Ne quittez pas! (2004) - film review

Félix Mandel is a dedicated astrophysicist who seems to live in a world of his own, to the annoyance of his wife Lucie.  The last straw is when Félix admits to having had a secret rendezvous with his first love during a recent trip to London.  Lucie berates her husband for his immaturity and compels him to throw out a coat which belonged to his father.  A short while after giving the coat to a down-and-out, Félix begins to receive strange telephone calls from his father, who has been dead for two years...

It’s hard to know what to make of this idiosyncratic little film from director Arthur Joffé.  A surreal fantasy comedy, with dark Kafkaesque undertones; an allegory on the difficulty of communicating feelings in an age where communicating words has never been easier; a quest for Jewish identity one generation after the Holocaust; or a personal vendetta against the mobile phone companies for the exorbitant tariffs they charge.  It is a film with so many elements, jumbled together in the manner of a bizarre psychotic dream, that it’s surprising – if not an achievement – that it holds together as well as it does.

Perhaps the main reason the film works is a strong central performance from Sergio Castellitto, a well-known Italian actor whose appearances in French cinema are quite rare but always appreciated.  His most notable French film outing to date was Jacques Rivette’s Va savoir (2001).  Castellitto is that kind of actor who has both a magnetic personality and a talent for delivering truthful performances that keep his audience totally engaged, no matter how implausible the film.  Which is just as well, because Ne quittez pas is just about the most implausible film that has been made in France for at least a decade.

Taken at face value, the film doesn’t add up, and this might account for the many bad reviews the film has received (for the record, it has also won some very positive reviews).  This is clearly not meant to be literal film but a subjective one, where the off-kilter narrative reflects the confused experiences of the main protagonist.  What we are seeing isn’t reality but an unsettling mixture of reality and fantasy in the mind of a middle-aged man struggling to reconcile himself with the loss of his father and the break-up of his marriage.   The dividing line between what is real and what is imaginary is never made explicit, but the film’s opening scene does at least warn the audience that seeing isn’t necessarily believing.

Ne quittez pas is a daring piece of cinema that challenges our assumptions about film storytelling and the nature of reality.  Its originality is its strongest selling point, but this is undermined slightly by some inescapable flaws – some uninspiring performances from the supporting cast, quite a bit of TV sitcom-style caricature, and a tendency to hammer the "let’s get zany" button a bit too hard in places.  To a degree, these blemishes add to the film’s quirky charm, but they may also alienate some spectators.  Crazy and thought-provoking, this is one of those Marmite films that you will either love or hate, depending on your taste in French cinema and the size of your monthly phone bill.

© James Travers 2008

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