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Faites comme si je n'étais pas là
2000 Drama
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Credits
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Director: Olivier Jahan
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Script: Olivier Jahan, Michel C. Pouzol
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Photo: Gilles Porte
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Music: Cyril Moisson
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Cast: Jérémie Renier (Eric),
Aurore Clément (Hélène),
Johan Leysen (René),
Sami Bouajila (Tom),
Alexia Stresi (Fabienne),
Nathalie Richard (Carole),
Pierre Berriau (Simon),
Emma de Caunes (Marie),
Ouassini Embarek (Karim),
Florence Masure (Miss Chanvert),
Bouli Lanners (The doctor),
Michel Dubois (Corson)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 101 min
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Aka: Pretend I'm Not Here
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Summary
High school student Eric lives with his mother, Hélène, and stepfather,
René, on a housing estate for low-income families. Friendless and unable
to communicate with his parents, Eric withdraws into a life of voyeuristic obsession.
He spies on his neighbours with a pair of binoculars, makes detailed notes of what he
sees and then includes his observations in a series of poisonous pen letters. As
his situation at home worsens, he becomes increasingly fascinated by a black couple who
live opposite him, or, more precisely, by their passionate love making activities...
Review
With a few notable short films under his belt, director Olivier Jahan chose the subject
of adolescent introversion for this, his first full-length film - a kind of "400 coups"
for the year 2000. Faites comme si je n'étais pas là is a dark,
contemplative work which offers a harrowingly credible portrait of a reclusive and confused
teenager traversing the gulf between childhood and adulthood. Increasingly isolated
and unable to make any physical contact with a world that constantly rejects him, that
teenager is propelled towards a perverse voyeuristic existence which further alienates
him from those around him. Jahan’s inexperience as a film-maker shows up in the
film’s uneven pacing and lack of cohesion, but such faults are compensated for by the
film’s originality and relevance to contemporary society. Generally, this is a thought-provoking,
well-considered work, which reveals in its director both an exceptional artistic flair
and a pleasing humanism.
The film’s central character, Eric, is played by Jérémie Rénier,
a talented young Belgian actor who has already earned critical acclaim for his sensitive
portrayals of vulnerable adolescents in a number of high profile French-language films
(notably the Dardenne brothers’ 1996 social realist drama La
Promesse). Rénier’s restrained, moody performance lends the
film its sombre tone, its tension and its haunting realism. Whilst his character
comes across as troubling and unpredictable - perhaps a psychopath in embryo form - his
angelic good looks make him appear more of a victim than a villain, the product of an
increasingly fragmented and diseased society. The film’s ending is coyly optimistic
but it is also strangely ambiguous. One interpretation is that Eric’s first experience
of love has at last released him from his solitude, so that he can now go on to live a
normal, fulfilled life within the very society from which he previously felt excluded.
It is equally plausible that the same experience merely confirms in his mind the fact
that he will always remain an outsider - a miserable loner who will either accept his
fate or else react against it, with chillingly destructive consequences.
© James Travers 2003
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