THIEVES
(LES VOLEURS)
A film review by David Blatt
Copyright 1997 David Blatt
Released: 1996 France Directed by: Andre Techine Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics Running Time: 117 minutes MPAA: R Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Laurence Cote
In the opening scenes of Andre Techine's `Thieves' (Les Voleurs), a young boy, wakened by voices late at night, finds that his father, Ivan, has been killed under mysterious circumstances. The next day, his father's estranged brother, Alex, arrives for the funeral with his girlfriend, Juliette. Juliette chooses to stay outside the house, explaining that she doesn't know the family inside. But when she thinks no one is watching, the boy, Justin, steals a glimpse of Juliette planting a kiss on the forehead of his father's corpse.
The mysteries of Ivan's death and what the boy sees are gradually revealed in Andre Techine's powerful and enigmatic film. In a narrative style that shares similarities with Atom Egoyan and Kristof Kieslowski, Techine weaves together a complex yet easily followed tale that jumps back and forth between multiple narrators and time periods over the course of a year leading up to and following Ivan's death. Ultimately, the plot mysteries are resolved, while leaving the much deeper mysteries about the relationships that unite and divide the film's central characters.
The film's title refers most literally to Ivan and his circle of accomplices, who run a petty criminal operation out of Lyons that involves shipping stolen cars to the Middle East. One of his young gang members, Jimmy, has a sister, Juliette (Laurence Cote), a street-tough girl in her late teens torn pulled three strongly conflicting influences: her brother and Ivan and their life of crime; her female lover, Marie (Catherine Deneuve), a professor of philosophy at the college Jimmy pays for her to attend, and her male lover, Alex (Daniel Auteuil), a world-weary detective whose beat is the crime-ridden urban projects of Lyons. Juliette's ambiguous sexuality and gender (she is repeatedly mistaken for a boy) nicely represent a world where things are never quite as they appear.
As the story unfolds, we enter into a tightly-weaven web of complicated rivalries and alliances. Alex and Juliette first meet when she is brought before him on shoplifting charges. When he discovers her ties with the brother he has long despised, they begin a sexual relationship that begins with mutual contempt, but for Alex at least, slowly and tentatively evolves into something more. Alex keeps himself so well proected from intimacy that he insists they remain almost fully clothed during sex. She remains so much a part of her upbringing that she refuses to step foot into a cop's apartment. Yet Alex's attachment to Juliette grows to the point where he chooses to endanger his career so at not to risk implicating her in the events surrounding his brother's death.
Concern for Juliette's well-being creates an equally unlikely bond between Alex and her other lover, Marie. Unlike Alex, who comes to cherish what Juliette offers him yet retains a profoundly cynical and anti-romantic view of human nature, Marie falls deeply in love with her young pupil. Where we are shown Alex and Juliette engaged in rough and dirty intercourse in a hotel, Marie and Juliette share a sensuous, naked bath in Marie's apartment. Yet if Juliette and Alex are thwarted by being on opposite sides of the law, there is an equally great distance separating Marie's romanticism and Juliette's hard-edged despair. When Juliette is forced to flee Lyons, a devastated Marie abandons her job and commits herself to writing Juliette's story. Eventually, Marie chooses to leave Alex with the responsibility of preserving Juliette's legacy.
The Alex-Juliette-Marie triangle is only one of several struggles that `Thieves' explores. There is also a variation on the classic battle between two brothers who stand on opposite sides of the thin line of the law. In this case, it is Alex, the cop, who is ostracized from a family which sees upholding the law as a crime. When Alex tries to connect with his young nephew after Ivan's death, the boy frankly explains that he has no desire to hang out with a policeman. Despite his father's violent end, it is clear that Justin sides with the thieves.
`Thieves' is a provocative and rewarding film that steers far away from simple and contrived messages. Techine demands of the audience that we decide for ourselves what the film is about and what it has to tell us. While depriving us of pat linear storylines and a happy resolution, the joy of viewing intelligent filmmaking and first-rate performances is more than enough to make `Thieves' a rare cinematic pleasure.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews