Alice et Martin (1998)

reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten


ALICE AND MARTIN (Alice et Martin)

Reviewed by Harvey Karten USA Films Director: Andre Techine Writer: Oliver Assayas, Gilles Taurand, Andre Techine Cast: Juliette Binoche, Alexis Loret, Mathieu Amalric, Carmen Maura, Jean-Pierre Lorit, Marthe Villalonga, Pierre Maguelon, Eric Kreikenmayer, Jeremy Kreikenmayer, Kevin Goffette, Christiane Ludot, Veronique Rioux, Corinne Hache, Mauricio Angarita

Almost every week you hear about a guy who has achieved material success but who has expressed his feeling about his circumstances by committing suicide--or worse, by being the perpetrator of an inexplicable homicide. In "Alice and Martin," filmmaker Andre Techine, whose previous works "Barocco" and "The Bronte Sisters" hone in on the impact of fear, anxiety and guilt--dramatizes a tale about one such person who early in life achieves rapid fame and substance only to be strangely despondent despite his good fortune. Sometimes he is pleased with himself. For the most part when he is not simply staring out a window he behaves in bizarre ways, particularly toward one person to whom he had declared his love. While "Alice and Martin" is not a thriller but rather indulges in the usual Gallic film tradition of elevating talk to a preeminent status, Techine intends to have his audience teased by suspense, wondering just why such a youthful, handsome, and financially successful fellow who is loved by the object of his affection is so downright miserable.

As the title indicates, the film is a romance focusing on two persons, the eponymous woman being a human being who is herself insecure, if not chronically disheartened. This movie can serve as either a love story or a psychological case study. Techine has not succeeded in giving the narrative much dramatic impact, a disappointment particularly if Philippe Sarde's pulsating opening score has you anticipating a work of unique intensity.

Techine's screenplay, co-written by Gilles Taurand and Oliver Assayas, posits the not unusual theory that the past is always with us--sort of like the adage that holds that when you're in bed with your lover, there are really six people under the sheets: the man, the woman and their parents. The story opens on the ten-year-old Martin (Jeremy Kreikenmayer) who is inexplicably ordered by his divorced mother Jeanine Sauvagnac (Carmen Maura) to visit the boy's father Victor (Pierre Maguelon)--only to find that Victor has his own brood consisting of his wife Lucie (Marthe Villalonga) and three half-brothers. (Victor, by the way, seems way too old to be the father of this kid.) As photographer Caroline Champetier cuts to Martin (Alexis Loret in his debut performance) a decade or so later, we find the man aimlessly running through a field, homeless, stealing raw eggs from a farmer's chicken coop for food and sheltering himself as best he could from the cold and rain. Taking refuge with his half brother Benjamin (Mathieu Amalric), a struggling actor, he meets Benjamin's roommate, insecure violinist Alice (Juliette Binoche), secures a fabulous job as a model for commercial products, and makes a bid for Alice's heart. The relationship between Alice--whose masochistic love for the neurotic and moody Martin--is the crux of Techine's account.

Though Martine Giordano's editing is often choppy, in one case flashing back to Martin's youth as though the segment were continuous with his present life, Techine does succeed in various fragments to cast an ambient vision on the production, particularly capturing the routine that tourists go through when exploring an area like Granada's Alhambra and engages the imagination particularly in one slow-motion shot that communicates the vastness of the sea and the insignificance of the human being when placed in contrast. But the story is sloppily organized, the relationship between Martin and his father underdeveloped where further explication is needed, and the project consequently lacks the facility to engross its audience.

Rated R. Running time: 123 minutes. (C) 2000 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com


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