In the Name of My Daughter Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

In the Name of My Daughter Blu-ray Movie Review

Casino.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 30, 2015

There are occasional serendipities which inform my daily review duties, with the juxtaposition of titles in my review queue seemingly arranged by some external force to give me an unexpected perspective. Such was the case with In the Name of My Daughter, a somewhat underbaked French drama, which I watched in very close proximity to my viewing of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. While these two offerings are two very different properties, there are some curious through lines as well. The documentary about multimillionaire serial killer Robert Durst is a nonfiction affair, obviously, albeit one that has been toyed with by director Andrew Jarecki to make it play much like a scripted dramatic film at times. André Téchiné’s 2014 film is “ripped from the headlines” as well, in this case somewhat older Gallic headlines about a famous case which, like one of the stories surrounding the troubled Durst, dealt with the mysterious disappearance of a beautiful young woman, and the longstanding attempts to find out what happened to her. There are a number of fairly traditional mystery and thriller elements wafting in and out of In the Name of My Daughter, but the enterprise is oddly tamped down a lot of the time, as if Téchiné wanted to deemphasize the Hitchcockian in favor of a more Douglas Sirkian soap operatic ambience.

Part of what may ail In the Name of My Daughter is its depiction of the French casino industry. While many Americans have experienced the madness of Las Vegas and other legalized gambling areas, few will probably be that well acquainted with how the roulette ball tumbles across the pond, and that disconnect tends to suck at least some of the tension out of this film. Renée Le Roux (Catherine Deneuve) is the grand doyenne of one of Nice’s most redolent gambling emporiums, the Palais de la Méditerranée. Renée runs her business almost like a madam in a bordello, traipsing among her clientele and keeping a sharp eye on the customers and her employees. Her daughter Agnès (Adèle Haenel) returns home in the wake of a failed marriage, but does not want to go into the “family business” with her mom.

Renée is fighting several battles simultaneously within just a few moments of her daughter’s return. Some organized gamblers may have “gamed the system” (so to speak), taking Renée’s business for several million Euros in the process. Perhaps even more troubling is a power play of sorts that involves an infamous mobster named Fratoni (Jean Corso), a mafioso who makes no bones about wanting Renée’s casino. Meanwhile, Renée’s young attorney and adviser Maurice Agnelet (Guillaume Canet) is attempting to quell a shareholder revolt that also threatens Renée’s control of the business, while he is also beginning a relationship with Agnès.

While Téchiné is no stranger to thriller territory, having helmed genre stalwarts like Barocco decades ago, he’s perhaps better remembered for more glossy, quasi-soap operatic fare like The Bronte Sisters. And that may be the biggest problem with In the Name of My Daughter. There is almost a surplus of intrigue at the center of what ends up being a triangle of sorts (romantic or otherwise) between Renée, Agnès and Maurice, with a number of betrayals and shifting alliances playing out over the middle course of the film, but Téchiné keeps things strangely flat feeling. I kept wondering what a master of suspense like Hitchcock or (perhaps more appropriately) Claude Chabrol might have done with this same material, for Téchiné's approach is almost off puttingly pedestrian a lot of the time. In fact it's worth considering what Guillaume Canet might have done with this material, for he proved himself more than capable in building tension over a considerable amount of time with his expert work helming the French mystery thriller Tell No One.

The film unfolds over the course of many years, and by the time the disappearance of Agnès becomes the fulcrum around which much of the plot hinges, there’s a certain sense of attrition that sets in. With the corporate intrigue never really rising to the dramatic heights it might have, and an ultimate mystery that never feels very compelling, the film finally peters out in a similarly tepid feeling courtroom sequence, when Renée goes after her one time acolyte Maurice, who she’s certain has done away with her daughter. Even that plot arc ends up without a real catharsis, with Téchiné opting for the hoary trope of a post-film text crawl informing the audience about what Paul Harvey might have called the rest of the story.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was a bit more positively disposed toward the film when it was released theatrically. You can read his thoughts here.

In the Name of My Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

In the Name of My Daughter is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The IMDb lists In the Name of My Daughter as having been shot with the Arri Alexa, and whatever the dramatic shortcomings the film may display, visual acuity is not one of them. The gorgeous scenery of the French Riviera is often lusciously on display, albeit quite often consigned to the background. The distinctive teal water of the region provides regular pop to these backgrounds, as do the crystal clear blue skies. Either through lighting choices or color grading, much of the interior casino footage has a rather strong yellow tint, something that tends to mask fine detail at times. The excellence of fine detail actually tends to be a detriment in the final sequences of the film, when both Deneuve and Canet are slathered with latex based old age makeup, some of which does not look particularly lifelike or organic, especially in close-ups. Generally speaking, though, the image is crisp, clear, and full of abundant detail, and often quite gorgeously scenic vistas.

In the Name of My Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The authoring house for Cohen's Blu-ray releases may have finally given in to my constant nagging, for this release finally defaults to the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track instead of a standard lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track which is also included. The mix here is subtle, though typically immersive with such elements as background ocean noises and/or breezes, or, when inside the casino, the rabble of various games being played simultaneously. The bulk of the film tends to play out in intimate dialogue scenes, which are understandably more constrained in their surround activity. Benjamin Biolay's perhaps intentionally anachronistic score is rendered crisply and cleanly, and there are no issues of any kind to address in this review.

In the Name of My Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Q & A with Guillaume Canet (1080p; 52:35) is a far ranging conversation from the Film Society of Lincoln Center.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:08)

In the Name of My Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Martin Scorsese made his own film about the gambling industry with Casino. Some American filmmaker like Scorsese should really consider remaking In the Name of My Daughter, perhaps transported to a new stateside locale, but keeping the central intrigue of the "family business", as well as the backstabbing that erupts between the three principal characters. Unfortunately Téchiné simply doesn't seem to want to invest the film with much suspense, and he's also evidently loathe to go for the gusto with any memorable set pieces. That leaves the story kind of lumbering along over a rather prolonged time period, with little real tension ever accruing. Fans of Deneuve or Canet may want to check this out, for their performances are quite good. Technical merits are generally first rate for those considering a purchase.