2 automnes 3 hivers (2013)
Directed by Sébastien Betbeder

Film Review

Amid the flurry of bricoleur auteurs that have clambered aboard the French cinema express in recent years Sébastien Betbeder is the one that probably stands most chance of appealing to both arthouse and mainstream French cinema audiences - at least that is the impression you get from his latest shoestring cinematic offering, 2 automnes 3 hivers (a.k.a. 2 Autumns, 3 Winters).  Since 1999, Betbeder has knocked out about a dozen short films and two features, Nuage (2007) and Les Nuits avec Théodore (2012), and his latest film, an odd yet strangely satisfying mix of lowkey American-style rom-com and gratuitous Nouvelle Vague homage, is likely to raise his profile considerably.  Betbeder's success offers some hope that the doggedly independent filmmaker is still a thriving phenomenon in France, despite the introduction of new labour laws which have been heralded as the death knell for the film auteur.

With its eccentric mélange of contrasting styles (the film is shot partly on grainy 16 mm and partly on HD digital), 2 automnes 3 hivers at times looks like an arthouse experiment that has got a bit carried away with itself, but after a while its unorthodox approach to storytelling becomes strangely compulsive.  Divided into an implausibly large number of chapters, alternating face-to-camera monologues with a more conventional narrative approach, the film feels like several dozen short films that have been aggressively stapled together.  This accentuates the film's highs and lows to the extent that it ends up looking as if it might be suffering from an extreme case of bipolar disorder, ecstatically funny one minute, grimly tragic the next.  Improbable as it may seem, 2 automnes 3 hivers ends up delivering (in the most round-about way imaginable) one of the most authentic portraits of today's rudderless 30-somethings that cinema has given us in recent years.  And it has a great Nicolas Sarkozy gag.

Betbeder takes a familiar scenario - young middle-aged drifters suffering from the usual round of emotional upheavals and existential crises - and gives it an absurdist post-modern spin.  Once we have grown accustomed to Betbeder's slightly irritating tendency of referencing every other director under the sun (his main influences being Alain Tanner, Jacques Demy, Judd Apatow and Eugène Green), the film takes on a life of its own and becomes utterly charming.  Much of the film's appeal is due to Vincent Macaigne's intoxicatingly amiable presence as the sympathetic central character. Previously seen in Philippe Garrel's Un été brûlant (2011), Macaigne has charm and charisma in abundance and could well be the next big thing in French cinema. The British newspaper The Observer has even gone as far as to dub him the new Gérard Depardieu.  Here are two names you should definitely watch out for: Sébastien Betbeder, a director with a flair that borders on lunacy, and Vincent Macaigne, an actor you just can't help falling in love with.

Film Synopsis

Arman is 33, lives in Paris and is ready for a change in his life.  Things begin to look up for him when he runs into Amélie, a woman of his own age, whilst out jogging.  A short while later, Arman comes to Amélie's rescue when she is mugged, but he sustains a life-threatening injury for his pains.  It's not the easiest way to win the love of your life but it seems to work.  Meanwhile, Arman's best friend Benjamin has his own medical ordeal to contend with when he suffers a severe stroke...