The off-screen commentary is copiously used, sometimes in the 3rd person in Nouvelle Vague style, other times in the 1st person, as if made from the patient's couch. When things take a more serious turn, psychoanalysis and its variants appear. We follow a group of friends, mostly students or in the first years after graduation, who seem to live in a kind of sentimental commune, sharing their adventures and almost casually freely swapping partners. I guess that one of the inspirational models of the screenwriter and director were those films of Woody Allen that take place in the intellectual circles of the northeast coast of the United States.
On one hand it is a complex film because of the fabric of intrigue and the evolution of the characters, on the other hand it is a surprisingly simple film if we analyze carefully what is actually happening on the screen. ' (you'll excuse my abbreviation, I hope) which is a unitary cinematic work and which is in fact a comic drama contemporary to the period in which the film was made, having as heroes a group of French intellectuals in their 30s, their bonds of friendship and love, conflicts, love affairs and separations. Today it has become more common for films to last at least two hours, and productions lasting about two and a half hours are not uncommon either, but in the previous century, even in its last decade, such a duration was mainly reserved for the genre of the historical saga, and the screening was divided into two series. The second thing those who read the film sheet notice is the duration: three hours minus two minutes. It is a title almost as impossible as that of Radu Jude's latest film that received the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, a title that wants to state even before the screening begins that the viewer will have a cinematic experience that is from the usual patterns. (ma vie sexuelle)' (or in English 'My Sex Life. The first thing that strikes at the 1996 film directed by Arnaud Desplechin is the title: 'Comment je me suis dispute. Reviewed by dromasca 7 / 10 a saga in a cup of espresso Those will little or no interest in French actors, fine or otherwise, may well be bemused, bored or both. Those, like me, who enjoy watching French actors - without question some of the finest in the world - in their early careers will find this enthralling for that reason alone. At the end of three hours your guess is as good as mine but it is also fair to say that along the way we have been treated to some very fine acting indeed though whether it has any point is moot. As a vacillator this guy can leave Hamlet dead in the water should he stay with Devos - with whom he has been in an on/off relationship for ten years - or should he attempt to make and/or get a firm commitment from one of the three other girls with whom he is involved. I'm betting twelve to seven that Desplechin had that very same maze in mind when he dreamed up this labyrinthine storyline of a man who is constantly taking wrong turnings in his attempt to move forward in his life. Daedalus, in Greek mythology was the father of Icarus, who flew too near the sun, but apart from that Daedalus was on straight commission from King Minos of Crete for whom he created among other things, the maze and the Minotaur in the centre of it. Almaric plays a University lecturer named Paul Dedaulus, a name surely not chosen at random. The fact that this time around the duo were supported by the likes of Jeanne Balibar, Denis Podalydes, Marion Cotillard and Chiara Mastroianni merely sweetened the pot but it has to be said that Desplechin doesn't make it easy.
It's fair to say that had I not found Rois et Reine so rich, complex and ultimately enjoyable I may not have taken the trouble (to say nothing of the three hours needed) to watch this earlier work by Arnaud Desplechin toplining the same two very fine actors (Manu Devos and Mathieu Almaric). Reviewed by writers_reign 6 / 10 How I Got Sidetracked
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