Nous trois (2010) - film review

In 1972, Sébastien is six and a half, a sensitive and imaginative child who worships his mother to the extent that he imagines her to be Queen Elizabeth II.  Although he also has fond feelings for his father, an eccentric inventor who has yet to make his fortune, Sébastien does not feel he is a worthy consort for his mother.  The arrival of a new next-door neighbour, the handsome Philippe, sets Sébastien thinking that perhaps his mother is soon to meet her Prince Charming...

Renaud Bertrand followed up his debut feature Les Irréductibles (2006) with a similarly idiosyncratic look at family life, this time presenting an anodyne tale of marital infidelity through the eyes of an impressionable child.  Whilst the film has more substance and poetry to it than Bertrand’s first film, and is certainly a more coherent and satisfying piece of cinema, it does feel like a head-on collision between Laurent Tiraud’s Le Petit Nicolas (2009) and François Truffaut’s La Femme d’à coté (1981).  The comic interludes sit uncomfortably alongside the film’s more melancholic passages and the tragic denouement, which ought to come as a shock, feels a tad contrived and is undermined by the ill-conceived coda that follows it.

Whilst Nous trois undoubtedly has its shortcomings, it also has a certain charm, which primarily derives from two things: the quality of the acting (which is to be expected given the calibre of the principal cast) and the film’s uninhibited retro look, which reminds us just how tasteless and colour-blind a decade the 1970s was.  How bizarre that in an era in which man was operating a (fairly) regular shuttle service between the Earth and the Moon, civilisation had only advanced to the point at which home furnishings and clothing existed in just three colours: brown, orange and yellow.  It isn’t so much a warm feeling of nostalgia that the film evokes (as it may have done if it had been set in any another decade of the 20th century) but an overwhelming sense of relief that, thank God, we are no longer obliged to wear tank-tops and live in rooms that take their design inspiration from the partially decomposed contents of the compost bin.

Bertrand’s choice of lead actors is impeccable, and this is what ultimately saves the film and makes it a far more engaging piece than it perhaps deserves to be given the substandard screenwriting and Bertrand’s lack of directorial verve.  Who better to play the slightly disconnected middle-aged father than Jacques Gamblin, who cannot fail to bring charm, humour and a certain poignancy to his portrayal of a decent but negligent husband who is inevitably deceived by his wife?   An equally inspired casting choice is Emmanuelle Béart for the part of the passionate femme infidèle, a Truffaut-like heroine who becomes snared on the barbed hook of an amour fou and ends up paying the price.  The characterisation may not be as rich and nuanced as that offered by Truffaut’s films, but Béart’s portrayal of a woman being consumed by a destructive passion is powerfully engaging and provides the film with the focal point it badly needs to knit it together.  The other notable performance is that of Audrey Dana - she brings such an emotional realism to her scenes that you cannot but feel the anguish of a woman who has just woken up to the knowledge that her world in under threat.  By contrast, Stefano Accorsi fails to make much of an impact, partly because he is lazily cast according to type but mainly because his role demands so little of him.  Nathan Georgelin is cute enough as the central child character Sébastien but perhaps lacks the charisma and innate acting talent to justify his casting for such a substantial role.

Whilst somewhat marred by its uneven tempo and inelegant mood shifts, Nous trois does convey, and effectively so, the need that young children have to try to refashion the world around them, a world that is tainted by human vice and injustice, as a fairytale.  The boy Sébastien is hardly aware of the drabness that surrounds him, let alone the emotional turmoil which his mother is experiencing as she falls for the handsome neighbour.  All he sees is the illusion painted by his childish fantasies - his mother is a fairytale Queen who has happily found her Prince Charming.  When the dream implodes and Sébastien is confronted with the painful realities of life, that is when we are forced to take stock and lament the passing of our own childhood.  Unfortunately, Bertrand then has to tack on a forced happy ending which ruins the effect somewhat.

© James Travers 2011

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