Hannah (Andrea Pallaoro, 2017) France | Italy | Belgium

Reviewed by Carolina Ayala de Anselmo. Seen at the AFI Film Festival.

In another heartbreaking performance, Charlotte Rampling – whose amazing performability won an Academy Award nomination for the 2015 movie 45 Years – takes home the well deserved Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her new movie Hannah. Directed by new Italian auteur, Andrea Pallaoro, the movie explores the life of a middle aged french woman, who after 50 years of marriage discovers a horrendous crime committed by her husband, and is consequently neglected by her entire family and friends. The movie follows the character of Hannah (Charlotte Rampling) as she tries to find her identity after everything she has known her entire life is taken from her.

The beauty of the movie lies within the camera movements and lighting effects. Right from the beginning we are presented to the character from close up shots, which allows us to gain intimacy with the character, and already understand her deep feelings. And as the film unfolds, close up shots are more and more frequent, showing a Hannah that we’ve come to understand and feel for. In her eyes, the character Hannah, carries all the pain she is suffering but only in one moment she really sucumbs to crying. Charlotte Rampling’s character doesn’t have a lot of lines – in fact the whole movie doesn’t have a lot of dialogue – but all the words she needed to say are pierced very clearly to the audience. The light coming from windows present in many scenes, gives a delicate yet significant meaning to the movie. It reflects clearly the pain of the character, while still instigating hope. The sound effect also play an important and beautiful part, the long sequences of silence and external sound speaks a lot to the character’s lonely situation. It explores the character psychological state, exposing her sense of guilt and despair at the same time.

The message behind the filmmaker’s intent is perhaps best clearly understood through the mentions of famous feminist play “Doll’s House”, in which a 1890’s woman tries to find her own independence, therefore her happiness. As we follow the life of Hannah, we discover her going through her own road to recovery and trying to find happiness. Although she finds herself more and more alone, with her only true emotional relationship being with the blind son of her boss at the house she works as a maid. In him, she finds the love she seeks in the grandson she is not allowed to visit.

Hannah breaks our hearts as we follow this incredible actress portraying someone who could very likely be our mothers or grandmothers. In this touching tale by the director of Medeas (2013), Charlotte Rampling is the show. More beautiful and talented than ever, the actress involves us in this cinematographic tale of a woman haunted by her husband’s wrongdoings.