Les Maris, les femmes, les amants (1989) - film review

In the summer holidays, a group of women stay behind in Paris whilst their husbands and children take a vacation on the sunny Island of Ré.  Whilst the women – wives, frustrated spinsters and adolescents – profit from their new-found freedom to sort out their love lives, the men indulge their earthy passions with no less enthusiasm.  Only the children seems capable of rising above this infantile summer madness...

Adults behaving like children, children behaving like adults... This seems to be a recurring theme in the cinema of director Pascal Thomas, the best example probably being his more recent Mercredi folle journée! (2001).  Thomas’ tongue-in-cheek, closely observed comic situations abound in this loosely structured romantic comedy which includes some hilarious (albeit somewhat artificial) sequences.

Pascal Thomas’ films have a tendency to cram too much into a relatively small space, and this is perhaps the most noticeable feature of Les Maris, les femmes, les amants.  With so many characters and so many concurrent story lines, this is a very difficult film to keep up with, and the fact there is no clear focus or central theme greatly diminishes the pleasure of watching the film.  Thomas’ subsequent films are just as energetic as this but are far more watchable because there is a more structured narrative, which allows the audience to be better engaged with the film.

© James Travers 2002

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