neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Alias Betty
	Claude Miller Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia, Mathilde Seigner, Luck Mervil, Édouard Baer, Alexis Chatrian 2001		The wily, intricate French crime drama "Alias Betty" is based on a novel by British writer Ruth Rendell. If anything was lost in the translation, it doesn't matter, because director Claude Miller turned the book into an exciting, violent movie that's also amusing, cynical, heartbreaking and psychologically intense. Rising novelist and single mom Betty (Sandrine Kiberlain) is estranged from her mother Margot (Nicole Garcia), an unstable woman prone to savage outbursts. Thus, Betty's troubled when Margot comes to visit her in the Paris suburbs. Things get much worse when Betty's young son has a grave accident. Margot reacts by bringing home a little boy she "found" to serve as Betty's surrogate son. The second urchin's real mother is a dissolute waitress (Mathilde Seigner) who feels freed from parental responsibility by the kidnapping. Only her unemployed boyfriend is concerned about the missing kid — when he isn't fuming about scam artist Alex, the waitress's once and future lover who may be her child's father. As their fates mingle, "Alias Betty" recalibrates your standards of criminality and rectitude.