What a lovely movie, I was having trouble finding the right words watching it!
I was waiting to watch Pieds nus sur les limaces aka Lily Sometimes for quite a long time, to see two extremely talented actresses: Ludivine Sagnier and trilingual Diane Krugerworking together.
Pieds nus sur les limaces is a story about two sisters' reunion after their mother's death. The younger one, Lily (Ludivine Sagnier) seems to be incapable of living alone in the family's village house. She is absolutely clueless and vulnerable being accustomed to life within nature's commune, without the idea of money or strangers that one should be cautious of.
The other sister, Clara (Diane Kruger) decides to move back to her family house to watch over Lily. Even though she's the 'successful' one (a law graduate, works and lives in the city with her lawyer husband), she struggles with making her sister more independent. Instead, she turns out to be a 'mama Clara' for her.
To some extent Pieds nus sur les limaces is about sisterhood and a women's bond. But in depth, it possesses a Gus van Santflair for depicting the 'feeble' individuals that are detached from the society, the outcasts.
Lily, in a manner appropriate for a dropout breaks the social etiquette in every possible way.
- Befriending a turkey and doing its nails? Check.
- Keeping dead animals in the freezer so she can use their fur for DIY slippers and other home-use accessories? Check.
- Eating too much cupcakes on her mother's funeral day? Check.
But interestingly, as much as we hate (or at least don't understand) her behaviour at the beginning, throughout the film we begin to question the dominant social standards that exclude different people as we intuitively classify them as outcasts.
