Near contemporaries, French directors Bertrand Tavernier (né 1941) and André Téchiné (né 1943) perhaps inevitably took similar stylistic paths, moving from film classicist (Tavernier from his debut in THE CLOCKMAKER/’74; Téchiné at his most persuasive in SCENE OF THE CRIME/’86 and WILD REEDS /’94), before developing what might be termed ‘Restless Camera Syndrome’ in the second half of their careers. The results dramatically different. For Tavernier, loosening up in striking fashion to uncover his own voice & rhythm, something not seen in his overpraised/award-winning earlier films. For Téchiné, a less happy result, with new found freedom turning slapdash rather than unaffected. You can see it here in this story of young/troubled Martin (Alexis Loret), something of a feral lad met on the run, but soon landing at the Paris apartment of half-brother Mathieu Amalric and platonic roommate Juliette Binoche. She’s a struggling violinist; Amalric a struggling gay actor; Loret without prospects miraculously spotted on the street by a recruiter as a possible fashion model. And Téchiné just might have pulled this unlikely scenario off if he’d swapped his leading men: Loret looking too anodyne for the couture crowd, Amalric effortlessly holding focus with off-beat puppy-dog appeal any photographer would kill for. And a similar gap in their acting. But Téchiné’s new style too busy, busy, busy to take note of the obvious, he’s got an agenda to follow. So that’s how the story plays out: success & tragedy, couplings, a Freudian-ready father, a suicide & a fatal fall studding the narrative like lardons in a dry roast. Did Téchiné & Tavernier wave at each other as their careers crisscrossed?
DOUBLE-BILL: To see Tavernier pulling off this style, CAPTAINE CONAN/’96.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Look for Pedro Almodóvar’s main muse from his early days, Carmen Maura, as Loret’s mother.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: We're in France, 1998, were the gender politics quite as appalling as they now look? None of the male scripters thought Binoche might just be a little pleased at getting back to her violin?
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