Film Review
The two kinds of film that director Yves Boisset is best known for are
gritty modern thrillers (
Folle à tuer,
Le Juge Fayard dit Le Shériff,
Canicule)
and provocative political dramas (
L'Attentat,
R.A.S.).
Made at almost the exact midpoint of the director's career,
Un taxi mauve represents a
surprising departure for Boisset into psychological drama and ranks as
one of his most original and satisfying films. Adapted from an
acclaimed novel of the same title by Michel Déon, the film is effectively a chamber
piece (in the Ingmar Bergman mould) that
offers very little in the way of plot but grabs the attention with its
exploration of the ambiguous relationships between an odd assortment of
individuals stuck together in a picturesque backwater. The
breathtaking Irish
landscape doesn't just provide an eye-catching backdrop, it actually
plays a crucial part in the drama, stressing the physical and emotional
isolation of the main characters as they come to terms with their
various personal crises. It also imbues the film with an eerie
poetry and an aching sense of melancholia.
A commercially succesful auteur, Yves Boisset never had much difficulty
attracting a top-notch cast for his films, but for
Un taxi mauve he pulled off his
greatest casting coup. Philippe Noiret and Charlotte Rampling
would have been more than enough star power to sell the film on both
sides on the Atlantic, but Boisset also managed to rope in two even
bigger acting legends, in the shape of Peter Ustinov and Fred Astaire
(as well as a more than capable supporting cast that includes a
beguiling Agostina Belli). On the face of it, it sounds like an
utterly weird ensemble but, believe it or not, the casting turns out to
be perfect. Rampling has never looked more sensually alluring and is ideally suited
for the role of the
femme dangereuse,
the spark that ignites the dormant passions in her midst. Noiret
sports an unaccustomed fragility in one of his
more sympathetic and down-to-Earth roles, against which Ustinov's
enthusiastic portrayal of a mysterious Russian exile attains almost
monstrous proportions. Meanwhile, zipping about nonchalantly in
the background is old Twinkle Toes himself, looking so at home in a picture
postcard Irish village
that you'd think he had spent his entire life there.
As it turns out, the real star of the film is none of the
aforementioned A-listers but the stunning location, photographed with
an almost divine artistry by Tonino Delli Colli, one of Italy's top
cinematographers. It isn't just the raw beauty of the Irish
landscape that Colli manages to capture in every exquisitely crafted
shot, he also evokes its Celtic mystique, bringing a distinctive
romanticism to the film that breathes the essence of
Ireland. It is a
shame the wondrous lyricism of Colli's location photography isn't
matched by the quality of the screenplay, which is banal and anaemic in
comparison, and not helped by Déon's tendency for turgid
prose. It isn't just the taxi that's purple.
Another disappointment is the film's somewhat caricatured portrayal
of the Irish.
With every cliché you'd care to think of readily on tap, the pub scenes are a chore to
sit through, and not too
far removed from what you might find in a typical British sitcom of the
1970s - a nice cocktail of blatant national stereotyping and casual
homophobia. Galling as these lapses of good taste are, they are
thankfully minor blots
on an otherwise impeccable landscape. For a filmmaker who is more
at home in heavily plotted genre films,
Un taxi mauve is a welcome detour
off the beaten track and reveals a more human side to
Boisset than we would ever discern from his more prosaic
thrillers. The Emerald Isle, Philippe Noiret, Charlotte Rampling,
Peter Ustinov and Fred Astaire in
a purple taxi - what a strange but irresistible combination.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Yves Boisset film:
La Clé sur la porte (1978)
Film Synopsis
After the death of his son, Philippe Marchal, a French writer, seeks
the seclusion of a small coastal village in Ireland. Here, he
befriends Jerry, the son of a wealthy businessman who is in exile after
disgracing himself in his native America. Both men are interested
in Anne, the apparently mute daughter of Taubelman, an eccentric
Russian who seems to know everyone but is strangely reticent about his
own past. Another colourful figure is Dr Scully, a retired doctor
who drives about in a quaint purple taxi. The arrival of Jerry's
socialite sister Sharon is about to upset the strained equilibrium in
this close-knit community...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.