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OLD TOGETHER (NOUS NE VIEILLIRONS PAS ENSEMBLE)
(director/writer: Maurice Pialat; screenwriter: from the
novel by Maurice Pialat/Tito Carpi;
cinematographer: Luciano Tovoli;
editor: Arlette Langman;
music: Haydn; cast: Marlene Jobert (Catherine), Jean Yanne (Jean), Macha Meril (Francoise), Christine Fabrega (Catherine's Mother),
Jacques Galland (Catherine's Father),
Muse Dalbray
(Catherine's
Grandmother), Patricia Pierangeli (Annie), Maurice Risch (Michel), Harry Max (Jean's Father); Runtime: 102;
MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Jean-Pierre
Rassam; Eureka Entertainment (PAL format);
1972-France-in French with English subtitles) "A painful view of the failures of love." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz A
painful view of the failures of love depicted with
unforgiving rawness by French post-New Wave filmmaker
Maurice Pialat ("Van Gogh"/"Loulou"/"Police"), in this
difficult to watch misanthropic relationship film
based on the director's autobiographical novel. The forty-something Jean (Jean Yanne) is a
self-centered and overbearing asshole struggling
documentary filmmaker, who is estranged from his wife
of ten years Francoise
(Macha Meril) and for the last six
years has been in an intense relationship with an
attractive 24-year-old temp office worker named
Catherine (Marlene
Jobert). We
pick up the relationship in its dying last few months
and can only be repelled at the mental and sometimes
physical abuse Jean heaps on Catherine, and can only
wonder why the bright modern woman puts up with it.
Her parents and friends are used by Jean to try and
explain his strange way of showing his love for
Catherine, a love that causes her grief and confusion
as he aims to possess her by putting her down as he
insults her at every opportunity. The couple break-up
in one scene and return together in the next scene for
numerous times throughout the film, until finally
there's the kibosh on the romance. Jean's loss of
Catherine stings the most when he learns it's really
over and he no longer has the upper-hand, and that
begging her to return gets no further play for his
perverse love only some sympathetic nods. It's an unsettling mature film aimed at the heart and mind, that is mostly interesting because it's a true story about the director's dark side and his disturbing way of showing how the loss of a loved one through a split leaves bitter-sweet memories and a sense of great loss. REVIEWED ON 6/23/2012 GRADE: B Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |