Film Review
Francis Huster's
Un homme et son
chien was always going to be a risky venture. Any film that
attempts a remake of a cinematic masterpiece - in this case Vittorio De
Sica's
Umberto D. (1952) - is tempting
Providence. Any film that tries to bring back a cultural icon of the past - namely
Jean-Paul Belmondo - a decade into his retirement is equally
courageous. To attempt both of these impossible things in the
same film is not just brave - it is almost certainly insane. Hence the critical
onslaught that came Huster's way when his film crashed and burned at
the French box office in 2009. Like the ill-fated Concorde, it
was an expensive accident waiting to happen, the final humiliating blow
to Belmondo's career and presumably the end of Huster's ambitions to be
a serious filmmaker.
The adverse critical reaction to
Un
homme et son chien was entirely predictable but it is also
entirely justifiable. The film stinks. Like a charnel house
in a heatwave. It doesn't give Belmondo a chance to prove he is
still in possession of his faculties, let alone convince us he can
still act. Right from the very first shot Huster makes it clear
he has no talent whatsoever as a film director and what ensues is 94
life-sapping minutes of unbearable tedium as the whole grisly
enterprise staggers along like a dying man dragging himself across the
pavement to the nearest cemetery. If the direction is bad, the
acting is positively diabolical and you wonder how an actor of Huster's
ability could have allowed his cast to get away with such lamentable,
totally unconvincing work.
Barely intelligible, visibly drained, Belmondo is the merest shadow of
his former self, and watching him being immolated in this grotesque
fashion invites nothing but pity.
Un homme et son chien is a film
that has absolutely no redeeming features and you just wish the gods in
their mercy had done something to prevent it from being made. It
is an insult to De Sica, an insult to Belmondo and, most of all, an
insult to anyone who decides to watch it. You can forgive Huster
his ineptitude, you can forgive the lead actor for being off-form, but
you cannot forgive the producers who lured Belmondo into this
unedifying spectacle of mediocrity, possibly for the most cynical of
motives. Anyone who has any respect for Belmondo is advised
to give this film a very wide berth.
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
For many years, Charles, an elderly professor, has lived with the widow of
his best friend. When she tells him that she is about to remarry
and that there is no longer any place for him or his dog in her house
he is saddened but agrees to go. But where can he go
to? He has no friends, no family, no money. The only home
he has now is the street, and no one seems to notice him there...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.