Grey's Anatomy vs Le Petit Lieutenant

One of the stronger things going for Grey's Anatomy is the British/Canadian spelling of the colour. Yes, it is Meredith Grey's last name. But it is also a great way to spell the otherwise known as "gray." It brightens my day.

Everything else about the show is fading. No longer hiding its soap opera soul, the characters flit and float between beds and bridesmaids. The only one holding up any gravitas is Miranda Baily, bless her scowling soul. Characters Who Scowl bring depth and a sort of meta urgency to the screen. 24's Chloe does that. Their grumpiness tells us that no matter how petty, unreal or farcical the predicaments are around them, they are still connected to the human condition. They're not about to drop everything just to say cheese.

Addison Shepherd had that going. She stood above the intern hormonal fray and, because of her older age (the actress herself is 40) and experience, she cast a jaded eye at the nonsense around her. She was cynical, unsentimental and tough.

But as the show prepares her role for next season's spinoff, that is changing. She's gone to LA, she's flirting with the new hospital's hunky staff, and she's pouting and stamping her feet like a 13 year old anxious to grow up. I want a baby! I want a baby now! She was hot before, but now she's dressing hotter than ever. And while Grey's Anatomy is peopled by a cast out of a Land's End catalogue - lovely but not totally out of anyone's league, this new LA setting is Victoria Secret. Is this an LA thing? Is the new show commenting on the exigencies of living in Tinsel Town?

I don't think so. They've clued in to the essential hotness of Kate Walsh and are going to exploit that baby as far as they can throw it. But what they don't get is that her appeal is completely wrapped up in her gravitas. It's that sexy combination of beauty + brains. It's the feminine woman in a man's tuxedo. It's the scowl on the face and the glint in the eye. That's what's compelling and the show's producers wouldn't know it if you kicked them in the hollow space between the ears. If I were Kate Walsh, I would smell this stinker from a mile away.

If I were Kate Walsh I'd consider learning French and moving to Europe where they seem to know how to treat their actresses d'un certain âge.

Nathalie Baye, for example. Fifty-seven when she made Le Petit Lieutenant in 2005, she is a middle-aged detective with her best cases behind her, a former alcoholic trying to get back into the game. The years show on her face and she makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, and maybe this is a French thing, she is loved all the more for it. Her fellow officers respect her, some even finding her sexy. She moves through their world, her world, with a quiet confidence and melancholic beauty.

The pacing of the film is all French as well, for better or worse. If you can stick with it, especially the first 20 minutes, the film unfolds a nuanced portrait of human nature in both the waiting and crisis moments. Unlike Grey's Anatomy, whose combination of Sims music and singer-songwriter soundtracks telegraph exactly what emotion goes where, Le Petit Lieutenant prefers to tell the story on its own terms.

Baye has much in common with Helen Mirren, as well as the officer characters they play; Prime Suspect's Tennison is practically a doppleganger. Commander Vaudieu, however, is as much about what she doesn't do as what she does. Her performance is a study in restraint, in the tiny cracks in the pavement. When her young officer, the petit lieutenant, dies, she crumples on to the hood of their undercover police car and just stays there. The camera holds back, giving her distance, context and respect.

And by holding back, that includes few close-ups. Both a crutch and a gimmick of American film and tv, the closeup is best used judiciously if at all. It is precious and facile all at once. In mostly medium and two-shots, Baye is able to nonetheless convey everything by the subtle changes on her stoic expression. Close-ups would be invasive and exploitative. Baye won a Cesar here for her performance, the French equivalant to the Academy Awards.

Kate Walsh, on the other hand, is subject to closeup after closeup. Cue the pouty mouth, cue the eyes, cue the botoxed absence of expression. These shots, rather than letting us get close to her, subject her to our judgement. And that is not good for either a character nor an actress.

Grey's Anatomy vs Le Petit Lieutenant:
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