Psy (1981) - film review

Marc runs a weekend psychotherapy course at his country house, his paying clients being either depressed, repressed, stressed out, or all three.  He is about to start one such course when he receives a desperate phone call from an ex-girl friend, Mariéne, who ran off with his best friend, Bob, a few years before. Mariéne tells Marc that she and her new lover, Jo, have just robbed a bank and killed a policeman, and they are looking for a hide-out.  A short while later, Mariéne turns up with Bob and whilst Mariéne joins Marc’s class, Bob starts to dismantle Marc’s treasured jeep, before taking an interest in Marc’s wife, Colette.  Just when it looks as if things could not get any more chaotic, Jo, a ruthless crook, turns up, and Marc’s class is well and truly disrupted.  As his clients throw their inhibitions to the wind and succumb to their new found liberation, his wife apparently following suit, Marc finally snaps...

The therapy culture, an emerging phenomenon in France in the late 1970s, is an area which is ripe for satire, and Philipe de Broca’s comedy Psy manages to tap into this rich vein with great success.  The film was based on a strip cartoon and this shows in the shallow characterisation and overly far-fetched plot developments.  Nonetheless, the script is above par for a de Broca film and most of the comedy works very well.

What makes this a memorable film, above anything else, has to be Patrick Dewaere’s astonishing performance as Marc, the psychotherapist who himself was the victim of a nervous breakdown.  Here, as in virtually of his film roles, the actor is totally immersed in his character, almost overwhelmed by it – to the extent that you are genuinely worried that he himself is in the process of having a nervous breakdown.  His character reminds one of John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty (both the situation and the character bear striking similarities), with the one possible exception that Marc is a much more likeable and sympathetic character.

© James Travers 1999

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