Faux Truffaut from Arnaud Desplechin, a real turkey from this elsewise talented French writer/director. With an autobiographical feel to it, Desplechin charts the sentimental education of presumed alter-ego Paul Dédalus in the ‘70s and ‘80s; recalled in his fifties by Mathieu Amalric as a middle-aged Paul, but mostly played by Quentin Dolmaire as Paul in his teens and early twenties. At first, Desplechin seems content to tick off how some of the major political issues of the day affected Paul & friends (a suspenseful involvement with the Jewish-Russian ‘Refuseniks;’ live tv coverage as the Berlin Wall comes down), but this is just a feint for the real subject of interest, Paul’s on-and-off relationship with ‘the eternal female,’ mostly during his college days over in Paris while his besties & lovers remain stuck in a small town hours away. The messed up, but alluring girl in question is Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet), a wouldn’t-say-yes/wouldn’t-say-no mental case meant to trigger the film’s central JULES ET JIM/’62 situation(s) since whenever Paul has an extended stay for school in Paris, one of Paul’s pals takes up with Esther. Instead of JULES ET JIM, it’s PAUL ET IVAN; PAUL ET BOB; PAUL ET KOVALKI. Perhaps if we could see on screen what we are told we are seeing in Esther (lackluster Lou Roy-Lecollinet with but two features after this), this wouldn’t play like THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES. Jeanne Moreau, your legacy is secure.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: Other than a re-watch of JULES ET JIM (real François Truffaut, too much like great music for a film journal to successfully write about), A CHRISTMAS TALE/’08 is a great place to repair your relationship with Desplechin. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/04/un-conte-de-noel-christmas-tale-2008.html
No comments:
Post a Comment