Souvenir
Take Something Home From Michael Shamberg's Parisian Treat

By Mary Phillips-Sandy
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April 3, 2000 | Page 1

Every now and then you come across a film that stays with you long after you leave the theater. I saw Souvenir six months ago (at the Maine International Film Festival), but I still find myself thinking about it, recalling an image, a sound, a sensation.

The plot defies traditional linear description, but the basic premise is this: Stanton Miranda plays Orlando, a journalist living and working in Paris. The film is her story, a few days of her life, in which her memories slip in and out of the present day.

Souvenir is enigmatic, complicated, and mysterious (in the way that dreams seem mysterious after you've woken up and had coffee). But there's something about it that makes perfect sense, and when it ended I felt somehow that I understood exactly what it was saying - yet I had no idea how I'd reached that understanding.

One of Souvenir's biggest strengths is its visual complexity. The images are interesting (or funny, or startling, or simply beautiful) in and of themselves, but combined with the stream-of-consciousness editing, the total effect is one of a great painting come to life. Chris Marker (La Jetee, Sans Soleil) created the fantastical computer graphics, and they're both striking and whimsical.

There's a decidedly dreamy tone to Souvenir, and by that I mean both fantasy and nightmare. Stanton Miranda gives a quiet, understated performance - her detachment is, at times, hard to read, but at other times seems appropriately mysterious, as she plays a woman coming to terms with a terrible secret from her past.

Viewers with sharp eyes (and ears) will note a cameo by Kristin Scott Thomas, who makes a brief but memorable appearance as Orlando's fidgety, grey-suited editor. Christina Ricci and Adam Hann-Byrd (co-stars in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm) are the voices you hear in the narrative that runs in and out of the film. They speak from Orlando's memory, an interesting choice: not realist at all, but staccato, detached, alienating. The voices of memory, it seems, do not have the cadences we're accustomed to.

But perhaps the real star of Souvenir is Paris itself. Without a single shot of the Eiffel Tower, Souvenir manages to capture the essence of Paris better than any other movie set in the City of Light. Director Michael Shamberg says he loves Paris, and it's clear he knows it well. The film is imbued with a beautifully-realized sense of place.

This is not the feel-good movie of the year, and it's not by any means perfect. What it is is inspiring - a rare and unusual vision creatively executed. It takes risks and makes demands on the viewer, and for those who step into its world, the rewards are substantial.

Of course, a film like this isn't going to be appearing at your local multiplex any time soon. Shamberg has, until recently, been distributing it by himself, screening it at arthouse cinemas, international festivals, art schools, and museums. He's now getting additional support from an independent distributor and some online distribution outlets. If you see Souvenir listed at your local university or indie theater, go. And take a friend, because it's the sort of thing you'll want to talk about afterwards.

(For more information about Souvenir, visit Michael Shamberg's website, www.cascando.com.)

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Author Profile: Mary Phillips-Sandy is a PopPulse editor. She's also the Assistant Director of the Maine International Film Festival.
E-mail: mary@poppulse.com