Variety
Cantet's anticipated follow-up to "Time Out" supplants that pic's important issues with unexamined attitudes toward sex and the tropics...
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Heading South (Vers le sud)
On the sun drenched island of Haiti in the '70s, foreigners idle away their vacations in the palm-fringed paradise of the beach hotels. Brenda (Young), Ellen (Rampling) and Sue (Portal), three North American women, converge on the island looking for flirtation, relaxation and respite from their colorless jobs and marriages.
They find what they are looking for in Legba (Cesar), an enigmatic local Adonis whose beauty and passion has them enthralled. It is this passion that will lead them away from the gilded cage of tourism and will open their eyes to the poverty stricken and dangerous world of Haiti.
2007102 minsFrance, CanadaEnglish & French with English subtitles
Drama
- Director:
- Laurent Cantet ('Time Out')
- Writer:
- Robin CampilloLaurent Cantet
- Cast:
- Charlotte RamplingKaren YoungLouise PortalMénothy CesarLys AmbroiseJackenson Pierre Olmo Diaz
Heading South (Vers le sud) / Reviews
The New York Times
A beautifully written, seamlessly directed film with award-worthy performances by Ms. Rampling and Ms. Young...
Full reviewSeattle Post-Intelligencer
Rampling is fascinating as Ellen, the aging romantic who hardens her vulnerability with a materialist philosophy regarding the buying and selling of sex. The other two actresses give more superficial performances, with Young totally unconvincing as a Southern neurotic...
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Lumiere Reader
Ethical tie-ups are superceded by the fact that this is a film of surface effect, based on the pure spectacle of characters trying to inhabit old skins as best and as gaudily as they can. Only as soon as it shades over into emotional realism – imbuing these costumes with a register that’s beyond them – does Cantet sacrifice our interest. Just don’t be surprised when he’s kidnapped to direct the next Nike commerical...
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Hollywood Reporter
Cantet keeps a lid on a story that he could have easily exploited, but he makes his points about beauty, fulfillment, self-indulgence and delusion with a measured hand...
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Film Threat
Cantet weaves a dark, disturbing story of hedonism, casual racism and the lethal consequences of self-indulgence in his superb drama Heading South...
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