IF YOU DON’T, I WILL (Arrête ou je continue) B-
France (102 mi) 2014 d: Sophie Fillières
France (102 mi) 2014 d: Sophie Fillières
Sophie Fillières is better known as a screenwriter than a
director, co-writing an earlier Noémie Lvovsky film FORGET ME (Oublie-Moi)
(1994) showing a keen ear for the kind of small talk superficiality that hides
deeper frustrations, where “self knowledge is a dangerous thing.” This romantic film comedy is no exception,
with a rhythmic sounding dialogue that resembles David Mamet doing screwball
comedy, where this is largely a two-person play as we follow the squabbles and
misunderstandings of a married couple whose marriage is on the rocks. While the likeable actors display excellent
comic timing throughout, Mathieu Amalric as Pierre and Emmanuelle Devos as
Pomme, this film is ultimately a bit too absurd, though beneath the laughter is
a tragically sad portrait of marital dysfunction. The film is set amidst a 20th century
existential state of limbo, given a Sartrian No Exit tone that borders on the surreal, where the characters
couldn’t be more out of place and out of time, yet they are hanging onto every
word the other says with biting, overly sarcastic comebacks, where much of
their dialogue has the feel of a string of one-liners. The audience doesn’t know what to make of
this, as the two are obviously very clever, have a deep-seeded connection with
each other, as if they’re afraid to actually let go, but rather than argue about
their feelings or what matters to them, they spend their time resorting to
pettiness and trivialities as a means of holding something over on the other
person, becoming a long and extended Alice
in Wonderland meaningless game of some sort, caught in a rabbit hole of
their own making, becoming an absurd power trip that reflects the changing
nature of relationships. While there is
obvious wit on display, it feels wasted, as neither one appreciates anything
the other has to say, where instead they’re actually too busy avoiding one
another.
Amalric and Devos have appeared together as a couple in
French movies no less than six times now, going back 18-years to an early
talkative Arnaud Desplechin comedy, MY SEX LIFE…OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT (1996),
so their history together gives the material added weight, as we’ve been
through various battles with them before, making them not only familiar and
recognizable, but we’re also comfortable with them onscreen. What’s perhaps most surprising, given the
levity of the material, is that nothing is working, that their relationship is
in shambles and they’re content to leave it that way. After their college-age son Romain (Nelson
Delapalme) moves out of the home, the distance between them only grows wider, where
Pomme is apparently recovering from a potentially serious but benign brain
tumor, giving her pause and a chance to reflect about the state of their
affairs, asking for a definitive commitment from Pierre, but instead he
provides painstaking existential answers that simply avoid the question, refusing
to provide an ounce of reassurance, as if this kind of verbal sparring is how
they spend their lives, turning romance into an ongoing mind game resembling a
jousting match, continually hoping to pierce under the armor of the other. Treated in this manner, love is a faded
memory, like lost youth, which can only reincarnate in another form, often
expressing itself in protracted bitterness.
While they attend art galleries together and have a personal trainer who
sadistically keeps them in shape, she notices he refuses to dance with her at
parties, and their attempts to chill half a bottle of champagne in the fridge
on “superfrost” results in a disaster, as the bottle explodes, where they end
up sipping chunks of frozen champagne ice mixed with pieces of broken glass. Despite the passive aggressive streak, with
hints of meanness, the two still show a certain degree of laughter and
affection while remaining at arms length from one another, while the music from
singer-songwriter Christophe adds a mainstream dimension of pop romanticism to
this otherwise quirky tale.
The two decide to take a walk and go camping in a nature
preserve, but their bickering continues, where at the end of a long walk Pomme
refuses to return home with Pierre, as she’s simply had it with the guy, who incredulously
leaves her behind and returns back to the apartment. She doesn’t know this, however, and can’t
reach him as her cell phone battery is dead, but initially spends a good deal
of time looking for him, thinking he may be lurking just around the corner
waiting for her to come to her senses.
But no, he leaves her flat to fend for herself in the forest, which
completely alters the tone of the film as instantly there’s no fighting, no
talking, suddenly silence, as both have been sent to their neutral corners, and
wordless images take over as Pomme finds various creatures to interact with in
the woods, turning this into a whimsical Disney experience where she talks to
rabbits and goats, even saves a deer that falls into a hole, while sleeping on
the ground eating provisions she brought along with her. Quite the outdoors woman, rather than staying
in one place waiting to be rescued, she takes a different strategy and starts
hiking out of there, finding a small hotel nearby serving food to a group of
chamber musicians, joining in, pretending to be one of the players, feasting on
the dinner festivities before returning back to the forest. Meanwhile Pierre is visited by Romain, who’s
a bit perplexed by his father simply leaving his mother out in the woods
without calling the police, as it’s already been several days. Whatever rift existed between them before has
only grown deeper, as Pierre is no help whatsoever. Pomme’s absence in the woods recalls Hans
Christian Schmid’s German film Home
for the Weekend (Was bleibt) (2012)
where a mother with a history of mental problems wanders off alone into the
woods, with the family organizing a police search and rescue operation in a
futile attempt to find her, similarly expressing wholesale family dysfunction
before the character disappears, exploring the bored and meaningless lives of
the rich and wealthy, discovering what they’ve really been searching for all
along is the emptiness within, becoming a counterpart to Antonioni’s
L’AVVENTURA (1960). This witty, well
acted, dialogue-driven film uses absurd humor to chip away at the idea of a
healthy bourgeois marriage, where an otherwise intelligent and attractive
middle-aged couple loses their bearings during a midlife crisis, becoming an
eccentric and moderately appealing satire on modern marriage.
