Il fascino dell'ambiguità

What I mean is that this kind of scheme, plot, had already been told in the seventies, but not that much, but from this period, eighties and nineties, and even after, there will be dozens of French films speaking of the inner companies struggles, feuds, human resources fierce trench wars...CAROLE MATHIEU, RESSOURCES HUMAINES, CORPORATE and many many more. Unfortunately a forever modern scheme. Rivalry, pushism, careerism "bloodthirsty and brutal" fights among managers, supervisors, executives; folks ready at anything to rise in their companies, even ready sacrifying their private lives...Lanvin, the promising Lanvin facing a terrific Michel Piccoli at his very best.

Set in Paris, a lackadaisical advertising executive, content with his domestic situation with his loving wife, has his life turned upside down when a new ultra-controlling manager takes over the company he works for. The new man begins to intrude upon his life and dominate him, moving his work-life balance into the red. It begins with excessive overtime and gofering, and before long he lets the manager move himself into his house, where he takes no time in the slightest to begin cooking his food, sleeping in his bed and wandering around naked. Needless to say, his domestic life takes a nose-dive as his professional life moves upwards.

This unusual French satirical drama is about a man caught in a trap. A man who loses his personality and quality of life in his pursuit of keeping his boss happy as he eyes his career at the total expense of everything else. It suggests that it is dangerously easy to be manipulated and fall over the precipice when authority deems it the way ahead. I think it is a criticism of capitalist thinking and the abuse of power. Michel Piccoli has a lot of fun here as the overbearing boss, in a larger than life performance of passive aggressive manipulation. Also very good was Jean-Pierre Kalfon as his relentless side-kick François. It's overall an interesting and slightly left-of-centre psychological drama.

Louis Coline tries to keep up with his demanding wife and an equally demanding boss. They both want something else of him. How to cope with this? I liked the theme of how work can have an immense influence on your life. Louis is under pressure and we see him trying to cope with it. How would you respond when at midnight your boss (Michel Piccoli) and his aid (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) are on your doorstep and seconds later they are in your kitchen baking an egg? Shaving naked in your bathroom the next morning? And your wife wants to leave in her nightgown in the middle of the night?

I did not enjoy the film thoroughly, unfortunately. I waited for the magic to happen but it never came. The reason is, I guess, that I found the film just too regular. A regular story about a regular guy, living with other regular people, in a style of filming that is equally regular. It was visually not very enticing. I am not familiar with the work of Pierre Granier-Deferre, but my guess is it shall be mostly slow and observing.

I wouldn't go as far as calling the film bad. It is a solid production after all. It also boasts a couple of decent actors, Gerard Lanvin in his early years being surprisingly sensitive; Nathalie Baye as his wife; and Michel Piccoli as his boss. But it was actually only Jean-Pierre Kalfon who was outstanding (he would've fitted greatly in The Wolf of Wall Street).

On the other hand this observing style works fine when you watch the film as some sort of time machine, to have an honest view of life in 1981 (and not the punky kitsch version of these years the media has invented). As how it was for probably most people: working, family, eating, sleeping. Not as different as life nowadays.

What if a man doesn't fit the role of being the centre of his loving wife's life but jumps instead to the opportunity of getting invaded and absorbed by his new boss who expects from him and two colleagues that they constitute a team without borders of privacy like one body and the boss as the ruling head?

This film is shy, one of those you'll fall over on a sleepless night, on an obscure TV station. And you'll find yourself attracted by its awkward mood and characters (check Jean Pierre Kalfon's performance, amazing here). Truth is, "une étrange affaire" is an "étrange" masterpiece, and I'm not ashamed to say it could have been a Kubrick film in the way it depicts extremely accurately the relationship between a king and his court, and the behaviour of mind bent court followers and how this relationship can work today, in a democracy. Piccoli is at his best, so are Balmer and Kalfon (two very under used and rated french actors) and this is probably Lanvin's best flick (that's if you're a fan of the guy). The film is cruel, and shows how easily a man can get his mind twisted, be it by a ceo or out of a "big company" context, anyone standing on any upper level and how weak and cheap the ways to use are. On that sleepless night, try to stay awake, you won't regret it, even at 4.00 AM.