Film Review
Patrice Chéreau's latest exploration of love and desire portrays
these powerful human impulses in such a brutal and perverse manner that
they resemble symptoms of a cruel psychological illness rather than
qualities that ennoble and enrich the spirit. In a similar vein
to the director's previous
Intimacy (2001), the film
revolves around three characters who are mutually attacted and repelled
by a violent need for physical love that is marred by an inability (or
unwillingness) to make any kind of real emotional connection. The
disconnect between the need to receive love and the ability to give it
is one of the dominant themes in Chéreau's oeuvre and is most
noticeable in this, his most personal film to date.
Persécution owes much
of its visceral intensity to the contributions of its three lead actors
- Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jean-Hugues Anglade - who each
convincingly portrays a complex individual who is, to a greater or
lesser extent, tortured by conflicting passions. Each of their
characters is, through his or her compulsive need for love and
attention, both a victim and a persecutor. Anglade's
character is referred to as Le fou, the Madman, yet his seemingly
irrational interest in Duris is merely a reflection of Duris's own
obsessive desire to fully possess Gainsbourg, who is too busy being the
modern career girl to commit to a long-term relationship. There
is no place for tenderness in this sordid depiction of unattainable
love. The characters are propelled by an uncontrollable bestial
yearning for the flesh, and their attempts to articulate and
rationalise their feelings only make this all the more apparent.
Persécution has echoes
of Chéreau's early film
L'Homme blessé (1983),
which is an equally sombre portrayal of the mystery of human
desire. This film - which also featured Anglade playing a man
tormented by overwhelming homosexual yearnings - is a more potent
evocation of the destructive power of desire, although the characters
are perhaps less well developed and less credible than those we find in
Persécution. With
its stark mise-en-scène and raw emotional realism, this later
film is a more eloquent and brutally honest expression of the most fundamental
paradox of human experience - the impossibility for human beings ever
to fully satisfy, in both a physical and spiritual sense, that
unremitting amorous craving. Once again, Patrice Chéreau
offers a portrait of desire that is so authentic and so morbidly uncompromising
that it is almost too painful to watch, yet its dark poetry makes
it strangely irresistible.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Patrice Chéreau film:
La Chair de l'orchidée (1975)
Film Synopsis
Daniel, a man in his mid-thirties, becomes concerned when he realises he
is being spied on by an older man he has never met before. The stranger
makes a habit of breaking into his house, intent on persecuting his victim
for reasons that are far from apparent. Daniel soon begins to feel threatened
by this strange man, even though he appears perfectly amiable and has shown
him no aggression so far. The stranger persists in haunting Daniel,
and when he has chance to speak to him he tells him that he is the man he
has been looking for all his life.
Convinced he is being pursued by some kind of sex maniac, Daniel tries to
drive him away, finally resorting to a show of violence. But as these
unwelcome encounters continue, Daniel's feelings towards his stalker begin
to alter. Daniel knows he isn't gay - he has a girlfriend Sonia whom
he sees several times a week, and he is more keen on her than she is on him.
Yet the stranger begins to appeal to him - perhaps because he is offering
something that the object of his fascination subconsciously craves.
Is it possible that Daniel has wished this bizarre persecution upon himself...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.