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RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA TODAY 1999 Send This Review to a Friend
French film has long held an honored place in international cinema. There have been ups and downs, as with the cinema of any country, but lately a number of French films have deservedly commanded special attention. This new burst of energy was reflected in the March 12-21, 1999 "Rendez-vous with French Cinema Today" series at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Unifrance Film, the French Film Office/ Unifrance Film USA and the French Cultural Services.
I managed to see a number of those in the program. I particularly enjoyed director Guillaume Nicloux's Le Pouple (The Octopus), a droll detective story with the protagonist reminiscent of Sergio Leones's Man With No Name character, but set as a film noir in a French port rather than in a western milieu. The hero, nicknamed The Octopus, stems from the crime novels of Jean-Bernard Pouy and is played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin. He's an investigator without portfolio who follows his nose for trouble and no matter the danger, is able to best his adversaries.
Darroussin is offbeat looking, far from your typical action hero. His girlfriend, sassily played by Clotilde Courau, is a hairdresser who would prefer a nice vacation in a beautiful locale. But gripe though she may, she dutifully goes along when The Octopus gets involved in solving lethal waterfront shenanigans. The fun lies in the comic take on violence and the interplay between the self-styled private eye and his lady. The script is smart, tough and funny.
Patrice Chereau's Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train is an exceptionally sophisticated venture into family terrain built around the death of a painter and the congregation of mourners heading for Limoges. The film seems disjointed at first, but as the various characters come into focus the drama becomes compelling as relationships are explored and restrained emotions and secrets burst into the open. The cast is especially good, including Jean-Louis Trintignant playing two parts, and Chereau shows a sure-hand at dealing with humor in the midst of angst.
Class Trip, directed by Claude Miller, is particularly accomplished. It is also grim and unsettling. A boy goes off on a class trip to stay at a ski challet. His domineering father refuses to let him go on the bus with the others and insists on driving him for purposes of safety, as there has recently been a serious bus accident. This adds to the boy's reputation as an outsider. The father, a traveling salesman, warns his son about people who kidnap children, operate on them and sell their organs. A child disappears in the area.
This is a tough, nasty little film with a consistently eerie atmosphere and a devastating ending. Miller has perfect control over the material and he and the cast members make the film seem all too real for comfort.
Writer-producer-director Claude Lelouch loves to dwell on coincidences, which have played a part in his films before. With Chance or Coincidence he carries his love affair with fate to an extreme, generally with pleasing results, although at times one might want to shout enough is enough. But Lelouch knows how to charm. The story centers on Alessandra Martines as a beautiful ex-dancer who had an unsuccessful marriage and is visiting Venice with her young son. She meets an older man who is too good to be true. They fall in love and then…but why spoil it for you?
Suffice it to say that Lelouch unfolds a convoluted story involving fate, tragedy and love, as well as fierce determination, all spun like cotton candy with the camera traveling to beautiful places. Geoffrey Holder turns up with his magnificent screen presence as a night spot operator. A little of Lelouch's romanticism can go a long way. It all depends how it strikes you, but this is one of his most lush excursions into his world of coincidence.
Any time I note that Catherine Deneuve is in a film I want to see it, for better or worse. Place Vendome, a film by Nicole Garcia, is impeccably made and Deneuve is perfection as the alcoholic wife of a jeweler in trouble. The atmosphere of gem trading is created convincingly and the acting is fine all down the line. So what's wrong?
"Place Vendome" is the sort of film the French have been making for years. A woman is betrayed by a lover, yet she holds a soft spot in her heart for him along with the bitterness and sets herself up to be used again. The manipulations take us over familiar territory even though these particular circumstances are different. Well done, but haven't we been there too often?
Many other selections were included in the French series, including Catherine Breillat's Romance, with its reported explicit sex scenes. I didn't manage to see it, but will review it when it opens commercially. The quantity and quality of the films I did catch provide encouraging news for the viability of French cinema as we head toward the new century.
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