With this one Ruiz redeems himself well for some of the more hollow stuff he produced in the 90's. It is, as so many times before, a fiction about possible fictions as assembled in the imaginative mind. About various figments of the one mind enacting their roles in a fantasy unfolding as the unfathomable echoes bubbling in some far surface of reality.At first, it seems to be about a child intuitively guided to look for his true face, the true motherly source from which we are all outsourced at birth and to which the biological mother is only the affectionate mask. The kid is miraculously drawn to another mother, tied to the first by the strange coincidence so favored by surrealists.But it soon turns out that we are not with the child in this, rather with the discarded face of the mother. The woman drawn to her reflected image in the eyes of the kid and made whole in it. Two women as one, each the other's surrogate mother, each the surrogate daughter in turn.And then it moves again, starting with a dinner scene that reverses the one that begins the film. Now the characters have switched places, the room is dark. A film-within guides us further, footage captured by the kid in his strolls around the park. There is an imaginary friend who turns out to be real, and a madhouse in the countryhouse where only those admitted can leave at will.Then the mysterious ending suddenly seems to pull everything back into the surface of reality (we can never be sure though). Was after all the kid only the mother's helpful aid (like her brother, Serge, inside the fantasy) in recovering the husband who is away on business (imagined as an inner child, susceptible to allure of the female figure) from the imaginary hands of a deceitfull mistress? It's a fascinating ploy and the overall construct, though occasionally thin, resonates with the illusionary reality of the mind. How we weave portentous narrative around us with us center stage in the myth, what masks we choose to hide behind or let fall. Lots of Oedipus, transported to suburban France as surreal essay into the conundrums of fiction.The device is film noir. The execution is French. Not a bad thing to have, aye?

... who establishes himself yet again as one of world cinema's most intriguing contemporary directors. The cast is excellent and the story unfolds with an eerie, graceful and inexorable pull. Particularly fascinating is the innate childishness of brother and sister characters played by Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert - and to some extent by Jeanne Balibar and Denis Polydades. A creepy meta-thriller that also manages to make interesting comments on parenting and responsibility. On the Wellspring DVD there's also an insightful interview with director Raoul Ruiz, a bit opaque but not surprising given his filmography.

On his birthday a small boys tells his mother he is not her son, and that he wants to go home to his real mother.In some ways Comedy De L'Innocence feels like it comes from a different time of movie-making, perhaps the 60's or 70's. Certainly it reminded me of Losey's Secret Ceremony (1968), and Richard Loncraine's Full Circle (1977), both of which deal with loss, grief and relationships between parents and 'lost' children (curiously both films star Mia Farrow).All three films are populated with unsympathetic characters who behave in strange and unexplained ways. All three films have a chilly feel, both emotionally and literally. All three films focus on mother-child relationships, and ultimately all three films pose the question - 'what is real, what is imagined?' Beautiful but flawed, it offers no easy answers and leaves much hanging, unexplained and strange.

Ariane (Isabelle Huppert) mother of young Camille has a frustrating problem on her hands. Her son says that she is not his real mother and that his real mother lives in another part of town. Also he insists that Ariane take him to her. What has happened to parental control? Mother and son seek her out. Her name is Isabella ( Jean Balibar) and she had a son Paul the same age as Camille but he was lost in a drowning accident. From this moment on Isabella seems to take over insisting Camille is Paul and Camille insisting that she is his mother.It's very unlikely to happen in real life and the whole set-up is rather laughable. Things get worse when Isabella moves into Ariane's home to be near her so-called Paul. While there she tries to seduce Georges. "Why are you doing this?" he asks".....I need a father for my son" Because Isabella is so difficult to get rid of, family and friends suspect she could be a witch. Need I go on?The acting is excellent throughout. Huppert so gracious and serene, and Balibar well cast as the post-traumatic mother with her ever too ready smile. The dialogue is strange. Many sentences are unfinished. Many idea are not resolved. There is a vague feeling of inactivity and helplessness. The au pair is strange and loves to play the dice. The whole house is littered with busts of men and women so weird-looking in the shadowy light of evening. Great for atmosphere but surely difficult to live with. No wonder the household was a trifle mad.One scene tends to send shivers down one's back. It's when Isabella decides to re-enact the drowning of her son by dunking Camille off the side of the barge. She is completely crackers...quite pathetic really.Camille's favourite plaything is a video camera which he likes to poke into everybody's face. It is said the camera does not lie and in this case what is captured on video happens to resolve the situation.