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NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL 2013--MY NAME IS HMMM... Send This Review to a Friend
As pretentious as its director who gives her name in small letters and an abbreviation, ( agnés b.), the French import “My Name Is Hmmm…” doesn’t make much sense in its basic situation. Shown at the 2013 New York Film Festival, the film concentrates on an 11-year-old girl named Céline, sullenly played by Lou-Lélia Demerliac, who runs away from home to get away from the sexual abuse by her father (Jacques Bonnaffé). So far, so understandable.
But then she is given a lift by a truck driver (Douglas Gordon), and that’s where the situation gets sticky. Although the driver has his problems, it makes no sense that when he learns the girl is being sought as missing, he continues to harbor her without even asking her why she has run away, what’s troubling her etc. That flies in the face of natural desire to know what the score is when one is taking a risk.
Worse, when he is arrested on charges that he has molested the girl, he doesn’t defend himself to the authorities in a situation that is horribly unfair to him. Matters get even more unsustainable, given what we know.
Director b., who co-wrote the screenplay with Jean-Pol Fargeau and Christopher Yggdre, bestows on the film lyrical scenic impressions and an effort to create a mood to match. But that does not disguise the fact that the film makes no sense. Posted November 30, 2013.
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