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YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Send This Review to a Friend
When Alain Resnais directs a film, you know there will be something special about it, and this proves to be true once again with “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.” Resnais, who is 91 years old, gives us an unusual drama that is a salute to renowned French actors, a merging of theatrical tradition and cinema and an expression of hope for carrying forward this tradition in a new era. In the bargain, there is a tinge of mystery added to keep us on our toes.
The screenplay by Laurent Herbiet and Alex Réval begins with a stream of noted actors getting phone calls informing them that a close playwright friend has died and they are invited to a gathering to be held conforming to the deceased's wishes. It is a simultaneous way of introducing us to the cast.
The conceit here is that the deceased, Antoine d’Anthac, played in a video addressed to the assembled by Denis Podalydés, is supposed to have written “Eurydice,” actually written by the late revered playwright Jean Anouilh. (The character Antoine also stems from an Anouilh play, “Cher Antoine.”) Those who have gathered are invited to watch a production of “Eurydice” by a modern troupe, the Compagnie de la Colombe. As we see, it is an earthy, very contemporary interpretation of the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice that the assembled view.
In the gathering are noted actors who have played the starring and supporting roles involved during the course of their careers, and as they watch, they feel the compulsion to start reciting the lines they know so well, giving their own interpretations as opposed to the modern stuff they appear to condescendingly dismiss as inferior to they way in which they tackled the themes of the work.
Soon, thanks to the imaginative screenplay and the skill of director Resnais, the action shifts to a theatrical setting and we are transported along with the stars, themselves playing Orhpeus and Eurydice and others. Mainly the action centers on the lustrous Sabine Azéma and the impressive Pierre Arditi, spellbinding in their acting and screen presence. The cast features such luminaries playing themselves as Mathieu Amalric, Jean-Noël Brouté, Anne Consigny, Anny Duperey, Hippolyte Giradot, Michel Piccoli, Michel Robin, Lambert Wilson and others.
This is not a film for the restless. It is bonbon for those who appreciate Resnais’s intellectual exploration of theater, cinema, reality versus imagination, art and those who struggle to achieve it and the meaning of a classic tale skillfully expressed. All of this is packaged hypnotically in this unusual ode to actors and the playwright Resnais respects.
Playfulness and mystique provide an undercurrent, and it is quite amazing so see fresh, brilliant work still coming from Resnais, whose 1959 film “Hiroshima mon amour” I still show to and analyze with my film classes. Another personal note: On a trip years ago aboard the ocean liner France my wife Lillian and I noticed Jean Anouilh traveling and dining alone and we asked whether he would like to join us for dinner one evening. He accepted and, as we expected, meticulously arrived on the dot of the appointed time. We had a pleasant, memorable dinner together, with conversation naturally about the arts and in a mix of French and English. I wonder now what Anouilh, who died in 1987, would have thought of this latest creative film by Resnais built around his work. A Kino Lorber release. Reviewed June 7, 2013.
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