L'Ennui (1998)
Directed by Cédric Kahn

Film Review

L'Ennui, the film which brought international acclaim for its director Cédric Kahn, provides one of French cinema's most unsettling portraits of middle-life crisis and obsession.  Although the film has a slightly surreal edge to it, the characters and their bizarre situation have a resonance of truth about them, making it an honest and immensely engrossing work.

As in many quality French films, the characterisation takes precedence over the plot, not that this is in any way a bad thing.  L'Ennui is concerned mainly with one man's existentialist voyage of discovery with a young woman for whom he is totally incompatible, yet upon whom he becomes totally dependent.  The relationship between the two characters is purely carnal, yet that is sufficient to hold them together.  It is the relationship of a drug addict and his supplier, only here the drug is sex, and like all addictions its destructive potential soon become apparent.

With such a plot, the film could easily have ended up as a tawdry piece of erotica, but L'Ennui is certainly not that.  Certainly there is a great deal of full frontal nudity and simulated sex (perhaps carried to excess, to the film's detriment), but there is surprisingly very little eroticism in the film.  If anything, the sex scenes (involving a slightly repulsive plump teenager and an ordinary-looking, unexpressive middle-aged man) are slightly absurd, emphasising the bitter emptiness of the relationship and the tragic perversity of the main character's  state of mind.

Cédric Kahn shows maturity as a director and auteur in making this respectable adaptation of Alberto Moravia's controversial novel.  The casting of Charles Berling and débutante Sophie Guillemin is inspired - an unlikely pair (neither actor being over-endowed with beauty or charisma), yet, as it turns out, a perfect choice.   No less surprising is the casting of Arielle Dombasle (soft porn material if ever there was), cast against type as the aloof, somewhat dowdy ex-wife.

Similar considerations apply to the photography and the scripting - both showing a pleasing self-restraint and understated artistic flair.  The cinematography is self-assured, using the hand-held camera sparingly, just enough to capture Martin's moments of disorientation.   The script skilfully combines drama and comedy, allowing the audience to laugh from time-to-time without undermining the film's darker premise.

L'Ennui is an imagniative and daring film which is as much a reflection on the mores of modern society as it is a portrayal of one middle-aged man's descent into Hell.  It cunningly plays on our expectations by defying the obvious stereotypes whilst simultaneously promising what appears to be the ultimate stereotypical French film.  Well-written and well-acted, this is an entertaining yet profoundly unsettling piece of cinema.

Film Synopsis

Traumatised by the separation from his wife, a philosophy teacher, Martin finds himself experiencing a mid-life crisis.  When he learns that an ageing artist he met recently died whilst making love, he is intrigued and visits the artist's studio.  Here, he meets the artist's model, a plump seventeen year old named Cécilia, who reveals that her former employer had an insatiable appetite for sex.   Martin's curiosity about the relationship between artist and model soon turns into obsession as he arranges a daily meeting with Cécilia in his apartment, where, in between having sex with her, he interrogates her about every detail of her life.  Martin's obsession intensifies and takes a dangerous turn when he discovers that Cécilia is dating another man...