Tandem

There are a lot of directors in France who have been unjustly ignored by its mainstream press. This has a lot to do with the manner in which French films are received at home and outside of France. However, it is not a secret that French press has always tried to ignore its own directors. This attitude has not at all bothered director Patrice Leconte as he has a lot of loyal fans including famous people such as rock singer Mick Jagger."Tandem" is one of the most ambitious comedy film ever helmed by Patrice Chereau. It speaks about people who take their work very seriously. As a result of their dedication to work,they are unable to think anything beyond their work.This film's key roles have been played by Jean Rochefort and Gérard Jugnot who travel around France to record quiz shows.It is during one of their trips that one person learns about something for which the second person wouldn't utter anything. Although TV has always been popular in France,Tandem features a world where radio played a larger role in society.Lastly,"Tandem" teaches us all some moral lessons about the handling of a bare truth.

Another great movie from Leconte and one that marked a departure from the strictly laugh-filled movies he'd done up to this point. This one has everything, comedy, certainly, but seasoned with a dash of pathos and honest sentiment. Rochefort is outstanding as usual - not for nothing does Leconte use him time and time again - but the revelation is Gerard Jugnot, also best known at this time for strictly comedy roles, displaying a wonderfully sensitive side and limning a real 'human' being foreshadowing by some fifteen years his standout performance in Les Choristes (still, disgracefully, unshown commercially in London almost a year after its release in France and some six months after being released in HONG KONG!). Jugnot plays Rivetot, mechanic, engineer, sidekick and general dogsbody to Rochefort's Mortez. Mortez is the host of a radio quiz show with which he has been touring France for several years but his penchant for gambling means there is very little in the kitty so that the two men are obliged to share twin-bedded rooms in each town they play. The radio station have effectively axed the show but Rivetot keeps the news from Mortez, knowing it would metaphorically kill him. This is a wonderful melange of laughter and tears and warm, human friendships and shows Leconte emerging as a consummate film maker.

Mortez (Rochefort) is a famous ageing radio game host who spend his life on the road, going from town to town for his show, with his younger sidekick Rivetot (Jugnot). The show is their whole life, until the radio station decides to cancel it... "Tandem" is a tragedy, a comedy, a road-movie and a tale in the same package. The background manages to be both hyperrealistic (it depicts a gloomy provincial life and is inspired by a real game show that still exists today) and fantastic (surreal events abound, like the mysterious red dog Rivetot keeps seeing). Rochefort is simply great as the charming but obsessive Mortez who will never surrender. Jugnot, as the subdued sidekick that has trouble living without his mentor, delivers a strong performance far from his usual slapstick roles. Both make a heartbreaking, unforgettable tandem and the movie is one of the masterpieces of the 80's.

A movie released in 1987, "Tandem" represents a turning point in Patrice Leconte's work. Indeed, from this film, this brilliant director gives up comedy to shot more dramatic movies which will enable him to assert a more personal and more original style. Thus, "Tandem" is the first of a quite long series of movies that will make Leconte one of the most accomplished French filmmakers ever.

"Tandem" is a thrilling and consistent film in the way Leconte succeeds in cleverly blending road-movie, drama and comedy. The latter expresses itself in several forms. For example, several details of the movie gives it a little surrealist air (Rivetot who has an obsessive fear of red dog, Mortez who can't stand the sight of drivers who have a picnic on the edge of the road). Leconte uses these somewhat absurd details to shot comical situations. The best example can be found in the following sequence: as Mortez and Rivetot's car breaks down, they have to host their radio program in the country. The candidates are the ones who fixed them and they are people who are actually picnickers!

Concerning drama, it is especially present in the background of the film: Rivetot's will to hide the truth from Mortez about the cancellation of the game. On another hand, in dramatic sequences Leconte knows how to create the emotion, partly thanks to the music.

Then, "Tandem" is served by two exceptionally talented actors. Leconte describes then with a touch of ironic humor. On one hand, Jean Rochefort (who will often be one of Leconte's favorite actors), a proud and haughty man who only lives for his radio program. On another hand, Gérard Jugnot, a jovial man who is impressed by his partner (it is to be noted that it is the first movie in which he acts without his mustache). Through their adventure, not only is it a real friendship story that Leconte aims at showing us.

Ultimately, "Tandem" is a fine success of a gifted director and if you wish to discover Patrice Leconte's movies, this one constitutes a good start.

Another great movie from Patrice Leconte. About whom we fans of his can say,

like Michel Mortez, that it's been twenty--what am I saying?--twenty-five years that he's been making fine movies. And while Jean Rochefort's Mortez, with his airs of a "grand seigneur" is a fine character, I was more entranced by Jugnot's Rivetot, the wonderfully human Sancho Panza to Mortez's Don Quixote.

Leconte is an unusual writer and director: supremely intelligent, witty, cool, mature, he nonetheless has the ability to write roles for an actor like Jugnot, who seems at heart, and in the most endearing way, still to be a child. I don't know how Leconte manages this feat. All I can do is marvel.