Un, deux, trois, soleil (1993)

Un, deux, trois, soleil is a French film comedy-drama first released in 1993, directed by Bertrand Blier.  The film stars Anouk Grinberg, Myriam Boyer, Olivier Martinez, Jean-Michel Noirey and Denise Chalem.  It has also been released under the title: 1, 2, 3, Sun.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Victorine is a teenage girl living in fairly under-privileged area of Marseilles.  Bullied by her over-attentive mother and worried about her often absent drunken father, she lives in a dream world.  She dotes on Gladys, a black mystique who apparently saves a young boy after he has been shot by a policeman.  Then she meets her first boyfriend, with whom she has a passionate affair, before fate intervenes...

Bertrand Blier’s films are always refreshingly innovative, often somewhat off the wall, and sometimes completely unfathomable. Un deux trois soleil is one of his films which fits all three of these categories, a bizarre synthesis of hard-edged reality and a girl’s colourful fantasies.

The film’s unusual style is both a strength and a weakness.  Whilst it allows Blier to indulge his undoubted creative flair and treat us with some stunning cinematography, it does alienate the audience from the very start.  In the end, the spectator has to give up trying to rationalise the events taking place in the film and just accept what is being presented, something which many will find deeply unsatisfactory.

Whilst the film is hampered by its deliberate inaccessibility, it offers some pleasures, principally a captivating performance from the great Italian film actor Marcello Mastroianni.

© James Travers 2001

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