Give Me Your Hand (film)

Last updated
Give Me Your Hand
Donne-moi la main.jpg
Film poster
Donne-moi la main
Directed by Pascal-Alex Vincent
Written byPascal-Alex Vincent
Olivier Nicklaus
Martin Drouot
Produced byNicolas Brevière
Starring Alexandre Carril
Victor Carril
Anaïs Demoustier
CinematographyAlexis Kavyrchine
Edited byDominique Petrot
Music by Tarwater
Production
companies
Local Films
Busse & Halberschmidt Filmproduktion
Distributed byBodega Films (France)
Release dates
  • 27 November 2008 (2008-11-27)(TFF)
  • 28 February 2009 (2009-02-28)(France)
  • 26 February 2009 (2009-02-26)(Germany)
Running time
80 minutes
CountriesFrance
Germany
LanguageFrench

Give Me Your Hand (French : Donne-moi la main) is a 2008 French-German drama film directed by Pascal-Alex Vincent. [1] The soundtrack was composed by electronic/post rock band Tarwater.

Contents

Plot

The film opens with a scene rendered through hand-drawn Japanese-style animation in which eighteen-year-old identical twin brothers, Antoine and Quentin, flee from their father's bakery and dodge a train on their way out of their native village in France. The medium then shifts to a live-action film as they commence a journey to attend the funeral of their mother, whom neither has ever met, in Spain. While the brothers make arrangements to hitchhike with the owner of a Volkswagen, gas-station attendant Clémentine quits her job on a whim and jumps into the back of the vehicle, where she has sex with Quentin on a mattress in the back of the van. Antoine jealous, initiates a fistfight with his brother, and then has sex with the girl himself when they camp for the night. The girl abruptly leaves in the morning.

Travel continues, with Quentin whining and complaining, he asks if they could take a train. The brothers soon after stop at a farm for a few days to earn money for train tickets. While collecting hay bales in the fields, Quentin is befriended by another young laborer named Hakim, who offers him pot and initiates a clandestine sexual relationship. Antoine observes the tryst in the dark, and the following morning silently insists that he and his brother leave even though they are still short of the money needed to buy their tickets. At a restaurant outside the train station, Antoine sees a man cruising for sex, and when Quentin goes to the bathroom, Antoine pimps his brother for one hundred Euros. The john corners Quentin and tries unsuccessfully to penetrate him before he escapes. Unable to locate his brother, Antoine boards the train alone. When he awakes, he vaguely laments his contentious relationship with his brother to a stranger sitting across from him, who responds that she adored her imaginary sister as a child, but ends by remarking that their tranquility was possible only because the sister was make believe.

Resuming his cross-country odyssey alone, Antoine crosses a thickly-wooded vale and briefly glimpses what he thinks is his brother, but racing down a hill falls and cracks his head against a stone. A middle-aged woman finds him with bugs crawling over his face and brings him to her remote cottage, where she violently bathes him and later performs a brusque handjob on him as he sleeps. Antoine absconds in the morning and gets picked up by a Spaniard and his diabetic father. When Antoine finally arrives at his destination, he sees Quentin, approaches him silently from behind, and gingerly presses his fingers into his brother's hand. After the funeral, Quentin tells Antoine that their father is expecting them home, and the two run across the beach into the ocean, where they brutally brawl in the waves. Quentin knocks Antoine unconscious and pulls his limp body back onto the shore. Antoine suddenly awakes and vomits. First sobbing with relief and then becoming stoical, Quentin stands, turns his back on his brother, and retreats towards the sunset.

Cast

Production

In the early 2000s, director Pascal-Alex Vincent heard a report of adolescent twins in the aristocratic French neighborhood of Marais with a penchant for street brawling. Vincent first cast them in a short film called Bébé Requin, which competed at Cannes in 2005, and later built the screenplay for Give Me Your Hand around their real-life druthers for violent wrestling. [2]

Critical response

On review-aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 40% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. [3] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100 based on 5 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [4] Mike Hale of the New York Times compared the film unfavorably to the picaresque road trip film Going Places, and lamented that the motives behind the brothers' resentment and violence never gets explained. [5] Writing for The Guardian , Peter Bradshaw noted that while the actors "have moody, high-cheekboned presence", there is nevertheless "something preposterous about the leads and their smouldering emotions". [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me</i> 1992 film by David Lynch

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a 1992 psychological horror film directed by David Lynch, and co-written by Lynch and Robert Engels. It serves as a prequel to the television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991), created and produced by Mark Frost and Lynch. It revolves around the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer, a popular high school student in the fictional Washington town of Twin Peaks. Unlike the series, which was an uncanny blend of detective fiction, horror, the supernatural, offbeat humor, and soap opera tropes, Fire Walk with Me has a much darker, less humorous tone.

<i>EuroTrip</i> 2004 American sex comedy film by Jeff Schaffer

EuroTrip is a 2004 American teen sex comedy film directed by Jeff Schaffer and written by Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Schaffer. It stars Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts, Michelle Trachtenberg, Travis Wester, and Jessica Boehrs. Mechlowicz portrays Scott "Scotty" Thomas, an American high school graduate who travels across Europe in search of his German pen pal, Mieke (Boehrs). Accompanied by his friend Cooper (Pitts) and twin siblings Jenny and Jamie, Scott's quest takes him to England, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Germany, and Italy, encountering awkward, humorous, and embarrassing situations along the way.

<i>Inglourious Basterds</i> 2009 film by Quentin Tarantino

Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alternate history story of two converging plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership at a Paris cinema—one through a British operation largely carried out by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt), and another by French Jewish cinema proprietor Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) who seeks to avenge her murdered family. Both are faced against Hans Landa (Waltz), an SS colonel with a fearsome reputation for hunting Jews.

<i>Baise-moi</i> 2000 film by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi

Baise-moi is a 2000 French erotic crime thriller film written and directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi and starring Karen Lancaume and Raffaëla Anderson. It is based on the novel by Despentes, first published in 1993. The film received intense media coverage because of its graphic mix of violence and explicit sex scenes. Consequently, it is sometimes considered an example of the "New French Extremity".

<i>Au revoir les enfants</i> 1987 autobiographical film directed by Louis Malle

Au revoir les enfants is an autobiographical 1987 film written, produced, and directed by Louis Malle. It is based on the actions of Père Jacques, a French priest and headmaster who attempted to shelter Jewish children during the Holocaust. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Le bon roi Dagobert (song)</span> French satirical anti-monarchical and anti-clerical song

"Le bon roi Dagobert" is a French satirical anti-monarchical and anti-clerical song written around 1787. It references two historical figures: the Merovingian king Dagobert I and his chief advisor, Saint Eligius (Éloi), the bishop of Noyon. The song is directed against Louis XVI and the ties maintained by the Catholic Church with the ancien régime, but it was used more broadly against monarchies in French history.

<i>Rendez-vous</i> (1985 film) 1985 French film

Rendez-vous is a 1985 French erotic drama film directed by André Téchiné. The film stars Juliette Binoche, Lambert Wilson, Wadeck Stanczak and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best Director. The film had a total of 766,811 admissions in France.

La Discrète is a 1990 French comedy-drama film directed by Christian Vincent. It won three César Awards: for Best First Feature Film, Best Writing and Best Female Newcomer. Set in Paris, it tells the story of an embittered old man who encourages a vain young protégé to seduce an apparently innocent girl as raw material for a novel.

<i>Red Lights</i> (2004 film) 2004 French film

Red Lights is a 2004 French thriller film directed by Cédric Kahn. It was adapted from the eponymous 1955 Georges Simenon novel set in the Northeastern United States. The film is set in modern-day France.

<i>Its Not Me, I Swear!</i> 2008 Canadian film

It's Not Me, I Swear! is a Canadian Quebec French-language comedy movie released in Quebec on September 26, 2008. It is directed by Philippe Falardeau and is adapted from Bruno Hébert's novels C'est pas moi, je le jure! and Alice court avec René. The film's soundtrack contains original songs composed by Montreal musician Patrick Watson. It was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Kingston Canadian Film Festival.

Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train is a 1998 French drama film directed by Patrice Chéreau and written by Chéreau, Danièle Thompson and Pierre Trividic. It stars Pascal Greggory, Vincent Perez, Charles Berling and Dominique Blanc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier</span> French royal; son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1775–1807)

Louis Antoine Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Montpensier was a son of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1747–1793), and his duchess Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans. He was the younger brother of Louis Philippe, later King of the French. Antoine had a deep affection for him, and they were only ever separated during the Reign of Terror and the events that followed between 1793 and 1797.

Aurélien Recoing is a French actor and stage director.

<i>Tendres Cousines</i> 1980 French film

Tendres Cousines is a 1980 French film directed by David Hamilton. The film was released in the United Kingdom as Cousins in Love.

<i>Grudge Match</i> 2013 film by Peter Segal

Grudge Match is a 2013 American sports comedy film directed by Peter Segal. The film stars Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro as aging boxers stepping into the ring for one last bout. Stallone and De Niro have both previously been in successful boxing films and worked together in Cop Land. It was previously scheduled for release on January 10, 2014, but was moved up to December 25, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antoine (singer)</span> French pop singer (born 1944)

Pierre Antoine Muraccioli, known professionally as Antoine, is a French pop singer, and also a sailor, adventurer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker.

"The Colter Craven Story" is the November 23, 1960 black-and-white episode of the American television western series, Wagon Train, which had an eight-season run from 1957 to 1965. Presented as the 9th installment of the hour-long program's 4th season, it is the third of four episodes of various television series directed by filmmaker John Ford, the only four-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Director.

<i>Father Figures</i> 2017 American film

Father Figures is a 2017 American comedy film directed by Lawrence Sher, written by Justin Malen, and starring Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, J. K. Simmons, Katt Williams, Terry Bradshaw, Ving Rhames, Harry Shearer, June Squibb, Christopher Walken, and Glenn Close with supporting roles by Jack McGee, Ryan Cartwright, Ryan Gaul, Ali Wong, Retta, Jessica Gomes, and Katie Aselton. The film follows two adult brothers who set out to find their biological father by encountering the men that their mother used to date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pascal-Alex Vincent</span> French film director and screenwriter

Pascal-Alex Vincent is a French director, author of original work, screenwriter, and voice-over.

<i>Cest la vie!</i> (2017 film) 2017 French comedy film

C'est la Vie! is a 2017 French comedy film written and directed by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. It was screened in the Gala Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

References

  1. ↑ "Give Me Your Hand: Film review". TheGuardian.com . 15 April 2010.
  2. ↑ Jacob Brown. "Alex and Victor Carril: Paris Match." Timely. November 21, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Donne-moi la main (Give Me Your Hand) (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes.
  4. ↑ "Donne-moi la main". Metacritic.
  5. ↑ Mike Hale. "Double the Sadness." September 10, 2009.
  6. ↑ Peter Bradshaw. "Debut director's much-praised French film about twins." April 15, 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.