It occurs to me that I may have mentioned somewhere along the way that Madeleine Robinson was one of the best-kept secrets in French Cinema; if that is so I make no apologies for repeating it here. When fate leads you to stumble on someone as exquisite as Robinson - or, for example, Mabel Mercer - there's always a tad of ambiguity involved; on the one hand it's great to find oneself amongst the cognoscenti, to know you're one of a select few hip to that jive, on the other hand there's the sadness that the artiste in question is not as widely known and appreciated as the talent warrants. Note: to anyone who has eyes to post a review on IMDb and is deterred by the ten-line minimum requirement; digression is good as witness this, my eleventh line and still to say a word about the film. On the whole I'm all for simplicity based on the simple, declarative statement, i.e. this is a great film. Go see it. Or, alternatively, this is garbage. Don't go. This may well explain the problem I have with the Academic-Pseud axis who can and will happily devote ten PAGES to the colour of a grip's hat-band or what kind of filling the Best Boy prefers in his mid-morning roll. There is, alas, a flaw in my argument. If I said about Shane for example this is a great film, go see it, I would alienate those who despise 1) Westerns, 2) Alan Ladd or 3) both. In the same way when the Alis of this world become orgasmic about Breathless they alienate someone like me who detests 1) Godard, 2) Jean-Luc Godard and 3) that semi-Amateur pretentious prat who made Breathless. There you go. So, to the film. For my summary the one you see above had to duke it out with Postcards From The Center - same problem; whilst it's nice to know that Didier will smile it would be equally nice to reach the non-French speaking reader as well. The story is classically simple with shades of The Postman Always Rings Twice inasmuch as nice guy/dork Blier welcomes Michel Auclair into his home and waits passively for sparks to fly between Auclair and Blier's wife Robinson to the extent that they toy with the idea of killing him. Banal, right. Right. On the other hand it's how you tell them and believe me, a French accent does wonders. All three leads are superb and if Robinson just shades the other two so be it. A great film. Go see it.
Review of L'invité du mardi
