Michael Shivers is a broken man. After submitting his latest manuscript to eight publishing houses he desperately hopes one of them would provide a large enough advance to resolve his financial crisis. A week before Christmas he takes up an invite from a friend in Paris encouraging him to leave his sorrows behind in New York. On his first expedition in the delectable surroundings of Montmartre, he encounters Sophie in a fruit store where she’s telling her dog to sit down. Resounded by her direct tone he enquires whether she treats her boyfriend in the same domineering manner. Sophie disregards the incident leaving the ‘rude American’ behind until two further meetings by chance allows them to comprehend that serendipity is playing its hand.
Far from a typical boy meets girl story, After Fall, Winter is Eric Schaeffer’s sequel to Fall, (which he also directed and starred back in 1997) exploring once again the balance of human desire with intense sexuality. In Fall, Michael retired as a writer to become a taxi driver where he attempts to entice a model after giving her a ride but tragically never earns her full devotion due to her marriage to another man. In After Fall, Winter – Michel is the tragedy. His severe debt forces him to be evicted from an upper west side apartment contemplating suicide very early on in the film and when he reaches Paris his inner demons lure him to a dominatrix who subjugates and humiliates him to his desired will.
Unknown to him, Sophie is equally a damaged soul working by day as a carer for the sick and by night transforms into a dominatrix herself providing pleasure and displeasure to her clients. Lizzie Brocheré (Le chant des mariées) portrays Sophie with great compassion and vulnerability in equal measures and balances her performance to pitch perfection through out the entire movie. When wearing her latex costumes her clients expect her to be punishing with intensity, to which she obliges, however her charming nature ensures the audience is compelled to watch some rather graphic encounters. In the hospital she encourages young Anais, played by newcomer Marie Luneau, to embrace the remaining moments of her life after learning she’s dying from Leukemia. The two share a bond and try to understand what it means to be in love as Anais’ condition dispelled other boys kissing her while Sophie confesses never experiencing a kiss that was returned with affection. Until of course when Michael asks her out for lunch involving nothing but cheese on the menu. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Parisian skyline, the chemistry between the two are infectious and highly enjoyable to watch.
The relationship however draws to a disturbing climax on Christmas day leaving the audience with a cinematic experience that is both haunting and unnerving leaving great admiration for Schaeffer’s wonderful script and direction. After Fall, Winter illuminates the lives of two people whom carry a myriad of emotional baggage and yet share their love romantically, passionately, innocently and at times brutally – especially when having or discussion sex. Raw, vivid and exceptionally candid – this is cinema at its best.
Reviewed by Vaskar S. Kayastha
