MIMI

Conventional wisdom declares that the French make the most perceptive (and often painful) films about the dreams, angst, and souls of children, from “The 400 Blows” to “The Son of the Shark” (18th Ciff, 1994). Lucile Hadzilhalilovic's MIMI can only add to that reputation. Mimi is a little girl whose life will be forever altered by the next 48 hours, commencing with her shock at witnessing her mother's attempted suicide. With Maman in a hospital ward, Mimi must now reside with her well-meaning but ill-equipped aunt, who allocates the newcomer a corner in her cramped, joyless apartment on the outskirts of Paris. Mimi is a small, vulnerable figure in a stark adult world, rendered by filmmaker Hadzihalilovic as an indictment of the coldness of contemporary life. Unblinking widescreen frames, minimalist dialogue, and ambience trap the viewer as assuredly as the defenseless heroine in a bleak, menacing urban landscape. In French with English subtitles.- Charles Cassady