1979 black crime comedy
Rating: 17/20
Plot: In a nearly empty urban world, a guy with a knife either murders somebody or doesn’t murder somebody at a subway station. He goes home and meets a new neighbor, a police investigator who happens to be his only neighbor in a high-rise apartment building. The next day, his wife is found murdered. Later, the man who murdered his wife pays him a visit, and along with the police detective, they have a few drinks. Then, a new character comes along, a guy who was a witness to the crime at the subway station, and asks the main character to kill somebody for him. Then, some other things happen.
It’s a tough movie to write a plot synopsis for because I really don’t want to give anything away and not a lot makes sense anyway. This has a script that feels like it came from a Theater of the Absurd dramatist, and it’s both humorous and a little disturbing is that none of the characters react to what is happening–like, murder and stuff–the way they’re supposed to. This has all the pieces you need for classic noir or a good detective story. You have a femme fatale, a detective, a murderer, a murderee, etc., but none of them are playing their roles correctly. The acting’s brilliant, especially Depardieu and Bernard Blier, the father of Bertrand Blier who wrote and directed this. They all play it straight, straight enough to make people wonder if this is really a comedy, like characters in a very serious dream. But then they get lines like “I’ll teach you to cuddle me!” and “Violins get on my nerves! I’m allergic!” which helps clue you in. All sorts of weird little details threaten to become symbols in this thing. Depardieu’s character wears a coat perpetually, but why? A ridiculous picture of a husband hovers over his wife with Depardieu. The majority of the movie takes place in a city devoid of extras and happen at night. Then, in a shift that seems very sudden, they’re in the country and there’s daylight. Depardieu’s knife is alluded to frequently. All sorts of things going on to keep it interesting for the parts of your brain that enjoys puzzles. The best thing in this movie that is written well and has really good performances is the scenery and cinematography though. I like the geometry of this movie. Shapes, characters in frames, background colors that make it look like Mark Rothko was in charge of set design. There’s shapes and lines in every shot which seems like something that would be true for every movie, but if you watched this movie, you’d probably see what I mean. Some shots are symmetrical. There are also some interesting things going on with light including one shot with the trio of characters–like Dada Stooges–with Depardieu in the center, the police guy with a background of city lights behind him and the murderer with urban darkness. I thought maybe that was giving a lot away, but there’s really no telling with these characters. Oh, the movie’s also got some great wallpaper. This is not really an accessible black comedy that would appeal to people who like, say, Fargo, but if you’re a fan of Roy Andersson or Luis Bunuel, give it a try. Oh, and see it twice so that you can devote one entire viewing to wallpaper deconstruction.
