I have to confess that the main - if not only - attraction for me was the name Zabou Breitman in the cast list and as it turned out Breitman had a relatively small role as the mother of the leading character. I've yet to see Breitman in a bad movie whether one of her own - she is, of course, a writer/director/actress and wrote and directed the sublime Se Souvenirs des belles choses - which, if she never did anything else, would assure her a seat at the top table in Movie Heaven, and nor is she here. Baden, Baden will not appeal to everyone being a series of vignettes rather than a dynamic story with a beginning, a middle and an end, but in focusing on an unsettled twenty-six year old who doesn't know where she is going, wants to go, let alone how to get there, the film opts to meet her on her own terms and follow her rambling. I enjoyed the ride. What can I tell you.

I sometimes wonder how certain movies ever get made. This is a case in point. The script is very much less than the sum of its parts and the acting veers from risible to very good. The very good being Claude Gensac who plays Ana's Grandmother and Lazarre Gousseau, who plays Gregoire. The implausible story just doesn't go anywhere and the movie is like watching a random episode of TV series. It starts and finishes with no explanation as to what is going on or why. All we know is that Ana is a bit of a loser who doesn't have any kind of idea about anything and cares less about it all, except for Grandmother who she runs to when she has nowhere else to go. She decides to install a new shower while her Grandmother is in hospital but where does she get the money? She has no job and not much in the way of brains it would seem. There are various dead-end threads that wave around in the breeze, like Boris the supposed artist whose mother lives in a very expensive apartment. He's a rotter and she has some history with him but that's all we know. Likewise the former boyfriend Simon - the unlikely named Swann Arlaud - with whom she shares a shower in a motel and her body on regular occasions. The only nice guy is Gregoire - Lazarre Gousseau - who helps her with the bathroom but she doesn't go for nice guys, as he discovers. The end of the movie is unbelievable. I don't think I've seen anything like it. Ana goes off with yet another bloke who she doesn't even know and who doesn't really want to know her, they sit in a field next to Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut (we don't know why) and then...It just stops. I can only imagine that either they ran out money or just gave up and went home. There must be better scripts out there than this, surely? I wouldn't recommend you to spend your time with this dismal effort, it's just not worth it. The movie should be called Bad Bad instead of Baden Baden.

In her feature film debut writer/director Rachel Lang portraits young, reckless and aimless Ana, a 26 year old girl who steals a car from the company she works for to go to her grandmother in Strasbourg for a summer of big changes and decisions. "Baden Baden" unfolds its story as a series of many funny and some sad vignettes tied together by Ana's redecorating of her grandmother's bathroom, which stands as a metaphor for rebuilding her own life.As aimless as Ana is, Lang's work is nothing like it. She tells the story with remarkable assuredness and great skill, something rarely found in the first-time director. Impressive cinematography (Fiona Braillon), great editing (Sophie Vercruysse) and excellent choice of music (Rachel Lang) are all of great significance in creating the film's unique atmosphere, and of course, it doesn't hurt that leading lady Salome Richard, herself a newcomer, shines as Ana, buying our sympathies from the very first scene."Baden Baden" mixes comedy, tragedy and simple ordinary life in the best ways possible and, although it probably isn't poised to make an impact on the history of film, it definitely makes an impact on the viewers. It is a film that shouldn't be missed.