«Faute d'amour», a film that speaks volumes about the ills of our times

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

Genia (Mariana Spivak) and Boris (Alexei Rozin) are about to divorce, each embarking on a new romantic adventure. Their twelve-year-old son, Alyosha (Matvei Novikov), is fed up with their quarrels and sobs in silence. He's so desperately in need of his parents' love that it will take them some time to notice that he's run away. Or his kidnapping, who knows. His disappearance, however, will do nothing to alleviate the hatred the separating couple feel for each other.

Faute d'amour, is the film that the French-language press is currently worshipping with near-unanimity. This fifth feature from Russian director Andrei Zviaguintsev won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. The film's strength? Its realism, on the one hand, and its art, on the other. Two elements that, when well combined, result in a masterpiece - just think of Flaubert in the field of literature, who managed to slip the greatest literary genius into a film. Madame Bovary, a novel a priori difficult to read because of its intrinsic boredom.

A black painting of today's Russia

In the same way, Faute d'amour is a difficult film to watch. Carried along by constant tension, its atmosphere wearies, exasperates and even outrages the viewer. It's a hard task, indeed, to watch a couple so representative of today's ills. All the more so when it takes place in the capital of a Russia in the throes of malaise. Boris, the husband, finds it hard to take responsibility; Genia, his wife, is shallow and full of hatred. The two are alike in their mad individualism and cynicism.

The societal catastrophe of which they are the extras is reflected in the décor of the metropolis. Gray, blackened white, bleached black. The Moscow suburbs appear as a well of sadness and gloom. The director's eye succeeds in capturing this everyday reality, through the colors we mentioned and the snow that falls at the beginning and end of the film. Through the ugliness, coldness and harshness of the language itself. And with the subtle framing and camera movements that contribute to his talent as a director.

The film's real target? Contemporary beings

Political denunciations of the country are not lacking either. The militarization of the Russian state, the question of Ukraine, the lack of democracy and the weight of Orthodoxy are all themes subtly integrated into the sound and visual backdrop. But it's hard to call Zviaguintsev a Russophobe: the real target of his film is the contemporary man, the slob glued to his cell phone, building a pseudo-happiness through sexual adventures, bottle-fed at the supermarket, obsessed by his petty problems and unworthy of raising a child.

A real sense of unease pervades cinemas with this film. It's like a sense of shame that grips us, as we sometimes recognize ourselves in some of the character traits denounced by the filmmaker. But does this harsh criticism go too far? Is the society Zviaguintsev intends to point the finger at too apocalyptic? Perhaps. But the lesson is not a moral one. It's a lesson in life, expressed through art that is magnificently Russian in its soul. As Eric Neuhoff put it on the TV show Le Masque et La Plume,It's a film that leaves you devastated.«

A successful bet for this drama!

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

Photo credit: © AlloCiné