Mon Oncle d'Amerique
by Alain Resnais
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Actor: G?rard Depardieu, Nelly Borgeaud, Nicole Garcia, Pierre Arditi, Roger PierreDirector: Alain Resnais
Writer: Henri Laborit
Cinematographer: Sacha Vierny
Editor: Albert Jurgenson
Producer: Philippe Dussart
Writer: Jean Gruault
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled
Running Time: 125 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: New Yorker Video
Studio: New Yorker Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Mon Oncle d'Amerique
Movie Review: Good Resnais
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not usually that big a fan of Resnais' films, but this dissection of middle class France circa 1980 is quite engaging. The movie intertwines three stories, loosely connected: the story of a civil servant, that of a middle manager in a textile firm (Gerard Depardieu, in the most interesting segment) and that of an actress (Nicole Garcia, the least interesting one). The stories are commented by biologist Henri Laborit, who elaborates on how we respond to external circumstances in modern society and at one point compares the reactions of the characters to the pressures of society to those of rats in a laboratory. (The constant references to actors in French classical cinema is less interesting, as cinephilia seems to be a particular French obsession). Laborit's theories might be outdated or naive, but they make a funny counterpoint to the action. I came out of the movie with the idea of modern capitalist society as a pressure cooker to those who want to play high in the game - nothing new, but it's well illustrated in the film. And to those of us old enough to remember the late seventies and early eighties, is fun to see back the clothes, the cars, etc., that people use back then on the screen.Movie Review: Who Are We?
Summary: 5 Stars
"Mon Oncle d'Amerique" is a film that explores and tries to explain some very profound things. Who are we? What makes us do the things we do? Is human behavior really predictable?
These questions in the hands of another filmmaker, say Ingmar Bergman or Andrei Tarkovsky, could have been turned into a somber chamber piece that most audiences members would describe as "bleak". But, in the hands of French filmmaker Alain Resnais we have a film that is at times joyous and carefree. The movie blends elements of drama and comedy so effortlessly we sit and wonder why can't more films be like this.
Gerard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia and Roger Pierre star as the three leads characters whose lives will intertwine. As we see of the story of their lives, the soundtrack plays Prof. Henri Laborit (who also appears in the film as himself) as he explains human behavior. We then immediately get the connection. These characters are really pawns that we be used to take on greater dimension. It isn't so much their story we are watching, but instead our story.
Rene Ragueneau (Deparddieu) grew up on a farm, and pretty much had his life planned out for himself. His father wouldn't to give him and his brother the farm after he dies. One day Rene stands firm and tells his father he is not going to follow in his footsteps. Rene has other plans for his future.
Jean Le Gall (Pierre) is running for Prime Minister. He comes from a wealthy family, they even have their own island. Which is where Jean was born and spent most of his childhood. Jean is married with two children, but is having an affair. And he even leaves his family for the other women.
That other woman is Janine Garnier (Garcia) a young actress who grew up as a member of the young Communist club. Her parents never wanted her to become an actress but Janine was determined to follow her dreams.
"Mon Oncle d'Amerique" is not just about human behavior. I also felt the film explored elements of the effect art plays on our lives. Rene loves to watch movies with Jean Gabin. Janine is an actress. Through-out the film Resnais inserts clips from various movies that correspond to the characters emotion. Does life imitate art or art imitate life?
And as for the title, all three characters speak of an uncle from America. But the uncle is never shown. Perhaps there never really was an uncle. America is suppose to represent an idea. A place of freedom. An escape.
The film was written by Laborit and Jean Gruault, who worked several times with other great French directors. Namely Francois Truffaut on such titles as "Jules and Jim", "The Wild Child", and "Two English Girls". He also worked with Godard on one of his best films, "Les Carabiniers".
For those unfamiliar with Alain Resnais, he was at one time a highly experiemental filmmaker and part of the French New Wave with titles "Hiroshima, mon amour" and "Last Year at Marienbed". "Mon Oncle d'Amerique" would find Resnais playing around with story structure again. And many feel it was the best work he did since 1967's "The War Is Over".
In the end "Mon Oncle d'Amerique" is a movie that makes us laugh and think. It never takes the subject matter too serious. The film never becomes a lecture, yet it is thought provoking.
Bottom-line: One of Alain Resnais best films. An ambitious films that doesn't over reach. A thought-provoking, highly entertaining piece of work from a great director.
Movie Review: A wonderfully intelligent movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Fascinating, off-beat piece of filmmaking, brimming with intelligence rarely found in movies. Three storylines are traced and eventually come together, and involve a harried businessman (Gerard Depardieu), a politician/writer (Roger Pierre), and a single-play actress (Nicole Garcia); while these three stories unfold, director Alain Resnais intersplices an on-going lecture by a psychologist expounding on his theories of behavior. These theories have to do with the way people behave toward each other, mainly through learned societal traits, and how those behaviors must be counter-balanced by the more instinctive patterns inside of us, especially when it comes to the dominance of others. Resnais is brilliant in the way he combines the lecture with the unfolding lives of the three protagonists. The only mis-step I felt was the last minute of the movie, which shows burned-out buildings and makes a social statement not congruent with the rest of the picture. But other than that, it's a terrific movie.
Movie Review: The erratic behavior of the human...
Summary: 4 Stars
Resnais' penchant for film as cognitive experience first and foremost here comes to the fore, although emotion is certainly on display as well. The three main characters of the film--an actress turned fashion industry stylist (Nicole Garcia), a media executive (Roger Pierre), and a textile middle manager (Gerard Depardieu)--all undergo changes in their lives that intertwine with the theories of human behavior put forth by Professor Henri Laborit, a famed French psychologist and scientist, who plays himself in the film.
Bearing in mind that the film was made in 1980 and that psychological theory has advanced significantly since then--largely founded on one after another breakthroughs in neurobiology/neurophysiology--this is nevertheless an entertaining piece of cinema whose theme is really how we respond to external circumstances--specifically, those that could potentially be very stressful.
For some people, a specific circumstance will be manageable; for others, it will be tremendously stressful. In this film, all three main characters respond to various experiences as very stressful ones, and consequently exhibit behaviors reflecting that: attempted suicide, psychosomatic illness, emotional outbursts. Laborit comments on the reason for this stress, which is primarily the inability to dominate (i.e., control) a situation. Regardless of new discoveries in neurophysiology, his statement is absolutely true, and Resnais fuses Laborit's voiceover discussion with interrelated events in the lives of the three main characters that illustrate the scientist's words.
Once in a while, Resnais gives human characters the heads of white lab rats to wittily capture Laborit's points (not for long; just a few seconds or so). Yet in spite of this visual cleverness, the dexterity of the lead actors embodying the emotional intensity they experience given certain changes in circumstance is truly skillful.
What's also interesting is that, early on, two of the three characters profess their love of past French film stars--in particular, Jean Marais and Jean Gabin. When each of these two (the Nicole Garcia character and the Gerard Depardieu character) are confronted with these changes in circumstance, Resnais cuts to a snippet of a scene from a film starring Marais (for Garcia) or Gabin (for Depardieu) in which the viewer can easily tell the emotion experienced by the older actor. This is, again, a clever cinematic device that adds to the film's richness.
Rated one of the best films of the 1980s by numerous film critics, Mon Oncle D'Amerique is a substantial piece of work that bears a number of viewings. It's easy to see why the critics voted this way.
Highly recommended.
Movie Review: What Film Should Be
Summary: 5 Stars
This picture has compelling drama that ranks with the height of American film in the '40s and '50s and insightful intellectual themes that proves it to be a forerunner of modern works like "Waking Life." Thoroughly engaging, trying and reasonably positive in the end. A masterpiece.
Summary of Mon Oncle d'Amerique
Following a pair of films (Stavisky, Providence) that were more conventionally narrative than his explosively experimental early works (Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad), French New Wave pioneer director Alain Resnais began a cycle of films beginning in 1980 (all written by Jean Gruault) that delved deeply into his philosophical and aesthetic concerns again. The first of these was Mon Oncle d'Amerique, starring G?rard Depardieu as one of three middle-class characters undergoing great degrees of personal stress. Presented as a docudrama of sorts with some pulp-fiction qualities, these parallel tales don't really resolve themselves within their own borders but gain another dimension of subjective resolution when Resnais ushers in a real-life scientist to discuss certain kinds of behavioral triggers in humans. The results are actually very satisfying and witty for viewers who can see the overt psychological elements not as a smug commentary on the action but a means of opening the action to a viewer's subconscious experience. Resnais takes the bold step of creating a new kind of filmed story here, and largely succeeds. --Tom KeoghGeneral Video
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