Vincent, François, Paul... et les autres (1974) - film review

Vincent, François and Paul are three close friends who meet up, with others, every weekend.  Vincent runs a small firm which he built up from scratch.  François is a doctor who has abandoned his ideals and works just for the money.  Paul is a burnt out writer.  They are joined by Jean, an amateur boxer who sees Vincent, his employer, as a father figure.  The three older men are all having mid-life crises.  Vincent’s health begins to fail when he has to sell his business and his wife asks for a divorce, whilst François loses his wife to a younger man.  Can their friendship be sustained in spite of these pressures?

Four men – four lives – four sets of problems.  What they have in common is a friendship that somehow manages to see them through.  This is a poignant study of male mid-life crises and the power of friendship to make things right.

As the Vincent-Jean relationship shows, age presents no barrier to friendship.  Alas, the same cannot be said of the characters’ love lives.  Vincent reflects on his lost youth with heartfelt regret, playing over and over again in his mind the day his wife walked out on him.  His friend, François, has to watch as his wife ditches him for a much younger man.

Although the film is somewhat unstructured and the plot dawdles in a few places, this is nonetheless a film worth seeing.  As in all of his films, Sautet’s treatment of his principal characters is both sympathetic and involving.

Yves Montand and Michel Piccoli each offer a moving performance which must surely rate as one of their best.  There is also a wistful poignancy in Serge Reggiani’s performance.  A young Gérard Depardieu completes the ensemble in his first major film role, a very promising début for the actor.

© James Travers 2000

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