As far as I'm concerned, it's been a long downhill road for Resnais since "Hiroshima, mon amour".
I just saw "Les herbes folles" at the Toronto Film Festival right after Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" (which is incidentally in my opinion the best film of the decade). Both films rely heavily on a narrated voice-over. In the case of Resnais's piece, it's unbearable.
Beyond this, André Dussollier's and Sabine Azéma's performances are pretty random, bursting from one emotion to another without warning. It _is_ better than hearing them sing in "On connait la chanson", but this is not saying much! At least it matches the unpredictability of their characters' actions, which is the kindest way I can say that the script is still in draft stage, abruptly changing tack several times in the course of the movie.
When the script fails, Resnais resorts to cinematic devices such as repetition, reverse direction, vignetting, and the ever-popular shrinking circle closing in on a character's head. It's annoying.
I am really struggling to say something positive about the movie. Mathieu Amalric's dead pan and humane portrayal of a desk cop is the strong point here. Both his character and performance try to lend a touch of the real world and comedy that succeeds to this otherwise random film. It's unfortunately not enough.
I just saw "Les herbes folles" at the Toronto Film Festival right after Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" (which is incidentally in my opinion the best film of the decade). Both films rely heavily on a narrated voice-over. In the case of Resnais's piece, it's unbearable.
Beyond this, André Dussollier's and Sabine Azéma's performances are pretty random, bursting from one emotion to another without warning. It _is_ better than hearing them sing in "On connait la chanson", but this is not saying much! At least it matches the unpredictability of their characters' actions, which is the kindest way I can say that the script is still in draft stage, abruptly changing tack several times in the course of the movie.
When the script fails, Resnais resorts to cinematic devices such as repetition, reverse direction, vignetting, and the ever-popular shrinking circle closing in on a character's head. It's annoying.
I am really struggling to say something positive about the movie. Mathieu Amalric's dead pan and humane portrayal of a desk cop is the strong point here. Both his character and performance try to lend a touch of the real world and comedy that succeeds to this otherwise random film. It's unfortunately not enough.