Customer Reviews

L'Adversaire (The Adversary) (Original French Version with English Subtitles)

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Set mostly in the cold of Winter and with a sombre, haunting Angelo Badalamenti score, Nicole Garcia's L'Adversaire was one of three different films inspired by the real-life case of Jean-Claude Romand, who wrote a thesis at university entitled `Does truth exist?' but was better known for killing his entire family rather than risk them finding out that rather than being a successful doctor working for the World Health Organisation, his entire life was a lie. And not just a simple "I've lost my job and don't have the nerve to tell anyone" lie...

Financing his middleclass lifestyle by `managing' his parents' and father-in-law's investments, Jean-Marc Faure (Daniel Auteuil) spends his days either in the public gallery at W.H.O. lectures or, more commonly, in the forecourts of petrol stations or in laybys reading the paper and killing time before he can go home to the perfect life he has created. His lies stretch back even further than you can imagine, but for years he's been getting away with it because of human nature. People accept the comforting reality he presents to them without question and even when he increasingly paints himself into a corner and cuts himself off from the people who could have helped him they see either only what they want to see or the smallest and least important part of the problem. Even his best friend doesn't know how to listen at the crucial point - instead of just letting him talk and confess, he's more interesting in telling Faure what he thinks he's trying to hide. That he's half-right only makes him less open to hearing any more.

But Faure is his own worst enemy in the worst possible way: although in Emmanuel Carrere's book the adversary is the Devil, the father of lies, who the author feels must have tricked him into thinking he was a victim since his attitude is otherwise so impossible to explain, here the adversary appears to be Faure himself. Having created his own world, the only way out he is able to imagine is to destroy everyone he's ever lied to rather than have them live on knowing what he truly was and is soon Christmas shopping for a silencer and a Mace bomb ("Can you gift wrap the Mace?"). Yet rather than an outright thriller, this is a surprisingly compelling look at the anxiety and despair beneath the surface of everyday life, the little lies that accumulate and escalate, bringing with them the constant fear of discovery, disgrace and unbearable shame. Garcia's intelligent direction is a perfect match for the subject. Editing within the shot, sometimes making slight but slightly visible cuts of a frame or two, sometimes using two almost identical takes and joining them almost but not quite invisibly, often with a subtle lighting change to draw attention to the difference, it creates a real sense of unease and that everything is not as it appears in a world that bases everything on appearances.

It's quietly powerful stuff and very different from its rivals, the excellent but more redemptive Time Out which overshadowed it internationally, and the Spanish Nobody's Life. This is very obviously a prestige picture, and a lot of money has obviously, but tastefully, been spent - though not enough to dilute the material for fear of alienating a mass audience - so it's strange that of the three this has had the least distribution outside its native country. It's particularly hard to find with English subtitles, though it's certainly worth the effort. The Canadian DVD does have an English-language option, but only a hard-of-hearing subtitle track, so every single sound effect is also described. No extras.

I bought this because I love the author of the book by the same name, E. Carrere. The scenery is beautiful. The acting is superb. The editting is masterful. The story itself is intriguing. I have watched this movie three times since I received it.

January, 9th 1993 was a very special date for someone who reached and crossed over the frontier of not return. That day was the doom day for a human being who simply got tired of lying to himself and the rest of the world; and as the equilibrist on the rope, decided not to continue in equilibrium.

Inspired on a real fact. Not recommended for squeamish.