Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight is a fractured character study of Clarisse (Vicky Krieps), a wife and mother of two who is fleeing her family to start a new solo life. The film shows both Clarisse on the road as well as her family as they attempt to cope with her absence. But then the narrative takes a twist and the story is not as straightforward as the opening act would have the viewer believe.
The first shots show Clarisse stealthily dressing, leaving breakfast and a list of chores on the kitchen table and slipping out into the gray light of dawn. The film follows her to a local service station where a friend works; though something feels off here, the idea that Clarisse can just no longer handle being a wife and mother prevails. Soon, the camera shows her drunkenly stammering about how her husband and children will slowly reconcile themselves to her disappearance, with hope that she is sure to return giving way to the callous reality that she is simply gone.
A second narrative strand opens up, centered on Clarisse’s family as they wake on the day she vanished. Slowly, they fulfill Clarisse’s words at the bar: from uncertainty regarding the nature of her flight to confidence her return is imminent, to anger that their mother/wife is just gone. When the action cuts back to Clarisse, the story gets much more complicated: clearly, the film is plunging the viewer much deeper into the human psyche than was evident at first. To say much more would only spoil the plot twist that sets the rest in motion.
What Hold Me Tight does so well is its seamless blend of reality and fantasy. It keeps the viewer uncertain, but not lost. Clarisse is the narrative center, but her husband, son and daughter are prominent, too, often carrying entire sequences as the mystery is slowly revealed. In other words, the film is really just an exercise in editing. Told in chronological order or without the utterly shattered story, Hold Me Tight would not be special. In such form, it is simply the story of a really terrible winter for a few French people. But with the elliptical editing that sees the viewer going from Clarisse to the family, across France and throughout a dismal winter, Hold Me Tight comes alive.
Contrasting bright, wide open shots of the French countryside with dark and gloomy interiors, Hold Me Tight is a delightful study of a woman who yearns for the happiness and freedom of the open road but is stuck with the pre-determined decisions of being an adult with responsibilities.
Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber
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