Un petit jeu sans conséquence (2004) - film review

Bruno and Claire have been together for 12 years.   On the surface, they look like the perfect couple, but on the day that Bruno invites friends around to his grand family home for a moving house picnic, Claire tells him that the spark may be going out of their relationship.  When Claire lets slip that they have decided to split up, their friends feel free to admit that perhaps they were never well-suited for one another.  Serge, a childhood enemy of Bruno’s, sees his chance and tells Claire that she is his ideal woman.  What started as a game has quickly turned into something far more serious...

Un petit jeu sans consequence is the fourth and last film directed by Bernard Rapp who, before turning to filmmaking at the age of 50, was a well-known journalist and television news presenter in France.  Rapp died from cancer within two years of the film’s release, abruptly ending what was proving to be a promising new career.  The film was based on a successful stage play by Jean Dell et Gérald Sibleyras and benefits from an exemplary script and a fine cast of very talented actors.

The film evokes something of the dark intrigue and cruel underside of Rapp’s early films, although the undercurrents that we glimpse (jealousy, rivalry, even sadism) could have been better conveyed with more imaginative direction and cinematography.  Whilst the film is stylistically bland, looking more like a low budget television movie than a serious piece of cinema, the screenplay and performances are of a high calibre.  Sandrine Kiberlain,Yvan Attal and Jean-Paul Rouve each deliver a subtle and nuanced performance that skilfully reflects the intelligence, humour and emotional complexity of the writing.

© James Travers 2008

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