Les choses de la vie

A typical 70's drama, something that still gets its way when it comes to touch that emotional key in us (Or some of us) and makes us long for that passionate love story, without a tragic end of course. Through a filter of pastel tones, Sautet portrays the typical struggle many have put themselves through to fork onto a secondary sentimental route in life, thinking they can have it both ways. Albeit its apparent sappy tone, Les Choses de la Vie is an intense mature story of love and sacrifice, a double one at the end.

I find European dramas very attractive, perhaps because they portray a kind of no-frills passion that is very hard to come across nowadays, both in movies and in reality. A movie like this surely has its clichés, the dual life, the regrets, the tragic death but in this movie Sautet is a wizard in enfolding the viewer with a very bitter-sweet sequence of happy yet solemn flashbacks. Pedro Lazaga's Largo Retorno (1975) happens to be similar in the way the relationship between the two main characters comes to an end (The memories, the sorrow, the death), granted in Les Choses de la Vie there is a three-way story. Both Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider fit perfectly in the above scheme of things.

Just like in Largo Retorno, a very somber yet passionate baroque score complements the entire movie, leaving us with a soggy handkerchief at the end.

"Les choses de la vie" is the ultimate "mid life crises" movie. A middle aged man must (but can not) choose between his younger girl friend on the one hand and his ex wife and son on the other hand. As a result he gets irritated and frustrated. He smokes heavily and drives aggressively.

Michel Piccoli wonderfully impersonates this character (Pierre Berard). It was a good choice of television channel "Arte" to select this film in memory of Michel Piccoli, who died in may 2020 at the age of 94.

"Les choses de la vie" also was the film in which director Claude Sautet changed from "crime" to "drama", and especially the drama of the middle class. He so became a sort of French Ozu. But where the middle aged Japanese man above all is interested in the marriages of his daughters (or the lack thereoff), the European middle aged man tries to prove that he is still capable by taking a younger mistress.

Sautet tells the story in a peculiar chronological order. Center piece in the movie is a car accident with Pierre as its victim (after all he was driving aggressively). Just like a stone thrown in the water gives wrinklings moving in ever wider circles, the injured Pierre has memories that go further and further back in time. At the end there is no clear distinction anymore between memories and dreams.

It is an experience. Rush, subtle, delicate and strange. A form of catharsis and source of restless questions.

It is a beautiful film but not as aesthetic show or as object of loisir. In fact, it is a definition of life, social relations, ambiguity of love and search of happiness beyond classical definitions or Freudian symbols.

In each life important it is pieces of puzzle. The respect for game rules, the science to be the favorite image of the other, the words as sentimental trap, the desire as essence of duty.

For everybody the role of axis in family, society, hate or respect, expectations and illusions is more relevant than interior life. So, the masks are only way to be answer to expectations of other.

It is a splendid film for the acting of Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli.

For the Sautet mark.

For dialogs and lights, for powerful suggestion art, for its message and definition of second life, for atmosphere and delicate art of existence sense discovery. About last hours and projection of lost world. About final silence and about shadows of the others. About structure of hope.

With "les choses de la vie" ,Claude Sautet relinquished his former style ,film noir ("classes tous risques" "l'arme à gauche" both worth seeking)in favor of bourgeois psychological dramas .

"Les choses de la vie" was the first link on the chain,and -with the exception of "Max et les ferrailleurs" (1971),which showed Sautet at the height of his powers,when he came back for a short while to his first inspiration-remains the best of this "cinema de qualité".

Unlike the other works ("Mado" "Cesar et Rosalie" "Vincent,François,Paul et les autres" "une histoire simple" ,etc etc etc) ,"les choses de la vie" has an emotional power and an unusual inventive direction.Editing is stunning (the first picture is one wheel of the car ),and never a car accident was filmed with such mastery.Flashbacks are used with great skill too.The nightmare scene (the wedding) remains very impressive today.And the metaphorical way Sautet uses to depict the hero's death commands respect and admiration.The last part of the movie is almost completely silent,but the strength of the pictures and the actors' talent (Piccoli,Schneider,but Lea Massari and Jean Bouise too)work wonders.Superb score.louis Delluc prize.

Remake :"intersection" featuring Richard Gere.As I cannot say something nice...

French films are famous for their depiction of minor incidents which converge at a larger point to make up the most of what happens in the lives of people. This helps viewers to have a better idea of protagonists' lives. French director Claude Sautet chose to base his film on this premise as he films the personal as well as professional lives of a successful yet unhappy man. From a career point of view, actor Michel Piccoli is shown as somebody doing well in life as he is appreciated by everybody around him. However, his personal life is in turmoil as he is unable to decide between his wife and his mistress. As he is about to solve this dilemma, a tragedy unfolds in his life. This is hardly the description of an original story but what makes the film interesting is how it has been shot. Apart from describing in detail minor incidents related to the lives of protagonists, Claude Sautet has used all his imagination to film the accident scene which occupies a large part of this film's screen space. Finally, once the film is over, some viewers might be tempted to call it the most important moment of the film.