"Six Days, Six Nights" A film review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL November 12, 1994 The West Coast of Florida in October and November is like one long film festival starting with the gay/lesbian/bi etc. Pride Film Festival in Tampa, followed by a trio of festivals in Sarasota--the African and African-American Film Festival, the Cine International Film Festival, and, winding things up this week the Sixth Annual Sarasota French Film Festival that started on Wednesday and continues through tomorrow at the Sarasota Opera House. Oddly, this is the first year that Artistic Director Molly Haskell has pro- grammed a substantial number of films by women directors (odd, because Molly Haskell is known for her ground-breaking feminist work on the history of Hollywood film _From Reverence to Rape_). On Thursday night when she said how many women are included this year, the audience broke into applause; I hope that sent a message. The thing that makes this most interesting to a "women and film" lover such as me is that the French Film Festival has a policy of only screening a film if its director (and/or star) comes with it. So this is a real opportunity not only to see what French women directors are up to, but to get to see, hear, and speak with them as well. Thursday night it was one of my favorite French woman filmmakers, Diane Kurys, whose previous films include "Entre Nous," "Peppermint Soda," "Cocktail Molotov," and "C'est la Vie." Her new film "Six Days, Six Nights" is an exploration of a theme you don't see treated very often on the screen--the connection between sisters. But this is no "Little Women" (a remake of which, by the way, is coming our way soon). This is a study of the consequences in adult life of the complexities of the childhood connection between two sisters, Alice and Elsa (played by Anne Parillaud ("Nikita") and Beatrice Dalle ("Betty Blue")). What makes this so powerful is that it doesn't duck even the dark sides of the sister bond but zeros in on its inescapability and volatile mixture of emotions: love, shared memories, tenderness, but also passion, jealousy, envy, hatred and revenge. The French title, "A la Folie" gives more of a hint of the contents than does "Six Days, Six Nights." Certainly by the end of the sixth day of Elsa's "visit" to Alice nearly everyone in the film is verging on madness if they haven't already crossed at least temporarily over the line. Alice is an artist in Paris, single, independent, successful, and in the early stages of a relationship with a handsome and sexy but immature and self-centered boxer named Franck (Patrick Aurignac)who, without even asking, has all of his belongings moved into Alice's apartment. Before that gets sorted out Elsa arrives, having walked away from husband and kids in her husband's raincoat and her bedroom slippers that morning. Of course Alice takes her in, much to Franck's annoyance, and thus begins an increasingly macabre dance between and among the three of them that is spell-binding both for the characters and for the spectators. I won't even attempt to sketch the plot for it's one you need to see unfold for yourself. But I can hint at some of the ambiguities that emerge from the fact that either Alice or Elsa (or both) don't always tell the truth about their connection. Are the women really sisters after all? Are they lovers? Or were they as children? How often has this crazy pattern of attraction and repulsion played itself out before? As tensions and passions heighten among the three characters the film takes on the feeling of a thriller. What starts out as an act of giving succor to one who is hurting, careens acarily toward an unpredictable conclusion. I came away from this film even more in awe of Diane Kurys artistry and integrity than I was before, if that's possible. There are no false notes in this unflinching, on-the-edge, eyes-wide-open look at this unhealthy and dark side of sisterhood. In less skillful hands this material could have slipped almost into the horror/thriller genre (a kind of Grand Guignol meets "Basic Instinct.") It is to Kurys' and her actors' credit that it never crosses that line, though it does keep you on the edge of your seat there at the end. It was an incredibly gutsy choice to make such a film and to her credit, Kurys pulls it off. Some of the films from the festival will be reprised in the next week or so. Keep your eyes open to see if "Six Days, Six Nights" is one of them and go if you can. Otherwise, catch it when it goes into more general distribution, as it undoubtedly will. For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Linda Lopez McAlister is Professor of Women's Studies and Philosophy at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Copyright 1994 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint this review without the permission of the author.