La gueule ouverte

The Center for Arts of my university is screening all of Pialat's movies this month. 'The mouth agape' is the eighth Pialat film that i've now seen (out of 10) and it is right up there, not only as one of his best along with Loulou, naked childhood, and Van Gogh, but as a striking work on the subject of death. We see an elderly housewife during her last days, who finally dies just when her pain and suffering compels even those who love her intensely, to wish for the dreaded moment to come fast. But the movie is more about how her disjointed family, comprising of a playboyish husband (who, even as an old man, cannot refrain from flirting with any and every woman he runs into), a son who's gone on his father's footsteps and daughter in law, who in a sense mirrors the lady's life. A young and lovely Nathalie Baye plays the daughter in law, and is one of the several stand out performances of the film. In short, death is a hard subject to make films on, but Pialat, with masterful touch, does so with unflinching realism, and the movie has several truly beautiful moments.

This is a sad film with beautiful photography and some haunting music. It deals, graphically and unflinchingly, with the gradual death of a woman. Both the male characters (her husband and son) are portrayed as unsympathetic and incorrigible philanderers. The son (Philippe, played by Philippe Leotard) is married to a strikingly attractive woman (played by Nathalie Baye) yet he still cheats on her. Incidentally the cast list on IMDb seems to credit two different women as playing the part of Corinne, one of the women with whom Philippe goes to bed. The actress playing this part is in fact the strikingly attractive Marie-Blanche Dehaux, and she gives a good cameo performance. The film is an interesting reminder of the fashions in 1974, and is also a reminder of the casual racism and anti-immigrant prejudice which was apparently normal in rural France at that time.

This is not the greatest film by Pialat, but is still far better than most others of its time. It was his third feature, and the first set in his native Auvergne. Monique, a woman in middle age, is slowly dying of cancer, while her husband Roger tries to cope with his feelings of desperation by chasing women. The scene with the girl trying on the yellow pullover in Roger's store is marvelous: he feels her breasts while she seems not very upset over this, or amused either. Philippe is the only one of their children who is still around, and he seems to be following his father in philandering. His marriage with Nathalie will be a rocky one if he can't settle down. Nathalie herself is intelligent, maybe a bit too much for Philippe.

Pialat takes such chances when he shoots a scene: see the opening with Monique and Philippe at home listening to Mozart and talking about family matters; it goes on almost ten minutes, dangerously long you might think, yet Pialat and the actors bring it off beautifully. Hubert Deschamps settles into his part so well, he hardly seems to be acting at all. Same for Monique Melinand and Philippe Leotard; only Nathalie Baye seems a little self-conscious at times. Nestor Almendros was the cinematographer, he had already worked with Truffaut and Rohmer. Pialat wanted available light whenever possible: this accounts for the occasional muddy moment in the film. Is La gueule ouverte available as a Region 1 DVD yet?--if not, why not?

I won't give anything away by saying this is about the reactions of the close relatives of a woman who is dying. It is a stunning, absorbing and beautiful study of these people, and I was totally entranced, I would have been happy for it to be twice as long. The emotions portrayed were so honest, with no hint of gloss or sentimentality. The human condition has never been better-portrayed.

Maurice Pialat's The Mouth Agape is a film about death and everything that surrounds it from diagnosis to burial. It's a film that also explores how it effects everyone close to the central character Monique whose dying from terminal liver failure.

The Mouth Agape shares the same subject matter with Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers which came out a couple of years earlier. I like to think of this film as the Yin to Cries and Whispers Yang. Stripping away the melodrama and heightened sensibility that was prevalent in the cinematography of Bergman's film. Pialat directs this film with a cold, detached nuance. His methodical almost clinical approach to illness and death delivers a striking viewing experience.

Unfortunately any plot developments that splintered off from the main story surrounding Monique became slightly dull, and had me wanting the film to focus back on her. Also I didn't find myself as engaged with the characters unlike Cries and Whispers. Every actor gives a good performance, but they didn't have much of an emotional impact on the story.

Whilst the film didn't leave with the same visceral gut punch that Cries and Whispers did. Watching Monique's disease slowly consume her through the duration of the film left an impact worthy of recommending this film to those that haven't seen it.