The Bird

Anne (Sandrine Kiberlain) is a woman who guards her secrets closely. She’s utterly solitary, and keeps her distance from everyone in the kitchen where she works – despite the attempts of one cook (Clément Sibony) to get beyond her blank exterior. In her private life, Anne wanders alone – but might make the occasional attempt to make contact with another person, such as the solitary cinemagoer (the bearish Serge Riaboukine, excellent) who she meets at a Mizoguchi film. Then the strange thumping noise Anne keeps hearing in her flat works its way into her consciousness, and eventually she has to turn her attention to another living presence. Yves Caumon’s subtle, intelligent drama is so effective because it unwraps its heroine’s psyche layer-by-layer, starting off almost as inscrutable as she is, but then laying bare delicate, raw strata of experience as we come to understand Anne’s drama. Avoiding the usual traps of psychological melodrama, The Bird combines elliptical editing, elegant photography by Céline Bozon, and arguably Sandrine Kiberlain’s finest performance yet – a psychological portrait that’s all the more intense for its quiet detachment. –BFI