French DVD double feature of the week
Now Playing: RED LIGHTS and NOT ON THE LIPS
As much as I love the Wexner Center, it's tough basically being Columbus' one-stop shop for real art movies (or the ones released by distributors not affiliated with the big studios anyway), so they inevitably miss some good titles. So I caught up with two recent French films that didn't make it to town, one that wasn't widely released in the US, and the other that wasn't released here at all. The first one I saw was RED LIGHTS (2004, Cedric Kahn), a suspense film adapted from a Georges Simenon novel. As in Patrice Leconte's masterful MONSIEUR HIRE (1989), also based on a Simenon novel, RED LIGHTS has an unconventional and highly flawed protagonist, in this case Antoine Dunan, a shlubby insurance man played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin. Antoine, after twelve years of marriage to Helene (Carole Bouquet), is a mess of insecurities, and the first third of the film is effective as a portrait of a marriage gone stagnant- she seems to be more successful at her job than he is at his, he has a poor tendency to drink when he's idle, and she knows exactly what buttons to press to rile him up. While on a road trip to pick up their two children at camp, Antoine is driving drunk, and he stops for another whisky she threatens to leave him behind, and when he comes back to the car she's gone. From that point the suspense kicks in, first as Antoine races from train station to train station trying to catch her (to no avail) and then as he picks up precisely the last hitch-hiker he should allow in his car. The film's third act hinges on a coincidence that is a bit of a stretch, but Kahn manages to pull it off nicely. Kahn's directing chops really reveal themselves in his editing here, as in a montage of Antoine downing one beer after another near the beginning of the film, along with an extended series of telephone calls in the third act (there's also one very memorable shock cut at a key point in the film). Darroussin's performance is among the best of 2004- unlike many actors, he actually manages to underplay the character's drunken state, pinpointing Antoine's lack of precision and sluggishness instead of indulging in scenery-guzzling histrionics, and turning Antoine into a festering wound of a man, an anti-action hero. Rating: ***.

Even better is NOT ON THE LIPS (2003, Alain Resnais), a delightful and surprisingly substantial musical farce that, for some odd reason, never got a U.S. theatrical release. J. Ro seems to think that the reason for this has to do with the film's one American character, a tight-assed businessman named Eric Thomson (Lambert Wilson), but seeing as he was one of my favorite characters in the film, I can't say for sure (perhaps it has something to do with how humorless many Americans tend to be when it comes to our country). Wilson's performance in the film is a small gem- an actor who has lately specialized in Eurotrash villains (SAHARA, CATWOMAN, the MATRIX sequels), he relishes the chance to turn the tables, overdoing the cartoonish American accent for Francophone audiences and sounding less like an average Chicago native than a constipated James Coburn. But I digress... NOT ON THE LIPS is enchanting from the get-go, with opening credits read over silhouettes of the performers, and once the story begins (with bit players ceding the stage to the principals) I was pretty much hooked. The story is classic farce- Gilberte (Sabine Azema) was once married to Eric (Wilson) while in the U.S., and due to a technicality the marriage isn't recognized by the French government, leaving Gilberte's second husband Georges (Pierre Arditi) with the impression that his wife is the paragon of virtue, and when Georges brings home an American with whom he's negotiating a deal, he turns out, of course, to be Eric. This is merely the central thread of the action, which also includes Gilberte's spinster sister Arlette (Isabelle Nanty, who's great here), young artist Charly (Jalil Lespert), marriage-minded ingenue Huguette (Audrey Tautou), aging bachelor Faradel (Daniel Prevost), and, in the third act, snooping landlady Madame Foin (Darry Cowl). As is the case with many farces, the film's narrative serves to underline how messy life can get when everyone's needs and desires are piled on top of each other. Resnais' direction is lovely, sometimes opting for extended takes (particularly during the songs) but also capable of witty cinematic flourishes- characters dissolving as they exit, an instance of shot-reverse-shot used to move the characters between rooms abruptly, and (in the climactic scene) a closeup of a woman's feet slowly walking and then suddenly rising up into the air (you'll know why when you see the film). NOT ON THE LIPS is a real gem, and I regret that I may never have the chance to see it as Resnais intended, on the silver screen. Rating: ***1/2.