level, Messidor is a sort of anti-road movie in which a pair of free spirits roam Switzerland, starting off as fairly carefree and happy, but rushing toward doom as everything slowly turns sour and then violently disastrous. In fact, there are enough similarities to the later and more celebrated Thelma & Louise to make you wonder whether the makers of that film were heavily influenced by the much earlier Messidor. In both works, two women set off with an innocent spirit of adventure, and get steered toward criminal desperation by attempted rape and bad luck. There are differences, of course: The two protagonists of Messidor are much younger than those of Thelma & Louise and are scavenging hitchhikers rather than rip-roaring, car-revving daredevils. Also, however, Messidor is more serious and less sensationalistic in tone, allowing director Alain Tanner to explore some of the more intellectual themes he'd examined in his previous films. Those include the heavily patriarchal, conformist nature of much of Swiss society and the encroachment of dehumanizing modern development, with the heroines spending just as much time in dreary roadside cafes and bustling highways as in Switzerland's scenic valleys and mountains. It ends up feeling not so much like a journey on the open road as a circular road to nowhere, the pair continually ending up on bleak, crowded highway junctions as their options dwindle. It's an unusual and admirable movie, too, in that it neither demonizes nor lionizes the main characters. Their actions are often irresponsible to the point of amorality, yet they're in some respects defensible given the systematic chauvinism and, at one point, physical assault that the two endure. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Movie Guide
Cast
Clementine Amouroux - Jeanne
Catherine Rétoré - Marie; Arthur Grosjean; Hilde Ziegler
