Poupoupidu aka Nobody Else But You (2011) Snowbound French Neo Noir

"A very, very, nice surprise"                                           (Noirsville)

Director Gérald Hustache-Mathieu (La chatte andalouse). 

Written by Gérald Hustache-Mathieu and Juliette Sales. The Cinematography was by Pierre Cottereauby (Boîte noire), Music was by Stephane Lopez. 

The film starts Jean-Paul Rouve (La Vie En Rose, A Very Long Engagement) as David Rousseau, Sophie Quinton (Qui a tué Bambi?, Avril) as Candice Lecoeur, with Guillaume Gouix as Bruno Leloup, Arsinée Khanjian as Juliette Geminy, Joséphine de Meaux as Cathy, Olivier Rabourdin as Commandant Colbert, Éric Ruf as Simon Denner, Clara Ponsot as Betty, Finnegan Oldfield as Richi, Anne Le Ny as the voice of Victoria, Antoine Michel as Fireman, Nicolas Duvauchelle as the voice of Fred

Story

A Black Screen, credits roll. 

Candace [V.O.]:  I'm floating. I am in my mothers womb. How old am I. I want to go even further back in time. What do I see? Light.

A very haunting sequence begins with a moving version of Screaming Jay Hawikins "I Put A Spell On You" torched nicely by Xenia does exactly that as the dark screen becomes light. Its a close up restaging by Sophie Quinton of Marilyn Monroe's last photo shoot, just 6 weeks before her death, by Bert Stern. 

Its a very beautiful stylistic sequence, and the credits continue until we finally segue to a winter wonderland. 

We are in the Jura. a sub-alpine heavily forested mountainous region that marks the frontier between France and Switzerland. It's Snowing and the roads are snow packed. 

A road cuts through a snowbound landscape, dominated by white dusted Norway spruce, and silver fir. A white 1973 Peugeot 504 Cabriolet aka ragtop is driving towards us. A 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder fuel-injected engine BTW, with 103 hp, for any gearheads out there. Its a bit light for the snow packed road conditions. 

Driving is David Rousseau, a successful Pulp fiction crime writer. 

Jean-Paul Rouve as David Rousseau

He's been heading for Mouthe the "Little Siberia" of France. At 3,000 + feet elevation (for New Yorkers reading this its a similar elevation of most of the high Catskill mountain tops). It's pronounced roughly like "moot," which makes sense since it was declared a "Moot" (Latin for irrelevant) place, by none other than Julius Caesar upon his visit back in antiquity. 

Mouthe, had the lowest recoded temp -41 centigrade in France, which is roughly -42 Fahrenheit that's like most of Canada. I know from experience. I was living up in the St. Lawrence valley for a couple of  winters and it got down to 46 below. Everybody up there had engine block heaters, but at 46 below your foam seats pretty much turn to concrete. 

David's cruising, rocking out to "Shot Down" by the Sonics. As soon as he passes a Welcome to Mouthe sign he looses the radio signal. He hits the brakes and backs up until he once again picks up the song. He sits on the side out the road and closes his eyes.

Cut to a lawyers office somewhere on the outskirts of town. David came to Mouthe because his aunt passed away and he was in her will. Sounds like good news, no? He's sitting there listening to the lawyer read the will his aunt basically leaves her entire 650,000 euro estate to the town of Mouthe and its charities. David looks at the lawyer and is wondering aloud WTF did she make him drive 400 kilometers all the way to Siberia for. The lawyer continues reading and to David his aunt leaves him Toby. David screws his face a bit and says "Toby? Isn't he dead?

We cut to David exiting the lawyers office carrying a stuffed collie wearing a bandana. He stops and looks around. We cut to a shot of the Peugeot taking off down the road and pan to Toby sitting in a blue dumpster. A nice Twin Peaks moment. 

We back in time to earlier that day, its a momentary flashback, to another winter scene. It's snowing. We watch as a cross country skier glides down a slope. 

Candace [V.O.]: Dear Diary, I started writing to you on June 1st 1990. The day I turned 13. Filling my poor existence into twenty-four diaries. 

The cross country skier works his way along the trail. He stops when he spots a pair of snow shoes sticking toes up out of the snow.

Candace goes on to tell us that she is no great writer, has no style. And that she caresses the empty pages hoping that soon she will write about someone who truly loves and understands her. Every new diary is a new beginning. I want to record this on your first page. 

The cross country skier takes off his skies and starts brushing the snow away revealing the blue-ish face of a woman.

Candace [V.O.]: In the three days since I last wrote here. I died. 

We come out of the flashback and cut to the David's '73 Peugeot. He's driving up on what looks like a traffic accident. 

There's gendarmes and an ambulance with EMT's loading a stretcher with a body into the back of the ambulance. As they flag David through, he spots some blonde hairs sticking out of the sheet. 

Cut to dusk the Peugeot rolling down the wet snowy streets of Mouthe. It's the French equivalent of a an American backwater shithole. The kind-a place where they roll the sidewalks up at night. He pulls into the parking lot of the town flop house, the Snowflake Hotel. There's no other cars.

When David walks in, Betty the goth-ish hotel clerk, likes what she sees. She has a Madonna / "lucky star" era quality about her. 

Betty has long black hair, smokey eyes with her mouth a bright gash of red lipstick. She's got a black dress and a long silver necklace, wears matching black fingerless lace mitts, contrasting white knee high stockings and black ankle boots. Above her left knee she wears two black garters.

She gives David a big smile. She probably gives a big smile to anything in pants. Showing the room. It's number 5. She tells David that the boilers aren't working. Great, but she can bring him extra blankets, and she can fix him up with a hot water bottle later, she tells him with a big smile. Betty's whole aura also gives her a vampire-ish quality, but you get the impression its not blood his she's craving to suck.

Later in his room David gets a call from his publisher. You get the impression he's got a bit of writers block. He 's got a contract for so many books over a period of time and he is behind schedule. He flips open his Apple and stairs at the blank screen. We see him pour a few miniature liquor bottles into a coffee cup take a drink and we still see a blank screen.

Cut to the next morning. David gets his wake-up call from the desk, while a TV news program's breaking news is about the death of Candace Lacoure, the local beauty "cheese" queen and visual brand ambassador of Jura Cheese. She also a celebrity TV Weather girl. 

She was found on a cross country ski trail dead near the border with Switzerland. They are reporting it as a suicide. We cut to a reporter who is standing by Captain Colbert  Head of the gendarmes that cover Mouthe and vicinity. 

The body of of a woman, who was born Martine Langevin was discovered. She was the ideal beauty of the Jura region. On the TV we see the round french cheese containers that hold the foil wrapped soft french cheese. They ones you see here were La vache qui rit brand. 

The talking head goes on to tell us that all that was before Martine became the weather girl for FC-TV. Her body was found in "no mans land" sort of claimed by both and never surveyed. He also relates that a bottle of sleeping pills was sound in her hand.

When the reporter gives the mike to Captain Colbert he explains the body was in the no mans land which is out of their jurisdiction. So there won't be an investigation. 

Through all this we keep getting cuts to David whose attention the story has captured. 

The TV shuts off when Bettie comes in carrying his breakfast. She tells him its always like this at the snow line. 

When Bettie leaves, David jumps out of bed and to the Apple and starts typing. The story of Martine is a new inspiration. 

We cut to the '73 Peugeot speeding down the highway. Cut David he calls his editor. Tells her he started. The Title "No Man's Land." 

on the way to no mans land...

He tells her its about the local beauty in a small town called Mouthe, a blonde who was the cheese queen, found dead in No Mans Land. He tells her he has to dig in get more facts. He tells her its something different and proposes to her his using a new pen name "Magnus Horn."

We cut to a shot of a winter landscape with snowstorm, an orange highway snowplow, is widening the road plowing the berm further over from centerline. The snow and slush geyser from the cutting edge of the plow over the fence lines. We see David's Peugeot following behind. In V.O. the editor tells David to worry about the details later just start writing. 

a border map

He's got a map and he's at the snow covered disputed border area checking the scene of where Candace's body was discovered. He is watched by Brigadier Bruno Leloup. Bruno calls out.

Bruno: Looking for something?

David [walking towards Bruno]: Inspiration. 

Bruno: Look elsewhere this is a border crossing.

David: I'm conducting and investigation for my next crime novel.

Bruno: Please leave.

Guillaume Gouix as Bruno Leloup

David suddenly puts a finger to his lips. He hears something. We cut to David releasing a rabbit caught in a snare while Bruno watches. 

Special hearing

Davis tells him that he's always had special hearing. He goes on to detail some incidents from his childhood, then demonstrates that when he walks in the snow he can hear each sound separately. David finishes by stating to Bruno that he saw him when they recovered the body, and that it was pretty strange to choose No Man's Land as a place to commit suicide.

We cut to David pulling up by the hospital. He manages to weasel his way into the unattended morgue.

He looks at the row of draws and picks number five since its his room number at the The Snowflakes. Its a good guess as any. Bingo! He sees blonde hair as he pulls out the draw. He then pulls down the rubber sheet. 

Candace [V.O.]: At first they thought I was just another homeless person. Then two nurses held my breasts together and even so, as cold as it was,  I'm still the hottest girl in Franche-Comté. (Which is an area slightly larger than Connecticut but with only a third of its population). 

David notices a bruise from the corner of her right eye to her temple, and a needle bruise on her arm.

Candace [V.O.]: But he took my arm. Not like the others. I don't even think he wanted to touch my ass. If we met before I might not be lying here in a tin pan. 

He also notices what looks like a ink stamp on the back of her hand that looks like an M.  

Candace [V.O.]: It's been like this my whole life. I had to wait for a decent guy until I died.

WTF?

At about that time the morgue attendant comes in and automatically shuts off the light but notices David by the corpse of Candace with the sheet down.  Cut to the police station. 

Captain Colbert: So you are Gilbert Rousseau's nephew? And you investigate like James Ellroy?

David: Yes.

Olivier Rabourdin as Commandant Colbert

While the captain is questioning David he's playing with one of the BB puzzle skill games in his collection. Its the one some French  genius used Gustave Courbet's "L'Origine du monde" (The Origin of the World) painting of a vagina, with holes at belly button, and the three points of the triangle of her bush how louche. 

Captain Colbert: So may I ask who gave you the permission?

David: No one. May I add there's a needle mark on her arm. Are you absolutely sure she actually committed suicide?

Captain Colbert: First. The needle mark is from yesterdays blood test. Second, she really committed suicide, and third case closed.

David argues that his conclusions are false, but the Captain tells him again that the case is closed. This isn't America, this is Mouthe, and if he finds him in the morgue again that next time he won't be too understanding.

So David now become the de facto detective and he is determined to find out what happened. He starts by asking some girl fans of Candace who have just left a memorial poster of Candace if they knew where she lived. They tell him in an old biscuit factory on Rue la Source, and point him in the right direction. 

David drives the Peugeot to the The Delicious Biscuit Factory. He parks, checks the front door, goes around to the side and slips in through an un-locked window, and enters Candace's world. 

He ends up crashing on the floor strewn with knocked over artist brushes. David sees, flowers, a plate of half eaten grapes, a snowflake Christmas ornament hanging from the ceiling, a poster of Manhattan on a wall with a number 5. 

Angel of Freedom Tarot Deck

A note on a small blackboard hanging on the frig door about a one hour appointment on Thursday with Jiminy Cricket. He finds her tote bag and an iPod with earbuds, he sticks this in his pocket. 

He looks at a bulletin board with family pictures then notices that the lock has been forced on a cabinet door below. 

Opening the cabinet he finds Candace's diaries, he pulls out the last one, opens it and starts reading. And we go into a flashback.

Candace [V.O.]: Thursday June 1 1990, I just turned 13, this is the day of my revenge. I went to the pool first, and as usual, two of the girls started making fun of me because I wore either Wal-Mart clothes or rags from the Salvation Army. But today, underneath I'm wearing a real bikini. I came out of the locker room really slow like Madonna in Vogue and the boys were staring at me like they found nuggets of gold. I had this funny impression that I was Martine Langevin the nobody, and simultaneously another girl. 

We come out of the flashback when Bruno comes up to the door and unlocks it with a key. David tries to hide but Bruno finds him. Bruno tells him his Peugeot is sitting outside. 

David shows him what he discovered about the cabinet, telling him all the diaries are there except the last one, Strange. Bruno tells him to get out he doesn't have all day. 

Just then the Captain calls Bruno, and Bruno doesn't give David away, telling the Captain that he was stuck on the road. When the calls over, David tells Bruno that he isn't too sure now either. 

Driving in the Peugeot, David calls information on his cell phone and asks the operator if there is anyone in Mouthe with the last name of Jiminy or Cricket, there's a Juliette Geminy. David calls her and finds out that she was Candace's psychiatrist. She agrees to meet him.

Arsinée Khanjian as Juliette Geminy

At the office he tells Geminy that he is increasingly convinced that Colbert is hiding something. She tells him that she shouldn't do this but lets him listen to a cassette of Candace's last session. 

Candace [V.O. (from cassette)]: I'm floating. I am in my mothers womb. 

Juliette Geminy [V.O.]: How does it feel? 

Candace [V.O.]: I feel alone.  I want to go even further back in time. 

Juliette Geminy [V.O.]: What do you see? 

Candace [V.O.]: Light.

Here we first go into a flashback with a close up of Candace's face. She tells us that she was being pulled along a river, no it was in a basement, and here we go into flashback within a flashback. 

Candace [V.O.]: I'm really scared because I'm doing something forbidden. I'm hurrying behind a man in a suit. He leads me by the hand. He's very strong his cologne smells divine. He lead me into a bedroom. The carpet was very thick. I was a fabulous hotel suite. I'm laughing. I know the man. This is Kennedy the president, and I am Marilyn. 

Juliette explains that Candace must have read a lot of books about Marilyn, and its a cry for help. She adds that Marilyn and Candace were both born on June 1st. 

We cut to David driving in the Peugeot. He remembers Candace's iPod and plugs it in. California Dreaming starts to play. 

David ends up back at the Delicious Biscuit Factory and using a snow shovel pries open the door to break in again. 

We cut to David coming back into the Snowflake Hotel carrying the same tote bag that contained Candace's iPod. He passes by the desk almost ignoring Betty. He stops, spins around. 

He asks Bettie what kind of clubs does she like to go to. She mentions the Barracuda but likes Kings better. She tells David that she has Thursdays nights off but David replies that hates going to discos. 

He heads to his room.

Back in his room David opens the bag and of course its full of Candace's diaries. He pulls out one, and as he starts reading we get another flashback. 

Back to the day at the "Station du Lac" the "essemce" brand gas station that changed her life.  

Candace [V.O.]: November 20 1999. I gained more than two pounds. I went on a grapefruit and casino egg diet again. I was deeply depressed. But then a fabulous gift fell from the sky, in the form of a red Jeep, came down the road.  

Here we go into another flashback 

We  how Martine Langevin the attendant met a photographer on an assignment to capture the countryside and discovered Candace Lecoure "cheese queen," and here it all started down the road to Noirsville. This is roughly the 1/3 point in the film

Noirsville 

A winner - each hole in the BB gam is filled

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Gérald Hustache-Mathieu created an excellent Noir that does cast a spell on you with its low rent but eerie parallels to the Norma Jean / Marilyn Monroe story, and its got a touch of Twin Peaks and Fargo in it's mix. 

Sophie Quinton is a sweetheart, she really does resemble a young Marilyn and mesmerizes every minute she is on screen. Jean-Paul Rouve is the crime novelist and dogged de facto detective rooting out the sordid facts that lead up to her death. The rest of the cast is excellent with shout outs to Guillaume Gouix as the sympathetic gendarme and Clara Ponsot as Betty the love starved hotel desk girl. 10/10

A Boston Herald review here.