Fanfan (1993)
Directed by Alexandre Jardin

Film Review

Alexandre Jardin made a promising directorial debut with this inspired adaptation of his novel Fanfan, published in 1990.  Whilst the first half of the film feels unconvincing and painfully superficial in places, things improve significantly in its second half.  Compelling performances from Vincent Perez and Sophie Marceau transform what looks at first like a routine romantic comedy into something far richer, far more compassionate.  The second part of the film also contains some moments of artistic brilliance, notably the Cocteau-esque sequence in which the two lovers attempt to make contact through a mirrored partition.  Although there are a few unexplained gaps in the narrative - some more back story about Alexandre might have helped - writer-director Alexandre Jardin succeeds in weaving a tender love story that is both original and hauntingly poetic.

Film Synopsis

The instant that Fanfan enters his life Alexandre finds he is profoundly perturbed by her.  If he were not already committed to another woman, Laure, he knows he would lose his heart to her in a moment.  Fanfan is everything his ideal woman should be - not just beautiful and charming, she has a quality of the divine, a god-made-woman bursting with vitality.  He has never known anyone so alive, so tantalising, so amazing.  Yet Alexandre knows he must restrain himself.  He has already promised to marry Laure, and whilst Laure may not be as dazzling as Fanfan, he is sure she will make the better wife.  So Alexandre contents himself with a chaste courtship of his femme idéale.  He will dine with her, converse with her, share intimate secrets with her - but he will go no further.  It will be the most perfect of romances, a meeting of spirits not bodies.

For a while Alexandre gets what he wants - chaste romantic encounters with the perfect woman without so much as a twinge of guilt that he is cheating on his future wife.  But Fanfan is as strongly attracted to Alexandre as he is to her and she cannot understand his dogged reluctance to go beyond the mere preliminaries.  When she discovers that her reluctant lover has another girlfriend she tells him point-blank that he must make his choice.  It is a choice that Alexandre simply cannot make - he needs the perfect love he has found through Fanfan as much as he needs its more mundane counterpart offered by Laure.  Just how far will Alexandre go to keep Fanfan without crossing the line that will inevitably lead to heartache and disillusionment...?