#SilverScreenBlack: 'The Ring Finger' / 'L'Annulaire' (2005)

(1hr 40 mins, Fra)

Mario's rating: 2.5/5 (jars)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Formaldehyde: A French lab frees its customers from their worst memories, but a twisted dynamic develops between the director and the new receptionist.

👍 Opened windows:
Kurylenko's beautifully buoyant performance (in her first film). She was later awarded Best Actress at the Brooklyn International Film Festival.
The music score by Beth Gibbons (of 'Portishead') is also incredible - searing, soaring and haunting.

👎 Locked basements:
The plot is pretty slow, and viewers who like their film to resolve most of its plot points may be disappointed.
The lab director is also a sexual predator who doesn't receive his comeuppance. Characters that should have been arrested decades ago are always hard to cheer for.

📽️ Favourite scene:
Kurylenko opening a window (really!) and the game of 'ghosts' that erupt around her.

🥇 Best quote:
"My boyfriend was a composer. He wrote this piece for my birthday. It's as tender as being wrapped in velvet. At Christmas he gave me some watercolours and a cameo, on a hatpin, that he had brought back from a journey. After our separation, I flushed the watercolours down the toilet, and buried the hatpin. But I just couldn't get rid of the music."





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