Faux fuyants (1983)
Directed by Alain Bergala, Jean-Pierre Limosin

Film Review

This first film from Alain Bergala and Jean-Pierre Limosin presents an unsettling portrait of guilt and manipulation but, lacking in substance, it struggles to hold the spectator's attention. The film's style - a somewhat disconcerting halfway house between that of Robert Bresson and Eric Rohmer - is as uncomfortable to take in as its content. The realism that is achieved by the use of natural locations and pared back, cinema vérité kind of mise-en-scène is diminished by the expressionless performances from the principal cast, who fail to engage with the audience and struggle to make any of their dialogue ring true. It is no surprise that both of the film's directors subsequently went on to major in documentary filmmaking - that seems to be their natural forte. Faux fuyants looks as if it wants desperately to be a documentary and resents the fact that it is only a low budget drama. After this shaky start to his career, Limosin would later find acclaim with such films as Tokyo Eyes (1998). The part of the young woman who is pursued by the film's guilt-stricken hero was played by Rachel Rachel, the lead singer of the French pop group Luna Parler, which had a hit with the single Tes états d'âme Eric.

Film Synopsis

Serge, a businessman in his mid-forties, is in a terrible state after running down and killing a young man.  Racked with guilt, he becomes depressed and withdrawn, haunted by a crime that will never leave him.  It is his manic craving for atonement that drives him to track down the dead man's daughter, Rachel, and having done so he contrives an elaborate plan to gain her confidence.  At the same time, he strikes up an acquaintance with a young man who has hopes of making a career as a writer.  Through these two unlikely friendships Serge is able to pull himself through his present crisis and make up for his crime...