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5.0 out of 5 stars
A crude lesson for a miscarried life!, April 23, 2007
This review is from: Un mauvais fils (DVD)
Few French directors were capable to maintain all through their artistic trajectory, such tenacity, constancy and dedication around the feelings and well known frailties of the ordinary human being as Claude Sautet. He overworked around this issue literally in the ninety five per cent of all his cinematography, where his feminine muse was, obviously, Romy Schneider, although in this particular case the chosen muse was one my most beloved French actresses: Brigitte Fossey.
This is one these films profoundly touching, arresting and terribly painful, that turns around a "bad son" that returns his home five years after having been setting into prison by a delicate affair with drugs. He will notice all about his mother's death, and so he decides to join with his father while he searches a new job. Along the road she will meet a girl who provisionally is free, under the shelter of a very human old man in a library, so they will fall in love and then, the things will carry their destiny in opposite directions, and so he found his destiny is to take care of his father after a terrible accident in the job.
Fascinating all the way through with first rate performances of all the cast
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Simple, unsentimental superbly realised 80s French film, September 27, 2009
This review is from: Un mauvais fils (DVD)
This unflashy but effective film is highly recommended; I saw it a couple of times in the eighties and the unfolding of its simple, spare story stayed with me. It's about a young man, released from prison after a five year sentence for drug dealing, who is trying to find a job and to make his peace with his embittered father. His father's barely supressed resentment flares into an accusation, forcing the son to leave; and even when, thanks to a kindly employer, some kind of stability seems possible, the relationship he forms with a fellow worker is complicated by the fact that she has her own demons.
Seeing it again last night after about twenty five years I am happy to report that it did not disappoint. What's particularly noticeable is the restraint throughout, in the acting, shooting and the writing: the wordless reactions of the lead actor are as much part of the story as the dialogue. Music is used, but sparingly, and to great effect; when it creeps in during a brief (and soon-to-curtailed) jaunt to the seaside, for example, you are suddenly and sharply aware that this is, for the protagonist, a rare moment of lightness and release.
Although the film digs into character it never seems indulgent; the story is told with great clarity and there are no selfconscious, overlong shots or lengthy monologues. There are no big effects to bowl you over but the reason it works so well is that every moment, every shot, every detail of the narrative is made to count. And whether it's to do with an awareness on the actors' parts of the solidity of that structure, or the specific direction of Sautet, or both, the performances seem to bear out David Mamet's dictum about avoiding unnecessary inflection when acting.
In short, it's a small, character-driven tale which has been meticulously and unsentimentally realised, and is well worth your attention.
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