«Les Estivants» from the cinema

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

Les Estivants, starring Pierre Arditi, is a comedy-drama that is French only in origin. The elements to make this film a benchmark are absent, although viewers will still have a good time. Verdict.

The film's introduction says it right up front: «Divorce is the worst wound life can inflict.» The tragedy of divorce is a key theme in this French drama, whose alluring poster is assured by the participation of Pierre Arditi. The story takes place on the Côte d'Azur, where Anna and her daughter join their extended family for a vacation. But Anna's husband doesn't come. He leaves her, without really telling her yet. He needs to think things over. Anna, already fragile, finds herself crazy among other crazy people, with family secrets resurfacing. In a somewhat original way.

Unforgivable flaws...

The voices of these lunatics are annoying. It's not even the characters who annoy us - after all, they have every right to: the fault lies with the actors and, above all, the direction. With the exception of Pierre Arditi, who you can tell is bored on the set, his colleagues all have squeaky voices, giving the impression of highly theatrical, unrealistic acting. What's more, events follow one another with little logic and in total chaos.

But perhaps that was a condition of this kind of cinema. We're dealing with a director, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who also plays Anna, and who seems to have made a film about her, only to show that she's making a film about herself. The mise en abîme offered throughout this lengthy feature are not very subtle and, above all, make you wonder what they're for. With its dull New Wave flavor, Les Estivants struggles to captivate, despite the important underlying themes of love, rape and self-construction.

... but pleasant elements

However, we can take pleasure in the viewer's discomfort. In a sense, this result is intended. One of the protagonists, a writer friend who joins the family at their large estate, seems to represent the viewer when she says, frightened, «I'm not comfortable here. I'm leaving.» This master stroke of putting words to our desire to leave the room is successful. And it's not ironic. The interplay with the audience bears witness to the filmmaker's self-mockery, and this form of self-mockery is always welcome.

Mention must also be made of the very interesting instrumental music, which brings humanity to the film, since the characters have none, each as mean or stupid as the next. Also, a few scenes make you laugh, like when Anna asks her soon-to-be ex-husband what the new woman he's met is called: «She's not called.» Finally, we can understand this long fable in three acts as an invitation to the ephemeral, in a slightly Epicurean haze: «You're here, drinking, like every night. And you're right.» Cheers.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Agora Films