For this two-part TV film from 1984, director Bernard Queysanne turned to Jacques Spiesser, whom he had already directed in three films, and to Anicée Alvara, whom he had directed in the enjoyably whacky 1979 TV comedy 'Les 400 Coups de Virginie'. She will perhaps be most remembered for her Alain Robbe-Grillet outings, but here we get a good sense of her as an engaging and natural actress in serious roles.
On the day of her wedding, Diane listens to a cassette tape from Thierry. In the tape he refuses to be present at her wedding to the handsome Noël, and he narrates the history of their own relationship...
At art college Thierry, disabled by childhood polio, comes to rely on Diane, a beautiful and kind fellow student. She slowly brings him more out of himself and a profound bond springs up between them. The help seems to be one-way, yet when he is absent she loses the motivation to attend.
Alvina perfectly captures Diane's spontaneous kindness and melancholic distances.
Spiesser has the difficult task of portraying the caustic Thierry whose life is being suffocated by his condition. He does a great job representing the disability. At college he has to combat interminable stairs and dangerous crowd rushes. He also has to watch from the sidelines while the exuberant students, and Diane, dance about and generally do the things young people do. When he sees her dancing with Noël, he relapses.
Nadine (Jacqueline Parent), Diane's actor friend, gives the drama injections of extrovert chaos as the disruptive go-between, and she has despairing breakdowns as she tries to hang on to Noël.
The play Noël and Nadine are rehearsing is Uncle Vania. We might recall that in it, the beautiful Yelena is in danger of wasting her young life married to a dried-up old man, and obviously there is a parallel intended with Diane and Thierry.
While Part One is largely based in the art college, in Part Two we eventually move to a long summer holiday on the Mediterranean island of Porquerolles.
Here Diane prompts Thierry to cycle, and to swim in the sea, his angry skin calms down and he knows happiness. But as Nadine said, when they get too close, she says goodnight. And when he makes a move to touch her, his crutch clatters to the floor and the moment is gone.
Her relationship with Noël propels us to a tragic conclusion.
This compelling drama is based on the novel by Jean-Didier Wolfromm, himself afflicted by polio and chronic illness, and who like Thierry seems to have been unblinking about others and his own condition.
