Vincent, François, Paul... et les autres (1974)
Directed by Claude Sautet

Film Review

Claude Néron's novel La Grande marrade was the jumping off point for Vincent, François, Paul et les autres..., director Claude Sautet's bittersweet hymn to friendship which rates as one of the director's most personal and endearing films. Although the leftwing French press were quick to label the film 'bourgeois' it was an immense commercial and critical success, attracting an audience in France of over 2.8 million on its first release and winning the 1974 Prix Jean Cocteau.  Not only is this one of Sautet's most realistic films, pummelling its spectator with the most authentic study of the worth and limitations of male friendship, it was highly topical, as it references the economic downturn that hit France in the mid-1970s in the wake of the first oil crisis.

As was ever the case once he had got into his stride as a filmmaker, Sautet brings together a remarkable ensemble that is headed by some of the finest French actors of the day, as well as some very promising newcomers.   Yves Montand and Michel Piccoli were two of Sautet's favourite actors and had already appeared in some of his best films - Montand in César et Rosalie (1972), Piccoli in Les Choses de la vie (1969) and Max et les ferrailleurs (1971). Here, both actors, each at height of his powers, turns in an impeccable performance that reveals a far more acute mid-life crisis than the vague and sketchy script would suggest.  Montand, the more physically expressive actor, naturally steals the focus with his devastating portrait of a man teetering on the brink as his world crumbles beneath his feet, and we scarcely notice Piccoli falling apart in the background until the powerful scene in which the two men finally confront each other with their woes.

Serge Reggiani may have a much smaller role in the proceedings but he is just as captivating in what was a career-saving role, allowing him to make a belated comeback after several years in which his acting played second fiddle to his career as a singer.  Representing the next generation is a young Gérard Depardieu, who had recently had his big breakthrough in Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (1974) and is well-utilised by Sautet to demonstrate that friendship is not confined to one age group but can cross the generational divide. Whilst this is a male-dominated drama, it is impossible to overlook the contributions from the female half of the cast, which includes a magnificent chorus comprising Stéphane Audran, Marie Dubois, Ludmila Mikaël and Catherine Allégret, all superb representatives of the modern liberated woman.

A compelling realist drama, which captures the mood of its time with astonishing ease, Vincent, François, Paul et les autres... cemented Claude Sautet's reputation as one of France's leading auteur filmmakers.  It remains one of the finest examples in French cinema of a drama revolving around male friendship, a subject which, for some reason, few filmmakers in France are willing or able to tackle, at least not with the seriousness and sensitivity it merits.

Film Synopsis

Every weekend without fail, three old friends - Vincent, François and Paul - meet up to take their mind off their personal and professional anxieties.  Vincent is the owner of a small company that he created himself and now lives with Marie after separating from his wife Catherine.  François is a private doctor and has made himself a wealthy man by abandoning his ideals - maybe this is why his wife Lucie no longer loves him.  Paul is the least successful of the three.  After failing as a journalist, he now devotes himself to writing a book he knows he will never finish, becoming increasingly withdrawn and alcoholic as he does so.  The three friends are joined by a younger man, Jean, an amateur boxer who has come to regard Vincent, his boss, as a replacement father.

Now in their late forties, early fifties, Vincent and his friends have each arrived at a moment of crisis in their lives.  With his business about to go down the pan, Vincent has no option but to sell up and work for someone else.  This, combined with his mistress's decision to leave him, causes his health to suddenly deteriorate.  Meanwhile, François is about to lose his wife to a younger man, Jacques, who happens to be a casual friend of the trio.  Living in harmonious seclusion with his wife Julia, labouring on his interminable tome, Paul now appears to be the happiest of the three.  Things come to a head when Vincent has a heart attack.  Now is the time for the three friends to take stock of their lives...