Quietly awe-inspiring work from Claude Sautet, thoughtful, adult, involving, without the slightest note of worthiness or duty to spoil things. Patrick Dewaere is utterly transparent (as if you could see emotions thru his skin*) as a still young man given a second chance after six years lost to a drug conviction. Back in France, he’s looking for work and living with a resentful dad who holds him at fault for his wife’s death. But it’s not that simple. After a few manual labor gigs, his rehabilitation handlers set him up at a boutique book store where he’ll be working under another of their ’patients.’ A beautiful one, not quite ‘off the stuff.’ Very standoffish, she warms up quite suddenly. But, again, it’s not that simple. And so it goes with a series of new jobs, faces, apartments and experiences, eventually adding enough pressure to bring on a relapse as Dewaere still in a delicate condition, still in recovery. Presented by Sautet with seemingly meticulous naturalism that’s also not that simple; dramatic construction very solid, unforced yet missing nothing. Observant & revelatory results to recall what French New Wavers so loved in Jacques Becker’s best work.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK: Ironic that Dewaere lost that year’s Best Actor Cesar to oft partner Gérard Depardieu, caught up in that year’s sweep for Truffaut’s THE LAST METRO/’72. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2009/07/le-dernier-metro-last-metro-1980.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Hard to think of a current age-appropriate A-list Hollywood actor (other than Riz Ahmed) who wouldn’t muck this up with too much showy/soulful/James Dean-ish self-absorption.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For more Sautet, try UN CŒUR EN HIVER/’92, probably his best-known/most original/most accessible work. Much Sautet still hard to come by over here. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2009/05/un-coeur-en-hiver-1992.html
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