T'aime (2000)
Directed by Patrick Sébastien

Film Review

The seemingly omnipresent French TV personality Patrick Sébastien both directed and starred in this unusual film which appears to want to combine social realism with fairytale-like sentimentality.  Although the result is far from completely satisfying, the childish simplicity of the film and its attractive photography give it a poetic charm which makes even its worst excesses just about palatable - but only just.

Most of the film's problems seem to stem from its script.  There is scarcely a single part of the storyline which is remotely believable.  Would an adolescent girl really fall madly in love with the man who beat her?  What kind of pschiatrist would try to bring together a rape victim and her attacker?   And why does Annie Girardot give away the film's ending a good twenty minutes before the closing credits?  The limp, artificial, dialogue does little to add credibility to either plot or character and the abundence of bird metaphors (well, they are cheep-er by the dozen) soon becomes trying.  Yes, there are times when you wonder whether the film's author has any understanding of human feelings at all.  This is an autistic child's view of the world, not that of a fully developed, rational human being.  This might have worked had the entire story been told from the point of view of the unfortunate Zef but no, even that opportunity was thrown to the birds.

That the film stands up at all and has any emotional grip on its spectator is due almost entirely to the talents of its cast. In spite of the quality of the material they are given Samuel Dupuy and Marie Denarnaud manage to make their characters sympathetic,  if not entirely credible.  It is a lot harder to fault Patrick Sébastien on his acting than on his direction; his portrayal of a hippy psychiatrist is not bad, even if the character he plays appears just as unbalanced as the mentally deranged people under his care.

Some will find this film enchanting: a naive, minimalist poem of ephemeral love. Others will hate it for its vulgar simplicity, clumsy plotting and gutless lack of realism.  It is certainly an original and frankly bizarre work from a most unlikely film director.

Film Synopsis

In a rural town, a party is being thrown in honour of its most celebrated resident, Paul Gontier.  The festivities are disrupted by Gontier's former wife, Christine, an alcoholic who resents no longer having care of their daughter, Marie.  The latter, still a teenager, is attracted to Zef, a retarded young man of her own age.  The child-like Zef witnesses his sister beinging struck violently during a passionate love-making session.  Equating physical violence with love, Zef gives an unsuspecting Marie the same treatment.  Zef is immediately arrested and put in a secure psychiatric establishment whilst Marie, shocked into a state of near-catatonia, is placed in the care of the psychiatrist Hugues Michel.  The latter decides that the only way to cure Marie is to bring her into the contact with the man who tried to rape her…