De l'amour (1964)
Directed by Jean Aurel

Film Review

A busy screenwriter on an eclectic mix of films since the start of the 1950s - including Michel Boisrond's comedy Une parisienne (1957) and Jacques Becker's swansong Le Trou (1960) - Jean Aurel established himself as a film director on the fringe of the French New Wave with this idiosyncratic look at the psychology and sociology of that most bewildering of phenomena, love.  The film was inspired by an essay of the same title by the French writer Stendahl, one that was ill-received and generally regarded as incomprehensible when it was first published in 1822.  Co-scripted by Cécil Saint-Laurent (the author of the popular Caroline chérie novels), De l'amour is a sweetly subversive film that wraps its innate vacuity in an appealing thick wrapping of Nouvelle Vague insolence and modernity.

The film begins in the playful manner of Jean-Luc Godard's early comedies, with Philippe Avron's attempts to lure Anna Karina into bed presented as a kind of sporting event, complete with running commentary and a burst of applause whenever Avron 'wins a bout'.  This portion of the film (it's hard to tell whether it is an imitation or a send-up of the French New Wave) would have made a delightful short film, but as a prelude to the main part of the film - Michel Piccoli's exploits as a modern Don Juan - it is somewhat wasted.  After this tasty little hors d'oeuvre, the main course can't help feeling somewhat stale and insipid.  How can you follow a segment that includes lines like "Saved by the crayfish"?

There are some amusing moments as Piccoli, posing as possibly the creepiest dentist you'd ever want to meet, sails along at the mercy of his over-developed libido.  When he is not directing his seductive charms to the likes of Elsa Martinelli and Joanna Shimkus (at least he has impeccable taste), he is regaling them with his home cinema collection, which consists excusively of films in which he has recorded for posterity all of his previous amorous exploits (starting a trend that has now become an unpleasantly ubiquitous reality).  The lack of substance (and seafood-themed gags) does however become painfully evident by the midpoint and thereafter the film becomes a tad dry and repetitive.

With a less alluring cast, De l'amour would be an unappealing prospect and it is to Aurel's credit that he gets the best from all of his lead actors.  Anna Karina adorns her habitual mystique with more than a whiff of Godardian mischief as she plays hard to get for a likeably persistent Philippe Avron.  Joanna Shimkus and Michel Piccoli are so well-suited that they had to work together again - and thankfully they did, in Vittorio De Seta's haunting drama, L'Invitée (1969).  After this naughty flirtation with Stendahl, Aurel went on to direct several notable literary adaptations - Lamiel (1967), Manon 70 (1968) and Staline (1985) - as well as penning Francois Truffaut's last two films, La Femme d'à côté (1981) and Vivement dimanche (1983).

Film Synopsis

Raoul is a dentist by trade, an inveterate Don Juan by habit.  His young wife Hélène gets her revenge by leaving him and starting a relationship with Serge, a man who accosts her in the street and insists on making love to her.  Raoul is not one to mourn over this betrayal - he is soon pursuing his next amorous conquest, Sophie.  When the latter's ex-husband Antoine shows up to reclaim his former lover, Raoul turns his attention to Mathilde...