Absolutely Fantastic

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Frankie, a top model from Germany, is having a hard time in her job: she has aged. A highly competitive profession, models past a certain age must deal with a different reality. Every day newer, fresher faces arrive at the agencies in the principal areas where they must go to, if they want to have a career in the profession. Most of these women are exploited by the same people that employ them. They are at the mercy of the demands from the market and manipulators that see the potential for leading these women into drugs and sex, so prevalent among that world.To make things worse, Frankie is experiencing a melt down. We watch her in a hospital showing all the signs of a mental breakdown. Part of her problems stem from her own situation with her mother, although one never learns where it all started, in the first place. The shoot Frankie gets booked with a difficult photographer proves to be the wrong move in her career. Chances are she is a total washout who will not get important bookings for big projects."Frankie" was conceived by Diane Kruger, wanting to break as an actress in movies. Directed by Fabienne Berthaud, who also contributed to the outline of the story, which has a feeling of having been improvised in many sequences. It is also a film that was shot at different times since Ms. Kruger, who was working as a top model, had a day job to go to and it appears the film was an afterthought. To her credit, Ms. Kruger made it into the cinema on her own strength, having appeared in important films that have showcased her talent, as well as her beauty.

If they were handing out gongs for Best Movie Made For A Stick Of Gum this would at least make the short list; in other words any criticism needs to take into account the problems encountered by the Writer, Director, and Chief Bottle Washer. We are told that the movie was shot in dribs and drabs over a three year period for a total cost of 3,000 euros, that no one wanted the then unknown Kruger who was obliged to more or less steal time in between lucrative modelling engagements to come to the other shoot. This makes it hard to pan but at least we can speculate on what possible target audience it was aimed at. The very people who would perhaps learn a salutory lesson - the pre-teen and teenage girls who choose the Kate Moss's of this world as role models - will be highly unlikely to see it and presumably the rest of us are already aware that modelling isn't a bed of roses. On the plus side Brigitte Cataillon is in it.

I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.Frankie is the feature film debut of Fabienne Berthaud, who both directed and wrote the screenplay. The film follows Frankie, a fashion model played by Diane Kruger (Troy, National Treasure). The movie jumps back and forth between Frankie's past in the high-flying world of fashion, and the present, when Frankie is in a private clinic after having a breakdown. What seems like a glamorous job is revealed to be moments of action in between long stretches of boredom and loneliness, filled with shallow characters who treat the models more as clothes hangers than people. Only the modeling agency's driver who shuttles Frankie around from job to job seems to have any real empathy for her. Frankie's time in the clinic gives her the opportunity to reflect back on her life and what she wants for the future.The film has an intimate documentary-like feel, aided in part by Berthaud's use of a single digital camera. There is relatively little dialogue or story beyond documenting moments in Frankie's life. This style might not be for everyone, but it lends a feeling of realism to the images on screen. Diane Kruger gives a very good performance, light years away from her roles in bigger budget Hollywood pictures. She conveys a sense of weariness with the world and the meaninglessness of her life simply through her actions and posture.Director/writer Fabienne Berthaud was in attendance and did a Q&A: - The film was shot over a three-year period, in bits and pieces. At the start, Diane Kruger wasn't well known as an actress. The original producer did not want her in the film for that reason, but Berthaud persisted, even to the point of losing her financing. As a result, she bought a camera and decided to do the film on her own. Eventually Kruger started getting cast in Hollywood films, but she still came back between movies to shoot her scenes for Frankie.The film was shot for about 3,000 Euros.Berthaud had previously done a documentary on the fashion industry, and thought that it was an interesting subject to show what works in society and what doesn't.Berthaud has a background as a novelist, and that the relatively short screenplay is a skeleton on which to hang the performances and the film.There was a fair bit of working on the fly, as she had to work with a number of real people with mental issues at the clinic. This meant she had to use the camera as a pen, often going along with what unfolded on screen.Whether working on films, photography, or writing, it is simply changing tools for her.The film had just a crew of three; Berthaud did the camera and lighting, and she had an assistant and a sound engineer, and that was about it.

Frankie is a good example of how much can be achieved on a limited budget. Shot for only about three thousand dollars (Kruger was cast before making it big), this film is an intriguing meditation on the impact that the fashion industry has on young models. It's far from perfect... some scenes drag on for longer than they need to, but there is plenty to keep the viewer satisfied. Most importantly of all, Diane Kruger confirms that she knows how to act. In the critical central role, Kruger conveys a believability that draws you in and makes you empathize with her plight... only 26 years old and already at the end of her career in an industry that draws young women in, chews them up and spits them out like a mere commodity. Definitely worth viewing.