Film Review
In his follow-up to his debut feature
Brigitte
et Brigitte (1966), Luc Moullet further distanced himself from
his Nouvelle Vague contemporaries by cocking a snook at anyone who sees
revolution as an effective driver for social and political
change. Moullet's cynical view that nothing ever changes ran
contrary to the thinking of other New Wave directors who, in common
with a vast swathe of bourgeois intellectuals, saw revolution as not
only necessary but inevitable. Jean-Luc Godard's
Week-End
(1967) and Moullet's
Les
Contrebandières (1968) are both wildly anarchic but their
premises are diametrically opposed. Like Godard, Moullet evokes
the thirst for rebellion that was rife in France in 1967/8, but his
conclusion is that all that revolution achieves is to move people from
one miserable, unsatisfying groove to another miserable, unsatisfying
groove. Moulet's minority view proved to be the most
realistic. Ten years on from the events of May '68, you'd be hard
pressed to notice any significant change in France.
In
Les Contrebandières,
Moullet takes most delight in pouring scorn on the feminist
movement. The film begins with one woman (Françoise Vatel,
cast as an identically named character to the one she had played in
Moullet's first film) rejecting the constrained, ordered life of the
city in favour of a more liberated mode of existence in a barren,
desert-like wilderness. Within no time, she is seduced by a
member of the opposite sex and ends up having to keep house for
him. She spends the rest of the film competing with another woman
(Monique Thiriet) for her lover's attentions. It's not the most
forward-thinking of female representations but Moullet's point has some
legitimacy - in any society gender archetypes will always assert
themselves, and that is how it is. Men will act like men, women
will act like women, and never the twain shall meet.
Moullet questions not only the freedom of women but the freedom of
individuals in general. You'd think that the life of the smuggler
is the ultimate in free living, but even smugglers, it seems, need to
invent rules to regulate their activities. The three protagonists
(a typical French
ménage
à trois) end up being pursued by not only gun-totting
fascists but also the officials of the union that supposedly represents
their best interest. Again, Moullet's view is depressingly
pragmatic. No society can exist without rules, and once you have
rules you have the first foundation stone of a fascist state.
Luc Moullet's opinions are clearly and humourlessly expressed in
comicbook form, but with a distinct lack of economy.
Les Contrebandières has
barely enough content to justify being a full-length film and it is
clearly a
moyen métrage
that has been padded out for (presumably) commercial reasons. The
second half of the film is effectively just an overlong Benny Hill-like
runaround, with the main characters being pursued endlessly by the
forces of officialdom. Mid-way through, there is a change of
régime, but the chase carries on as before, as if nothing has
changed. The girls end up back in the city before deciding
(again) to return to the wild, bringing the film back to where it
started.
Les
Contrebandières is gratuitously repetitive and gloriously
unsophisticated, so whilst it might have worked as fifty minute film,
it becomes something of an endurance test as a feature. Moullet's
distinctive shoestring approach to filmmaking is not, however, with its
charm.
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Brigitte has grown weary of her rigidly organised life in the city, which
allows her too little freedom for her to discover her true self. In
the end, exasperated, she heads to the border and makes up her mind to become
a full-time smuggler. It is fortuitous that she runs into a young man,
Johnny, who shares her aspirations. Once a customs inspector, he now
leads a far more fulfilling life as a career smuggler and he is more than
willing to indoctrinate Brigitte in his trade. These two are joined
by Francesca, who has recently fled from the fascist regime that is running
the country on the other side of the border.
The ménage à trois arrangement turns out for the best, although
the three friends have to be on their guard at all times so as not to be
taken unawares by their enemies, which divide into two categories.
On the one hand, there are the customs men, who exist only to make life difficult
for smugglers. On the other, there is the smugglers' union, who are
after Johnny for not paying his monthly subscription. Smuggling is
a hard enough occupation as it is, but being hunted relentlessly by union
reps and customs men makes it a very challenging line of business.
After a series of wild adventures in exotic locations, Brigitte and her friends
decide to settle in Le Havre. Can they really go back to their old
lives, or is smuggling all that the future now holds for them...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.