In the opening moments of Lola Cambourieu and Yann Berlier’s excellent short, Bachelorette Party, one of the three friends that have accompanied Maïa (Maïa Dennehy) on her pre-wedding festivities reads her a poem. In it, she characterises her friend’s potential future as either “queen” or “slave.” It might feel like an oddly didactic claim in a film that excels in ambiguity and nuance, but the implications of what Maïa’s life can and could be – as doors are opened and closed by her decision to marry – form the crux of the tensions underlying this portrait of an affectionate sorority.
The women are often filmed in close-up, their bodies cropped to focus on limbs or faces; reacting to a conversation, or playing with one another’s hair. Their friends often encroach into the frame at the edges, or in a muddied over-the-shoulder composition, giving the sense of the group’s physical closeness and ease in proximity. In one sequence they share a shower and – contrasting with a similar scene in Maïa Descamps’ recent film Oysters, which is a moment of great import – the scene acts purely to reinforce their physical and emotional intimacy. That the film is consistently loose and comfortable with bodily contact, means that when there is eventually a scene in which two people touch more sensually, the charge is all the more palpable.
However, the film always has a bristling undercurrent. From the opening scene, as Maïa listens to the poem, Dennehy’s performance is extraordinary. She allows such a broad range of complicated feelings to pass fleetingly across her face in seconds that she both seems like an open book, and impossible to get a read on, at the same time. Her relationship with Manon (Manon Petitpretz), which may or may not have once been openly romantic, acts as just one catalyst for Maïa’s introspection on the eve of a life-defining decision. In one moment, she is frustrated by probing questions while in another, when the four women seem to have become most relaxed with each other, she shares a deeply personal and traumatic experience. The gravity of the revelation, and the warmth and tender openness with which it is received, come to define Bachelorette Party, and its refusal to provide solid answers means we remain unsure how Maïa ultimately feels about her choices.
Directors, screenplay, cinematography: Lola Cambourieu, Yann Berlier
Cast: Maïa Dennehy, Manon Petitpretz, Anaëlle Houdart, Clara Petazzoni
Executive Producers: Jean-Étienne Brat, Lou Chicoteau Editing: Alex Jones
Editing: Lola Cambourieu, Yann Berlier, Xavier Sirven
Sound: Hugo Rossi, Victor Praud
Production companies: Alta Rocca Films, Réalviscéralisme (France)
Venue: Sarajevo (European Short Films)
In French
30 minutes
