Personne ne m’aime (1994) - film review

When she is thrown out one night by her boyfriend, Annie returns to her first love, Lucien, but he shows no sympathy for her.  She cannot turn to her daughter, Marie, because she walked out on her mother a few years ago.  Exasperated, Annie falls back on her sister, Françoise, who is married but her husband is often away from home on business.  Annie decides to have some fun, getting Françoise to commit adultery...

This is another rather tedious essay in female menopause, a subject with which, for some reason, a section of French filmmakers of the 1990s were overly preoccupied.  A rambling storyline,  overly populated with a cast of hyperactive middle-aged women (played by actresses who are well past their best), this is not a film which has a great deal to commend it.

Having failed to make a serious drama out of a mid-life crisis, the film resorts to cheap comedy which, for the most part, falls flat.  To make matters worse, the main story line is muddled with a sub-plot about adolescent rejection, which is told out of sequence through flashbacks for no apparent reason.

This is no way near as good as Marion Vernoux’s subsequent film, Love, etc., which explores similar themes, with much greater success.

© James Travers 2001

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