Film Review
If there is a French film that has caused more purple prose to be
splattered across film review pages than any other in recent years it
is Arnaud Desplechin's latest flamboyant spectacle of self-indulgence
and unfettered artistic bulimia. When it is so generously
compared with the works of such masters as Bergman, Godard, Hitchcock
and Truffaut, you would think that
Rois
et reine is the best thing to come out of French cinema since
Marcel Carné's
Les Enfants du paradis.
Would that it were...
Let there be no mistake, Arnaud Desplechin
is assuredly one of the most
inspired, creative and original film directors working in France
today. His films are personal, introspective dramas that pack a
powerful punch and make truthful statements about human
relationships and the world we now live in. But they are not easy to watch. Desplechin
is one of those art house directors who cherishes style way above
characterisation and narrative content and so, whilst his films are often striking in their
approach, they can also feel lacking in substance and more than a
little tedious.
Rois et reine is a case in
point. Here is a film that has some moments of absolute genius
that will send any self-respecting film critic into a supreme state of
naval contemplating nirvana from which he or she will emerge in a
frenzy of keyboard tapping adulation. The film's fragmented style and patchwork
narrative construction perfectly captures the fractured, emotionally
turbulent world of its two main characters - played superbly by
Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric. You could go on forever
praising individual parts of the film, picking out bits here and there
which demonstrate Arnaud's skill as a director.
The problem is that, taken as a whole, the film is somewhat less
impressive than its individual parts. It's an overblown,
overlong, cinematic potpourri that feels too self-conscious, too
artificial to have the deep emotional impact that it deserves to
have. Watching this film is a bit like subjecting yourself
to a few dozen fairground rides whilst filling your face with ice
cream. Each ride gives you a tremendous thrill, so much so that
you have to try another and another, and each time a sense of wild
exhilaration hits you. But at the end of it you have a slight
nausea and a feeling that you have wasted an evening in shallow
pleasure-seeking pursuits, if you are lucky. In the worst case,
you fall onto your face and vomit up your intestines, whilst vowing
never to repeat the same experience. I fear
that a lot of people who went to see this film having read the
wildly over-the-top reviews may think twice before they watch
another French film...
© James Travers 2008
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Arnaud Desplechin film:
Un conte de Noël (2008)
Film Synopsis
Nora, the manager of a Parisian art gallery, is about to marry for a
third time. Her first husband, Pierre, is dead, her second,
Ismaël, has recently been committed, against his will, to a
psychiatric establishment. When she learns that her father is
dying from cancer, Nora asks Ismaël if he will adopt her infant
son. Ismaël, a musician burdened by tax claims, has problems
of his own...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.