robert-temple-1 The original French title of this film is SUR MES LÈVRES, lèvres being the French word for 'lips', and there are certainly plenty of lèvres in this film. The story concerns a girl who is deaf without her hearing aids, and even with them is still hard of hearing. Her ability to read lips is fundamental to the extraordinarily ingenious and complex thriller story which evolves in this film. The girl is played by Emmanuelle Devos, and I would say that her performance is so exceptional that it goes beyond brilliant and is one of the best screen performances of any French actress ever (ranking with Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf, for instance). Rarely has any actress mastered such a vast range of subtle nuances in an extremely intimate performance. The perfect director for this particular film, who also jointly wrote the screenplay, was Jacques Audiard. There is probably no other director alive at the present time who is such a master of the incorporation into a film of extreme closeups, without their seeming in any way intrusive or overdone. In this film, we need them in order to see the lips and the eyes. In fact this film is so full of lips and eyes that sometimes they seem more important than the characters themselves. But that is because they really are. There are numerous very good films about deaf people, and also a very good American TV series SWITCHED AT BIRTH (2011-2017) about a deaf teenager, who is brilliantly played by Katie Leclerc, who really is partially deaf (in the series she plays one of the two girls who was switched at birth). Marlee Matlin is a famous example of a deaf actress who won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar. And sometimes the abilities of deaf people to read lips has entered significantly into film plots. Deaf people actually make very good subject matter for the cinema in general, and such stories can be very emotional and meaningful, as can all serious films involving people who have any kind of physical handicap, since it shows us vividly what they are going through as they struggle to compensate for their handicaps. One of the finest examples of this type of film is NEVER FEAR, aka THE YOUNG LOVERS (1949), directed by Ida Lupino, which is a marvellous example of how to make a film about a physical handicap without being maudlin or condescending. The other thoroughly remarkable performance in this film is by Vincent Cassell, who plays an emotionally backward and rather oafish small time criminal who has just come out of prison. He applies to Devos's company for a job and she takes pity on him, because he too, like herself, is struggling against all the odds. He has almost no training or education and has never even made a photocopy or been in an office before, despite the fact that he is to become her office assistant. She covers for him and conceals from her colleagues that he spends every night sleeping in a sleeping bag in the company's lavatory. This strange pair slowly bond to one another in a most touching way, as two of life's outcasts who team up to try to overcome their respective debilitating handicaps together. Cassell beats up and threatens a dishonest colleague of Devos who has been preventing her from getting commissions on jobs, so that the man leaves the firm. But all of these developments are mere preliminaries to set the scene for what is to follow. The main plot of the film then involves a level of complexity and ingenuity which really is extraordinary. Just to give an example, Cassell discovers that a crime is afoot, and he persuades Devos to watch the plotters through a window, from a rooftop through binoculars, and over a series of evenings to write down what they are saying from reading their lips, in order to discover where and when the crime will be committed. The film is a very exciting and first-rate thriller with terrific character development and protagonists who are thoroughly three-dimensional. The film is truly superb and a real classic.

Nathan L "Sur mes lèvres" is the first Audiard's movie which gained national and international recognition : it depicted the relationship between two abnormal people, and how they interact with their direct environment, i.e. their work.Audiard's movies are quite interesting and unique, as he is always using the same method : first acting as a sociologist, then as a psychologist. Finally, giving free thinking to the watcher.In this very movie, we are first getting acquainted with the job's situation in France : quite open when it comes to communication (we've got a deaf and an ex-convict in the firm )but sclerosed when it comes to the issue of real equality.The psychologic part begins when these two people are meeting : apart from their mutual attractiveness, something else is going on ; what ? you've got all your mind to think about it !

Philip Van der Veken I must admit that I had my doubts about this movie before I was going to watch it. The main reason for that is because it was compared to a Hitchcock movie. I've seen several movies that were said to be inspired by Hitchcock or that could have been made by the 'Master of Suspense' himself, but so far I haven't seen any of these movie that would be able to stand the test of time. In my opinion Hitchcock has become a household name which is too easily used to promote some (cheap) thrillers, but on the other hand I must admit that I was intrigued by it because this is a European movie. Normally it's the big Hollywood studios who like to abuse Hitchcock's name if that can raise their income. But this movie was made in one of the most chauvinistic European countries ever and I'm sure that most French would rather drop dead than to admit that their movies have been inspired by an Englishman. That's why I decided to give this movie a try and I must say that I'm glad that I did."Sur mes lèvres" or "Read my Lips" as it is called in English, tells the story of a young secretary named Carla. She is a hardworking and loyal employee, but has never been very appreciated by her colleagues. That has much to do with the fact that she suffers from a hearing deficiency, which has denied her to climb up on the hierarchical ladder of the company. But when she is allowed to hire a trainee that can work for her, all this is about to change. Paul Angeli is a 25 year old and completely unskilled ex-convict. The man is a thief, but Carla gives him a chance and covers for him when needed. She hopes to teach him what a regular life should look like, but at the same time he drags her with him in his old life...Since I still believe that the name Hitchcock is used too often to describe a very good thriller - which this movie definitely is - I will not make any comparisons between Hitchcock and Jacques Audiard's directing. Fact is that the man has done a really good job with this movie. I hadn't heard of him before, but it is true that he knows how to build up suspense and how to keep you interested from the beginning until the end. That also has a lot to do with the very fine and original story of course. I doubt if there is someone in Hollywood who has ever come up with the idea of using a handicapped woman in a powerful role, instead of making her the helpless subject of an abusive husband (you know, the typical TV-movie story).Also worth noticing is the acting in this movie. Vincent Cassel is quite famous, but Emmanuelle Devos was a complete mystery to me. There is absolutely nothing glamorous about their roles, but they both did an excellent job with their characters, making them feel very believable and realistic. Paul could have been the average tough guy right out of jail and Carla the typically helpless woman, but thanks to their performances, you really believe that these are two strong people who both have had some bad luck in life but who will make the best out of it together.All in all this is a powerful movie with a very fine script and some excellent acting. Despite the fact that I had my doubts about it, I've soon become one of its greatest admirers. I give this movie an 8/10. Don't hesitate to give it a try.

Henry Fields Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) is a deaf girl, but she can hear thanks to one of those ear-devices. She works at a property developer enterprise as a secretary, and she seems to be the laughing stock of the office, the weirdo. She's shy, solitary, she dresses like a nun, and she's definitely isolated. Her saturday night's date usually is her best girlfriend's baby. Once she was a totally deaf person, and now she isn't; but it seems like that isolation typical of the deaf goes beyond the hearing itself. Now she's needing a personal assistant at the office, and applies for one at the Employee Office. They send Paul. Paul (Vincent Cassell) is an ex-convict, an ex-thief. He gotta find a job and change his ways in order not to come back to jail. Carla gives him the job, and there begins an strange relationship between them: she desperately needs someone to share her life with, she needs to fall in love. He has some old debts to pay (that kind of debts that you MUST pay), and she'll find some Carla's skills so useful in order to solve his problems. Though it was released in 2001 in France, it has just reached Spanish's screens (of course, Steve Seagal's and Van Damme's productions get to our screens right on time); and it's been a great surprise. When you're thinking about quitting on watching new cinema releases suddenly you find movies just like Sur Mes Levres. A dramatic thriller, an story of losers, and of people in search of redemption and happiness. Emmanuelle Devos displays one of the best performances of the latest french cinema: another cold-as-ice french actress that makes a hit out of her lack of expressiveness and his strange beauty; her eyes, her lips, they say it all. Those scenes in wich she's talking to herself, sort of making a rehearsal of his next date with Paul, are so tender and funny. Mr. Cassell (Monica Belluci's husband -can you believe it???-) plays the perfect ex-convict: he REALLY looks and acts like he's just left his dark cell, no doubt his phisique helps a lot. His pressence in the screen is just amazing. PS: There's sort of a parallel story in Sur Mes Levres: some sequences refers to Paul's social worker, a mid-age man whose wife has suddenly dissapeared. Ok, this story makes no sense among the rest of the movie (or maybe I missed something), but it does not smudge the final restults. My rate: 8/10