Film Review
Les Mauvaises fréquentations, also known by the title
Du
côté de Robinson, was the first film to be completed by
Jean Eustache, one of the peripheral figures of the French New Wave.
It was purely by chance that Eustache came into contact with some of the
leading figures of the Nouvelle Vague. His wife was a secretary on
the Cahiers du cinéma, and it was through her that he came to meet
Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer and Paul Vecchialli. It was Vecchialli
who encouraged Eustache to make a short film, even supplying him with the
funds to do so. That first film,
La Soirée, was never
completed, but the experience of making it encouraged its director to persist
in his new art.
Filmed with a cool clinical detachment that makes it resemble more a documentary
than a slice-of-life drama, using real locations in Paris and improvised
dialogue,
Les Mauvaises fréquentations bears a close resemblance
to the early films of both Godard and Rohmer. In this way it prefigures
Eustache's one truly great film,
La Maman et la putain,
which is considered by some to be one of the landmark films of the French
New Wave (although by the time it was seen the term was somewhat anachronistic).
The film's antipathetic main characters (an amusing skirt-chasing duo performed
with astonishing naturalism by Aristide and Daniel Bart) colourfully evoke
the rebellious youth mentality of the time. They look like a pair of
overgrown Antoine Doinels, cocking a snook at societal rules and treating
women as nothing more than objects of male gratification. The fact
that we end up liking these two ruffians implies that there is, possibly,
something of the naughty rule-breaker in us all.
Les Mauvaises fréquentations is a modest little film that strongly
evokes the dubious morals and gently oppressive melancholia of its era, with
just a vague hint of the upheavals that were to come (the sexual revolution
and outburst of youth rebellion that came towards the end of the decade).
In this it aligns closely with the French New Wave, although Eustache
exhibits far less self-conscious artistry than his more experienced auteur
contemporaries. Along with its obvious naivety, there is a deeply ingrained
authenticity to this film, something that we struggle to find in, say, the
early work of Jean-Luc Godard.
Eustache followed up this amiable taster with
Le Père Noël
a les yeux bleus (1966) and several other shorts, before proving
his worth with the two defining films of his oeuvre -
La Maman et la putain
(1973), which won him a major prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and
Mes petites amoureuses
(1974).
© James Travers 2014
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Next Jean Eustache film:
Le Père Noël a les yeux bleus (1966)
Film Synopsis
One Sunday evening, two men in their twenties roam the streets of the Clichy
district of Paris, hoping to pick up a pair of girls they can spend the night
with. They come across a promising young woman and, not yet knowing
she is a single mother with two children, agree to accompany her to a dance
hall where she has a girlfriend waiting for her. Failing to meet her
friend, the woman shares a drink with the two men before heading off with
them to a popular night spot. Here, she goes off to dance with a stranger,
leaving her two new friends more bored than ever. Out of spite, the
latter steal the woman's purse and help themselves to her money. Later,
they begin to have second thoughts...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.