Un moment d'égarement (1977)
Directed by Claude Berri

Film Review

Many years before he became associated, both as a director and producer, with cinema-packing blockbusters such as Jean de Florette (1986) and Germinal (1993). Claude Berri began his film career scripting and directing intimate, low-key dramas that now seem to be the antithesis of the Berri brand.  Le Vieil homme et l'enfant (1966), an arresting depiction of a developing relationship between a young Jewish boy and a racist old man, was Berri's first notable success, although it wasn't until his early collaborations with the comedy giant Coluche in the early 1980s - Le Maître d'école (1981) and Tchao Pantin (1983) - that he acquired his almost unerring knack for turning out popular hits.

Un moment d'égarement is an atypical Claude Berri offering, a slow-paced drama revolving around three characters thrashing about in an overheated cauldron of illicit passion, crushing guilt and a simmering desire for revenge.  With the help of a thoughtful but hardly distinguished screenplay, the leads Jean-Pierre Marielle and Victor Lanoux turn in sensitive, well-judged performances which transform a fairly humdrum drama into something a little more meaningful and memorable.  Making her cinematic debut is a stunning 16-year-old Agnès Soral, who would go on to have a high profile career as an actress.

To his credit, Berri avoids the blatant showiness of his subsequent, grander films, and adopts a more restrained style of mise-en-scène that is much better calculated to get the most from his talented triumvirate of lead actors.  Marielle turns in a particularly creditable performance as an angst-ridden man visibly tormented by his moment of madness with his best friend's seductively nubile daughter.  The film doesn't quite do justice to its subject - occasionally the drama is let down by its lethargic pacing and some wearisome banalities on the writing front, but it is attractively shot and engages the emotions somewhat more honestly than does much of Berri's subsequent work.

Un moment d'égarement was capably remade a few years later in America as Blame it on Rio (1984), directed by Stanley Donen and starring Michael Caine and Joseph Bologna.  2015 saw a second, less satisfactory, remake (with the same title as the original), produced by Berri's son Thomas Langmann.  This was directed by Jean-François Richet and featured Vincent Cassel and François Cluzet in the principal roles.

Film Synopsis

Pierre and Victor have been the closest of friends since childhood.  Now in their mid-forties, both men are separated from their wives and have teenage daughters, Martine and Françoise.  Aged 17, the latter agree to accompany their fathers on their customary summer holiday in the south of France.  Pierre's attempts to rebuild his life after his divorce continue to bring him into conflict with his daughter.  At the same time, he becomes Françoise's closest confidante, not realising that he risks being the object of a teenage crush.  One evening, Pierre attends a wedding party in the company of Françoise.  They have too much to drink and they end up swimming naked in the sea together.  Before they know it, they are making love on the beach.

The next day, Pierre can scarcely take in what he has done.  His attempts to convince Françoise that their amorous fling was merely a moment of madness, never to be repeated, falls on totally deaf ears.  She is convinced that he is the great love of her life and continues to hassle him, threatening to betray him to her father if he dares to call an end to their relationship.  Pierre is placed in a terrible quandary when Jacques tells him that his daughter has admitted to sleeping with a much older man.  Burning with paternal indignation, Jacques intends discovering the identity of the supposed lothario and in this he enlists his friend's help.  Pierre knows that it is only a question of time before Jacques uncovers the truth of his betrayal...