Après la vie (2002) - film review

Pascal Manise is a police inspector who risks everything so that he can provide his drug-addicted wife Agnès with a regular supply of morphine.  His dealer is the notorious crime baron Jacquillat.  When a political terrorist, Bruno Le Roux, escapes from prison, Jacquillat tells Pascal that he will receive no more morphine until Le Roux is dead.  While hunting the terrorist, Pascal is engaged by Cécile, a colleague of his wife, to spy on her husband, whom she suspects is having an affair.  Whilst Pascal is thus occupied, and falling in love with Cécile in the process, Agnès becomes involved with Le Roux.  By this stage, Agnès hasn’t taken drugs for days and, thinking Le Roux will help her, she offers him a safe hiding place.  However, Le Roux’s only thought is to settle his score with Jacquillat…

Après la vie is one of three films directed by Lucas Belvaux which make up a most unusual trilogy.  The other two are: Un couple épatant and Cavale.  All three films were made at the same time, with the same cast and crew, and have narratives that run in parallel and periodically overlap.  The main characters in one film become secondary characters in another, so there is a sense of seeing the same drama from three different perspectives, an idea that works surprisingly well.

After the lacklustre comedy Un couple épatant and the superlative noir thriller Cavale, Après la vie is a gritty drama that revolves mainly around the nightmare of drug addiction.  Whilst the plot stretches credibility in a few places, it is nonetheless a compelling and thought-provoking film, sustained by some extraordinarily intense performances and some appropriately moody cinematography.

Dominique Blanc’s portrayal of a middle-aged drug addict is utterly convincing, making her the lynchpin of the film.  The scenes where her character goes into withdrawal are truly harrowing to watch and a shocking reminder of the destructive nature of narcotics addiction.  In the calmer, more reflective scenes, there is a sense of quiet despair, as though Agnès has endured an eternity of this Hell and can hardly face another day.

The pathos and helplessness of Blanc’s character is amplified by Gilbert Melki’s equally solemn portrayal of the husband, Pascal, a man who has allowed his wife’s addiction to foster within him an equally tragic dependency.  Pascal finds it hard to love and uses his wife’s addiction to prove himself worthy of her.  What other reason could there be for him risking everything to provide the woman he married with a constant supply of hard drugs?  Pascal’s need for love is as intense as his wife’s craving for morphine, and is no less destructive.

It’s a shame that we are periodically distracted with plot threads hanging over from the other two films in the trilogy, because there is a very profound human story at the heart of this film.  Après la vie is fundamentally a film about love and the need to be loved beyond all else.  This notion is so brilliantly encapsulated in the devastatingly effective closing sequence, where light is shed on the film’s enigmatic title, and the spectator is left stunned.

© James Travers 2006

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