Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé (2005)
Directed by Stéphane Brizé

Film Review

An engaging, well-measured performance from Patrick Chesnais (one of the finest actors working in France today) brings an exceptional degree of poignancy and humanity to this beguiling low-key drama.  The film's subject may be a familiar one - a solitary older man falling for a fragile younger woman - but Stéphane Brizé's subtle direction and Chesnais's heartrending portrayal make it devastatingly effective.  There are echoes of other great directors here - Rohmer, Bergman, Truffaut - in the way that a simple story is told with great sensitivity and meaning.

Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé is only Brizé's second full-length film, his first being the highly entertaining Le Bleu des villes (1999).   What both films have in common is their striking blend of realism and poetic charm.  The characters and the world they inhabit are portrayed with an almost documentary-style authenticity, and yet the feelings and aspirations of these same characters are shown, just as convincingly, with immense poetry, irony and some humour.  Stéphane Brizé's work should be better known and anyone who sees Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé will immediately recognise a filmmaker of immense talent and sincerity.

Film Synopsis

After his divorce, Jean-Claude Delsart finds he has lost his zest for living.  Now in his fifties, increasingly estranged from his son Jean-Yves, he finds his work as a bailiff dishearteningly dull and has no enthusiasm for starting new relationships.  He lives alone, miserable and tired with life.  As a result, his health is beginning to suffer.  He consults his doctor, who diagnoses he is suffering from stress and suggests he takes up a new hobby to help broaden his horizons.  This is how Jean-Claude ends up enrolling in a dance class, something he would never have thought of doing a year ago.  The therapy seems to work. 

Within a short time, Jean-Claude finds himself a new friend in Françoise, a good-looking woman who is younger than him by twenty years.  She is presently in a relationship with another man, an aspiring writer named Thierry, but he seems to be more interested in the book he is working on than her.  The one thing that Jean-Claude and Françoise have in common is that neither of them wants to start a new love affair, but as they get to know one another better they discover an inexplicable mutual attraction.  Can it be that the lonely 50-year-old is falling in love again, or is he just heading for another terrible disappointment...?