Mainly, this film is about Charlotte Ramplings love for a monkey (a chimpanzee, to be precise), and how her family, especially her husband, deals with it. In fact, upon finding out about his wives affair, Anthony Higgins' character remains surprisingly calm; he even proposes to have the monkey live with them in their house. Maybe he wants to prevent Rampling from leaving him; or he does so since he has an affair himself; or it is his attempt to be "open minded" even in front of an utmost unusual matter. But problems soon up: Not only does the maid (young Victoria Abril!) respond negative to the new guest; the couples friends slowly find up about the hidden secret and try to "help" by drawing in psychologist, zoologists, and so forth. Then, suddenly, Max, the monkey is gone... Sounds weird? It is. All over the film, one is reminded of some of Luis Bunuels work. In one particular scene, Higgins eager to find if Rampling and Max do indeed share sexual experiences pays a prostitute to "visit" Max, about which she has no problems (other than Max!). One could read it as a commentary about, once again, the lifestyle of the Bourgeoisie and the boredom that drives them, but in fact all of the characters are likable and there's not hint of criticism on social inequalities. It's filmed in a "children film style" way, yet in its contents designed exclusively for adults. It makes for an enjoyable reception, but once you've seen it, it's not something you want to watch it all too soon, since "Max mon Amour" is basically attractive for the unpredictable unfolding of the story.
13 Reviews
good squirmy fun
jonathan-57725 January 2009
Interesting - an international co-production that results in a real creative fusion, not the usual mush. This movie pits deadpan surrealist aesthete Jean-Claude Carriere's script against tantrum-prone transgressor Oshima in the service of a narrative where Charlotte Rampling falls in love with a chimpanzee. In spite of the rampant in-your-face perversity, though, Carriere holds the balance of power - Oshima wouldn't have thrown in that climactic victory parade, and I doubt he could have pulled off such an informed spoof of the French bedroom comedy on his own. The bemused passivity of the husband can get a little cloying, but it's pretty remarkable how viscerally sensual the movie gets in the Rampling-chimp lovey sequences. And that goes double once you realize that it ain't no chimp - it's another Rick Baker masterpiece for ya, so that makes three auteurs.
One of the most unusual love triangles
netwallah13 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
A peculiar love triangle. English ambassador Peter Jones (Anthony Higgins) sends a detective to find where his wife Margaret (Charlotte Rampling) goes nearly every day. She has taken a small flat, and he goes there, only to discover that her lover is Maxa chimpanzee. Max comes to live with them, and jealousy complicates matters. It's hard for Peter to accept that Margaret loves both of them. The story is resolved with understanding. As a fable about sex, it remains puzzling, though probably the moral of the story is that people like different things, and if nobody gets hurt, what's the big deal? The plot itself, of course, is absurd, and some of the fringe characters play it for comedy, especially the experts the Jones' friends try to introduce, and the maid Maria (Victoria Abril), who seems to be allergic to Max. But the center of the film is tense, even severe at times. Still, Peter is mostly elegant and bothered in much the same way he'd be bothered by jealousy accompanying the usual sort of affair, and Margaret is smiling and self-possessed and calm. Rampling and Higgins play perfectly in the mode of comedy that has its characters act around a crazy premise as if it were ordinary, and so the film is improbably charming.
Love and tolorance
laluke13 April 2001
I watched this film as a part of a film class that I take. For the first time I really liked a Oshima film as I watched it and not only after we talked about it. The story crosses all kinds of lines of what love is and how it can be felt by anybody or anything. All and all a good film to see. Note that for 1986 Rick Bakers effects are the most life-like I have seen of a monkey. Sometimes you even think it is a the real thing
A better, smarter movie than I expected, if not super special
I_Ailurophile9 February 2023
The first question one must ask upon coming across this title is "what?" The second question, surely, is "how can this possibly be sustained for the entirety of a full-length feature?" The answer is more common and less interesting, and less sensational, than you'd think from the outside looking in. Despite the premise, 'Max mon amour' isn't a sex comedy centered around bestiality. There is comedy, yes, and a facet of just such a taboo, but by and large the picture carries elements that are decidedly less remarkable. This isn't to say that the movie is inherently worse off just because it dallies with such story ideas - an open secret that a couple is keeping, and in particular the open secret of a lover or two outside their marriage; the hijinks of a highly excitable animal living within a home (think 'Beethoven' for comparison); the tension that arises between the central characters based on these ideas. Only, if you think based on a one-line synopsis that the picture is going to be something extraordinary, it really isn't. And for that matter, it's more of a comedy-drama, lightly exploring what such a scenario might earnestly look like in real life; some scenes are more farcical, others are more serious. For all that, this is quite enjoyable, even if it perhaps isn't anything one needs to go out of their way to see.
For what it's worth, this is solidly made. The screenplay whipped up between filmmaker Nagisa Oshima and co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière is curious, but refreshingly earnest in its storytelling even at its most ridiculous. Oshima's direction is commendably strong, and the cinematography of Raoul Coutard; the production design and art direction are splendid. There are tawdry notions dancing on the edge of racism (note a childish use of blackface at one point); the more ponderous beats surrounding the title character bring topics to the surface of animals' emotional intelligence, health, and welfare, but these are not specifically examined with major depth. But still, at its heart this is a feature that broaches its subject matter with total sincerity, to the point that its characters, dialogue, scene writing, and overall narrative are just as real and believable as though in most any title. This is unquestionably reflected in the acting, with performances from all - not least chief stars Charlotte Rampling and Anthony Higgins - that are as reliably sturdy as we would expect anywhere else. Throw in a bit of lighthearted silliness for good measure, and that's a wrap.
This is, to my surprise, a rather pleasant watch. It could have pushed boundaries and buttons, it could have been raunchy, it could have been total slapstick. What we get instead is less readily eye-catching, maybe, but more lastingly engaging and worthwhile. I don't think it achieves any big peak of storytelling at any point, and isn't so singular as to demand viewership. Yet whatever concerns one might have about the title based on the premise are laid to rest quite quickly, and the actual result is, gratifyingly, reasonably compelling as a detached but realistic approach is adopted. Oshima, Carrière, and all others involved are to be commended for defying assumptions, and for not taking the easy path. There's honest craftsmanship in every component part here, and I'm happy to say it's more deserving than it sounds when one first comes across it. Whether you're a fan of someone involved, extra curious, or just an avid cinephile, 'Max mon amour' isn't a must-see, but it really is a fine way to spend ninety minutes if you have the chance to watch.
For what it's worth, this is solidly made. The screenplay whipped up between filmmaker Nagisa Oshima and co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière is curious, but refreshingly earnest in its storytelling even at its most ridiculous. Oshima's direction is commendably strong, and the cinematography of Raoul Coutard; the production design and art direction are splendid. There are tawdry notions dancing on the edge of racism (note a childish use of blackface at one point); the more ponderous beats surrounding the title character bring topics to the surface of animals' emotional intelligence, health, and welfare, but these are not specifically examined with major depth. But still, at its heart this is a feature that broaches its subject matter with total sincerity, to the point that its characters, dialogue, scene writing, and overall narrative are just as real and believable as though in most any title. This is unquestionably reflected in the acting, with performances from all - not least chief stars Charlotte Rampling and Anthony Higgins - that are as reliably sturdy as we would expect anywhere else. Throw in a bit of lighthearted silliness for good measure, and that's a wrap.
This is, to my surprise, a rather pleasant watch. It could have pushed boundaries and buttons, it could have been raunchy, it could have been total slapstick. What we get instead is less readily eye-catching, maybe, but more lastingly engaging and worthwhile. I don't think it achieves any big peak of storytelling at any point, and isn't so singular as to demand viewership. Yet whatever concerns one might have about the title based on the premise are laid to rest quite quickly, and the actual result is, gratifyingly, reasonably compelling as a detached but realistic approach is adopted. Oshima, Carrière, and all others involved are to be commended for defying assumptions, and for not taking the easy path. There's honest craftsmanship in every component part here, and I'm happy to say it's more deserving than it sounds when one first comes across it. Whether you're a fan of someone involved, extra curious, or just an avid cinephile, 'Max mon amour' isn't a must-see, but it really is a fine way to spend ninety minutes if you have the chance to watch.
a keyhole for the audience to observe a behavioral pattern says as much of living beings' universality as of their idiosyncrasy
lasttimeisaw5 December 2017
MAX, MON AMOUR received a tepid reaction when it debuted in Cannes in 1986, a French- American co-production under the rein of the late Japanese provocateur Nagisa Ôshima (1932- 2013), which would become his penultimate feature film.
Since then, it has become a succès de scandale which is less being watched than hyped due to its subversive content, but in fact, most of the time, it suffices as a tongue-in-cheek comedy, a marital satire borne out of Jean-Claude Carrière's urtext, Peter Jones (Higgins) is a liberal-minded British diplomat working and living in Paris, one day, to his utter dismay, he finds out the paramour of his wife Margaret (Rampling), is a male chimpanzee named Max, beggar belief, the couple decides to try out a kind of ménage-à-trois by bringing Max into their official residence, where also lives their towhead school-age son Nelson (Hovik), and believe it or not, in the end of the story, their co-habitation actually works.
Cagey about the salacious details of the relationship between Margaret and her "supposed" primate lover, Ôshima sides with the husband's point-of-view to parse the couple's tug-of-war, firstly, Peter takes up the gauntlet to show his magnanimity by accepting the situation without letting it get under his skin, then, driven by curiosity and jealousy, his attitude towards Max seesaws between hostility and respectable concern, an experiment of corroborating the inter- species sexual act is a bust, whereas an episode of shotgun scare is just a cheeky practice of cheap tension.
It is an immoral cock-and-bull story, menace is palpable, but vice has never descended into the picture and what sagaciously affirming is the film's brazen stance on the dynamism between the couple, it is always Margaret who has the say-so in their states of affairs, however preposterous and quixotic, there is a deep respect unites them as an entity, Peter stoutly fights her corner in the face of extrinsic parties, whether it is a zoologist or a neuropsychologist, accordingly, she also quite frank about her feelings, even stays on friendly terms with Peter's secretary-cum-lover Camille (a gratingly loud Diana Quick).
It is a surprise that Ôshima chooses not to go out on a limb in salting the plot by bestowing Max with a feral complexion, alternatively played by real chimps and stunts in verisimilar costumes (solely by this reviewer's reckoning), Max is presented as a meek pet, not dangerous, sulky at most, albeit his human-like size, even becomes mawkishly lovelorn and loses his appetite when Margaret is absent. Granted, there is a touching and tender naiveness seething beneath its surrealistic premise, which also is not exactly congruent with Ôshima's make-up if one might venture to surmise.
Both Rampling and Higgins tackle the thorny subject with bravura, what percolates from their collective effort is a beguilingly unfeigned sophistication stemming from a bourgeois background, and Ôshima conspiratorially sends up their caprices with deadpan seriousness, not to mention a non sequitur triumph appended to the part where Max momentarily goes missing in the woods.
Ultimately, MAX, MON AMOUR doesn't come to provoke moralists, but offers a keyhole for the audience to observe a behavioral pattern says as much of living beings' universality as their idiosyncrasy, the point is made, but reverberations are somewhat deadened when Ôshima settles for a middle road between "funny and die" in his overall approach.
Since then, it has become a succès de scandale which is less being watched than hyped due to its subversive content, but in fact, most of the time, it suffices as a tongue-in-cheek comedy, a marital satire borne out of Jean-Claude Carrière's urtext, Peter Jones (Higgins) is a liberal-minded British diplomat working and living in Paris, one day, to his utter dismay, he finds out the paramour of his wife Margaret (Rampling), is a male chimpanzee named Max, beggar belief, the couple decides to try out a kind of ménage-à-trois by bringing Max into their official residence, where also lives their towhead school-age son Nelson (Hovik), and believe it or not, in the end of the story, their co-habitation actually works.
Cagey about the salacious details of the relationship between Margaret and her "supposed" primate lover, Ôshima sides with the husband's point-of-view to parse the couple's tug-of-war, firstly, Peter takes up the gauntlet to show his magnanimity by accepting the situation without letting it get under his skin, then, driven by curiosity and jealousy, his attitude towards Max seesaws between hostility and respectable concern, an experiment of corroborating the inter- species sexual act is a bust, whereas an episode of shotgun scare is just a cheeky practice of cheap tension.
It is an immoral cock-and-bull story, menace is palpable, but vice has never descended into the picture and what sagaciously affirming is the film's brazen stance on the dynamism between the couple, it is always Margaret who has the say-so in their states of affairs, however preposterous and quixotic, there is a deep respect unites them as an entity, Peter stoutly fights her corner in the face of extrinsic parties, whether it is a zoologist or a neuropsychologist, accordingly, she also quite frank about her feelings, even stays on friendly terms with Peter's secretary-cum-lover Camille (a gratingly loud Diana Quick).
It is a surprise that Ôshima chooses not to go out on a limb in salting the plot by bestowing Max with a feral complexion, alternatively played by real chimps and stunts in verisimilar costumes (solely by this reviewer's reckoning), Max is presented as a meek pet, not dangerous, sulky at most, albeit his human-like size, even becomes mawkishly lovelorn and loses his appetite when Margaret is absent. Granted, there is a touching and tender naiveness seething beneath its surrealistic premise, which also is not exactly congruent with Ôshima's make-up if one might venture to surmise.
Both Rampling and Higgins tackle the thorny subject with bravura, what percolates from their collective effort is a beguilingly unfeigned sophistication stemming from a bourgeois background, and Ôshima conspiratorially sends up their caprices with deadpan seriousness, not to mention a non sequitur triumph appended to the part where Max momentarily goes missing in the woods.
Ultimately, MAX, MON AMOUR doesn't come to provoke moralists, but offers a keyhole for the audience to observe a behavioral pattern says as much of living beings' universality as their idiosyncrasy, the point is made, but reverberations are somewhat deadened when Ôshima settles for a middle road between "funny and die" in his overall approach.
A classy looking piece of self mockery by a classy Japanese director
barevfilm29 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Max Mon Amour, 1986.
A married French woman takes a zoo chimp named Max to be her lover. Viewed at Berlin 2019 as part of a Charlotte Rampling retro.
The first film seen at the festival in the homage to Charlotte Rampling retro was somewhat of a disappointment. I had seen this picture when it first came out in Japan and was favorably impressed at the time by its outrageous sense of the absurd, especially as made by a serious A level Japanese director like Nagisa Oshima.(died 2013 at age 80). This time around the humor, at least for me, did not hold up and I was rather bored most of the way.
Today it is of little more than passing historical interest
There is, however, an interesting background to this very offbeat franco-Japanese co-production from the year 1986 by which time Oshima was regarded as a first class Japanese iconoclast. Outside of Japan he was highly esteemed in France where his mainstream hardcore porno films In the realm of the senses (1976) and Empire of Passion (1978j were screened at Cannes and had created a sensation.
His next Cannes entry 1983, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence"
about a Japanese POW camp in WW II took the Grand Prix at Cannes and firmly established Oshima's reputation in France.
French producer Serge Silberman who was a long term backer of controversial Buñuel films and selected Japanese films helped set up Oshima's first and only French language piece starring Charlotte Rampling an outstanding British actress fluent in French. With a script written by Oshima (and Jean Claude Carrière) this film was his bid to gain wider general acceptance and it almost worked. It certainly earned him a bit of notoriety if not much else.
The film itself is based on the absurd premise that the elegant bored wife (Rampling) of a handsome diplomat (Anthony Higgins) falls in love with a zoo chimpanzee, buys him from the zoo, and sets him up in an apartment as her regular lover. Higgins plays her blasé diplomat husband who invites the ape to live with them in their ultra fancy Paris pad in a most sophisticated menage à trois. Talk about broad mindedness! Higgins himself is carrying on an extramarital affair so this ridiculous film might be interpreted as a wry comment on so called open marriages.
The problem is that although played for straight faced laughs it isn't really very funny, mainly because the fake chimpanzee simply doesn't have the charm of Tarzan's real chimpanzee pet Cheetah and just bungles around disjointedly. The end result is a classy looking piece of self indulgent self mockery that fails to hit the marks intended. Almost fun to watch anyway simply for its unabashed absurdity, but John Waters it isn't. (Though it might have been really funny if made with Divine).
The film sounded so tasteless that I just HAD to watch! And it's currently on Netflix if you, too, are curious!
planktonrules15 October 2015
The summary on IMDb says "A French wife takes a zoo chimp named Max to be her lover" and this sounds so awful and tasteless that I just had to give it a quick look! So is it distasteful, gross and without merit or is it a comedy or film with something to say?
In this French-English language film, Peter suspects his wife Margaret might be having an affair. So, he hires a detective to follow her and the detective finds she does have a lover...a chimp! Instead of getting a divorce, the very open-minded husband invites her to bring her lover home to live with them!
The most important thing you need to know about this film is that it is NOT explicit or pornographic--at least when it comes to the chimp. Additionally, it's quite the absurdist film because everyone plays it straight and the couple are so chill about the whole bestiality angle...as are many of their friends. This is typical of many of the writer/director Nagisa Ôshima's films. The overall effect is bizarre to say the least but at least the acting is good. NOT a film for everyone...in fact, not a film for MOST people. Mostly because there isn't a lot of meaning behind all this...it's just absurd for the sake of absurdity and isn't actually that entertaining! More one for folks with serious head injuries and unnatural affection for animals! Or, for folks what watch it on a dare!
By the way, the 'chimp' in this movie is VERY obviously some guy in a crappy chimp costume. Also, if some woman was inclined to have a bestial relationship with a chimp, it wouldn't be especially satisfying. Chimp sex routinely lasts less than 5 seconds and the whole beating the woman to death because they are vicious would be a real turn off as well! Also, the detective is played by the legendary French comedy film director and actor, Pierre Étaix.
In this French-English language film, Peter suspects his wife Margaret might be having an affair. So, he hires a detective to follow her and the detective finds she does have a lover...a chimp! Instead of getting a divorce, the very open-minded husband invites her to bring her lover home to live with them!
The most important thing you need to know about this film is that it is NOT explicit or pornographic--at least when it comes to the chimp. Additionally, it's quite the absurdist film because everyone plays it straight and the couple are so chill about the whole bestiality angle...as are many of their friends. This is typical of many of the writer/director Nagisa Ôshima's films. The overall effect is bizarre to say the least but at least the acting is good. NOT a film for everyone...in fact, not a film for MOST people. Mostly because there isn't a lot of meaning behind all this...it's just absurd for the sake of absurdity and isn't actually that entertaining! More one for folks with serious head injuries and unnatural affection for animals! Or, for folks what watch it on a dare!
By the way, the 'chimp' in this movie is VERY obviously some guy in a crappy chimp costume. Also, if some woman was inclined to have a bestial relationship with a chimp, it wouldn't be especially satisfying. Chimp sex routinely lasts less than 5 seconds and the whole beating the woman to death because they are vicious would be a real turn off as well! Also, the detective is played by the legendary French comedy film director and actor, Pierre Étaix.
Best in a theater, still fine on DVD
poikkeus11 August 2009
Seen with an audience in a theater, Max Mon Amour can be a surprising and satisfying parable. When a womanizing diplomat (Anthony Higgins) realizes that his wife (Charlotte Rampling) may be having an affair, he's shocked, then disgusted that this lover is in fact a full-grown chimpanzee. At first, it appears that Rampling may be using the simian to exact emotional revenge on his wife; then, it seems that a special kind of love might be in play - which inflames his jealousy to the point of violence.
Nagisa Oshima frames the film as an offbeat comedy, but it's hard to ignore ignore its themes, which include the blindness of love, questioning to what degree we're human or animal. To the very last scenes, it's difficult to predict that will happen to the chimp or the strange romance. It's presented almost entirely without music, and filmed in French and English - as if to say the language spoken here is beyond words, speaking the language of the heart.
Of particular note is the rendering of the chimp, which is presented so realistically that you almost believe it's real. Charlotte Rampling is enigmatic and sensual as Max's "lover."
Nagisa Oshima frames the film as an offbeat comedy, but it's hard to ignore ignore its themes, which include the blindness of love, questioning to what degree we're human or animal. To the very last scenes, it's difficult to predict that will happen to the chimp or the strange romance. It's presented almost entirely without music, and filmed in French and English - as if to say the language spoken here is beyond words, speaking the language of the heart.
Of particular note is the rendering of the chimp, which is presented so realistically that you almost believe it's real. Charlotte Rampling is enigmatic and sensual as Max's "lover."
Oddball Comedy Played Straight
daoldiges3 June 2019
The premise of this film sounded just odd enough that I felt compelled to check it out at the MoMA showing last evening. I had to sit with it a day to determine exactly how I felt about it. It's definitely unusual. I found the beginning both interesting and funny, and I also enjoyed the open sequence and credits along with the score. However, the story progressed in such a way that it became clear, to me at least, that the story wasn't really developed beyond the surprise that Rampling's lover is a chimpanzee. The husbands initially accepts the situation but grows increasingly obsessed with what exactly his wife and chimp do when they're alone together, since she will not let him watch. He hires a prostitute to have sex with the monkey so he can see how it's done. There are other moments that are somewhat engaging, and the two lead performances are very good, but in the end, I found Max Mon Amour mostly unsatisfying and could have befitted from some prudent editing.
Deviant Cinema At It's Finest!
meddlecore9 February 2014
This is a humorously brilliant little film from renown Japanese director Nagisha Oshima with dialogue which flows between French and English and a storyline all about Zoophilia. Nicely compliments the newly released R-100. They would make a nice double feature together.
The film follows a French diplomat who suspects his wife is having an affair, after he finds out she has been secretly renting a second apartment from a private investigator he had hired.
When he goes to investigate for himself, he walks in on his wife....naked...in bed with a Chimpanzee.
Flabbergasted by the whole thing, he doesn't know what to think.
But, out of sheer curiosity, he accepts his wife's kinky fetish...and even asks her to bring Max (the chimp, which is more likely some dude in a chimp costume...or a puppet) to come and live with them and their son.
The most awkward and hilarious scene occurs when the couple has friends over for dinner- during which they hear Max screaming. Curious themselves, they ask to meet him. But when they bring him out he pretty much molests his human lover in front of their friends.
The film focuses less on the lustful aspects of the human-chimpanzee relationship, though, than it does on the psychological journey which our protagonist is swept through, as he tries to understand his wife's psychological condition...not to mention an attempt to fathom what exactly goes on between them behind closed doors. He needs to know...and it's driving him mad.
The entire spectacle is hilarious, and filled with bestial and zoophilic innuendo. Like when Peter's secretary/mistress set's the Queen up to visit a stud farm. At one point, Peter (the husband) hires a prostitute, and pays her to attempt to get Max to have sex with her...so he can watch (although, as it turns out....she wasn't his type...totally mine though!).
While hilarious from start to finish, I wouldn't exactly qualify this explicitly as a comedy. It's comedic element is more a result of the truly bizarre nature of the thematic content (from the perspective of general normality, if such a thing exists), than it is from a brazen attempt to make you laugh. The jokes require a bit of reflection, at least.
When all is said and done this a truly imaginative and deviant piece of cinema that should be experienced by everyone. It will make you think. It will make you laugh. And it will make you go "WHAT THE F**K!?". What more can you ask for, really? Oshima has nice framing too! 8.5 out for 10.
The film follows a French diplomat who suspects his wife is having an affair, after he finds out she has been secretly renting a second apartment from a private investigator he had hired.
When he goes to investigate for himself, he walks in on his wife....naked...in bed with a Chimpanzee.
Flabbergasted by the whole thing, he doesn't know what to think.
But, out of sheer curiosity, he accepts his wife's kinky fetish...and even asks her to bring Max (the chimp, which is more likely some dude in a chimp costume...or a puppet) to come and live with them and their son.
The most awkward and hilarious scene occurs when the couple has friends over for dinner- during which they hear Max screaming. Curious themselves, they ask to meet him. But when they bring him out he pretty much molests his human lover in front of their friends.
The film focuses less on the lustful aspects of the human-chimpanzee relationship, though, than it does on the psychological journey which our protagonist is swept through, as he tries to understand his wife's psychological condition...not to mention an attempt to fathom what exactly goes on between them behind closed doors. He needs to know...and it's driving him mad.
The entire spectacle is hilarious, and filled with bestial and zoophilic innuendo. Like when Peter's secretary/mistress set's the Queen up to visit a stud farm. At one point, Peter (the husband) hires a prostitute, and pays her to attempt to get Max to have sex with her...so he can watch (although, as it turns out....she wasn't his type...totally mine though!).
While hilarious from start to finish, I wouldn't exactly qualify this explicitly as a comedy. It's comedic element is more a result of the truly bizarre nature of the thematic content (from the perspective of general normality, if such a thing exists), than it is from a brazen attempt to make you laugh. The jokes require a bit of reflection, at least.
When all is said and done this a truly imaginative and deviant piece of cinema that should be experienced by everyone. It will make you think. It will make you laugh. And it will make you go "WHAT THE F**K!?". What more can you ask for, really? Oshima has nice framing too! 8.5 out for 10.
Love in all shapes and form.
lost-in-limbo19 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Odd, absurdist and bold French comedy directed by Japanese film-maker Nagisa Oshima. The British diplomat of France believes his wife is having an affair. He finds out she rented out an apartment, visiting it couple hours a day. So he heads there to confront her and to his surprise it's not with another man, nor woman, but actually a chimpanzee she bought from a zoo. Dumbfounded, yet curious he invites his wife to let the chimpanzee Max come live with the family as he's willing to make it work.
There's something rather perverse and uneasy to it all, yet strangely it feels light-hearted in its mentality favouring playfulness and deadpan humor. Never does the film question hard what we are seeing, letting the concept evolve without an ounce of ridicule in its delivery. Characters do at one stage question, is the living arrangements fair and wouldn't the monkey miss the open spaces? But that's trumped by the power of love. Tolerance is presented, especially when it came to love and how it can be felt than just something psychical. Who's one to question love? Love is more than just skin deep and what we see is that their bond is mutual from first sight when her husband pays a hooker (double price) to entice the monkey while he would watch in an attempt to comprehend what is happening with his wife behind closed doors. Probably would've had more impact if kept serious across the board, but you can see why they went down this route. What was interesting is in how they went about the relationship between husband and wife. His growing fascination in how she can share this connection with a monkey and vice versa brings out all kinds of complications (like the uncomfortable affection shown at the dinner table in front of bug-eyed house guests), emotions and she really does lay it down on the line in the film's final heartfelt monologue. Charlotte Rampling was quite good in an understated performance and I noticed when the end credits started rolling that make-up artist Rick Baker had some involvement in the monkey costume and it shows.
There's something rather perverse and uneasy to it all, yet strangely it feels light-hearted in its mentality favouring playfulness and deadpan humor. Never does the film question hard what we are seeing, letting the concept evolve without an ounce of ridicule in its delivery. Characters do at one stage question, is the living arrangements fair and wouldn't the monkey miss the open spaces? But that's trumped by the power of love. Tolerance is presented, especially when it came to love and how it can be felt than just something psychical. Who's one to question love? Love is more than just skin deep and what we see is that their bond is mutual from first sight when her husband pays a hooker (double price) to entice the monkey while he would watch in an attempt to comprehend what is happening with his wife behind closed doors. Probably would've had more impact if kept serious across the board, but you can see why they went down this route. What was interesting is in how they went about the relationship between husband and wife. His growing fascination in how she can share this connection with a monkey and vice versa brings out all kinds of complications (like the uncomfortable affection shown at the dinner table in front of bug-eyed house guests), emotions and she really does lay it down on the line in the film's final heartfelt monologue. Charlotte Rampling was quite good in an understated performance and I noticed when the end credits started rolling that make-up artist Rick Baker had some involvement in the monkey costume and it shows.
Love your monkey
Woodyanders14 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The always lovely and captivating Charlotte Rampling gives one of her warmest and most appealing performances to date as the elegant, bored stiff wife of bland stuffed shirt diplomat Anthony Higgins. Rampling has an extramarital affair with Max (Ailsa Berk in an amazingly convincing Rick Baker simian outfit), a moody, ill-tempered, but very adorable, affectionate and even amorous chimpanzee. Higgins discovers Rampling's infidelity and decides to allow Max to move into his posh Paris apartment with the frail hope that his wife will quickly become tired of the cuddly little bugger. Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, who co-wrote the wickedly clever and incisive script with frequent Luis Bunuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere, shows an engagingly light touch with this droll, frothy and mildly mocking comedy about staid'n'starchy steadfast bourgeois mores and attitudes which trenchantly satirizes the drabness, emptiness and superficiality of upper-class life, the absurdity of the rich's insistence on maintaining a respectable, well-mannered veneer in the most ridiculous of situations, male fear of impotence, and the hilariously desperate measures people will resort to in order to alleviate tedium and obtain some kind of emotional fulfillment with genuinely funny (the radiant Victoria Abril is a stitch as the timid maid whose face breaks out due to a severe monkey fur allergy), charming, and ultimately quite touching results. The fact that this film doesn't coyly gloss over the touchy subject of bestiality clinches its status as a deliciously eccentric and subversive treat.
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