Max mon amour

Seen with an audience in a theater, Max Mon Amour can be a surprising and satisfying parable. When a womanizing diplomat (Anthony Higgins) realizes that his wife (Charlotte Rampling) may be having an affair, he's shocked, then disgusted that this lover is in fact a full-grown chimpanzee. At first, it appears that Rampling may be using the simian to exact emotional revenge on his wife; then, it seems that a special kind of love might be in play - which inflames his jealousy to the point of violence.

Nagisa Oshima frames the film as an offbeat comedy, but it's hard to ignore ignore its themes, which include the blindness of love, questioning to what degree we're human or animal. To the very last scenes, it's difficult to predict that will happen to the chimp or the strange romance. It's presented almost entirely without music, and filmed in French and English - as if to say the language spoken here is beyond words, speaking the language of the heart.

Of particular note is the rendering of the chimp, which is presented so realistically that you almost believe it's real. Charlotte Rampling is enigmatic and sensual as Max's "lover."

The summary on IMDb says "A French wife takes a zoo chimp named Max to be her lover" and this sounds so awful and tasteless that I just had to give it a quick look! So is it distasteful, gross and without merit or is it a comedy or film with something to say?

In this French-English language film, Peter suspects his wife Margaret might be having an affair. So, he hires a detective to follow her and the detective finds she does have a lover...a chimp! Instead of getting a divorce, the very open-minded husband invites her to bring her lover home to live with them!

The most important thing you need to know about this film is that it is NOT explicit or pornographic--at least when it comes to the chimp. Additionally, it's quite the absurdist film because everyone plays it straight and the couple are so chill about the whole bestiality angle...as are many of their friends. This is typical of many of the writer/director Nagisa Ôshima's films. The overall effect is bizarre to say the least but at least the acting is good. NOT a film for everyone...in fact, not a film for MOST people. Mostly because there isn't a lot of meaning behind all this...it's just absurd for the sake of absurdity and isn't actually that entertaining! More one for folks with serious head injuries and unnatural affection for animals! Or, for folks what watch it on a dare!

By the way, the 'chimp' in this movie is VERY obviously some guy in a crappy chimp costume. Also, if some woman was inclined to have a bestial relationship with a chimp, it wouldn't be especially satisfying. Chimp sex routinely lasts less than 5 seconds and the whole beating the woman to death because they are vicious would be a real turn off as well! Also, the detective is played by the legendary French comedy film director and actor, Pierre Étaix.

I watched this film as a part of a film class that I take. For the first time I really liked a Oshima film as I watched it and not only after we talked about it. The story crosses all kinds of lines of what love is and how it can be felt by anybody or anything. All and all a good film to see. Note that for 1986 Rick Bakers effects are the most life-like I have seen of a monkey. Sometimes you even think it is a the real thing

Mainly, this film is about Charlotte Ramplings love for a monkey (a chimpanzee, to be precise), and how her family, especially her husband, deals with it. In fact, upon finding out about his wives affair, Anthony Higgins' character remains surprisingly calm; he even proposes to have the monkey live with them in their house. Maybe he wants to prevent Rampling from leaving him; or he does so since he has an affair himself; or it is his attempt to be "open minded" even in front of an utmost unusual matter. But problems soon up: Not only does the maid (young Victoria Abril!) respond negative to the new guest; the couples friends slowly find up about the hidden secret and try to "help" by drawing in psychologist, zoologists, and so forth. Then, suddenly, Max, the monkey is gone... Sounds weird? It is. All over the film, one is reminded of some of Luis Bunuels work. In one particular scene, Higgins – eager to find if Rampling and Max do indeed share sexual experiences – pays a prostitute to "visit" Max, about which she has no problems (other than Max!). One could read it as a commentary about, once again, the lifestyle of the Bourgeoisie and the boredom that drives them, but in fact all of the characters are likable and there's not hint of criticism on social inequalities. It's filmed in a "children film style" way, yet in its contents designed exclusively for adults. It makes for an enjoyable reception, but once you've seen it, it's not something you want to watch it all too soon, since "Max mon Amour" is basically attractive for the unpredictable unfolding of the story.

Interesting - an international co-production that results in a real creative fusion, not the usual mush. This movie pits deadpan surrealist aesthete Jean-Claude Carriere's script against tantrum-prone transgressor Oshima in the service of a narrative where Charlotte Rampling falls in love with a chimpanzee. In spite of the rampant in-your-face perversity, though, Carriere holds the balance of power - Oshima wouldn't have thrown in that climactic victory parade, and I doubt he could have pulled off such an informed spoof of the French bedroom comedy on his own. The bemused passivity of the husband can get a little cloying, but it's pretty remarkable how viscerally sensual the movie gets in the Rampling-chimp lovey sequences. And that goes double once you realize that it ain't no chimp - it's another Rick Baker masterpiece for ya, so that makes three auteurs.