Mon homme

"My Man" is an artsy, fatalistic drama done in the typical French the-ecstacy-is-in-the-agony style. Telling a peculiar, quirky, melancholy story of a neurotic prostitute's encounters with men in an apparently futile attempt to bring meaning into her life the story overlooks obvious alternatives at every turn and meanders into dark self-deprecating blind alleys. Nonetheless, this strange drama is slick, well crafted, and worth a look by those who are into unusual psychodramas.

A strangely structured film which ultimately makes for a quite moving meditation on the loneliness of sexual predetermination. The characters reach out in random lurching stabs at love - she impulsively invites the homeless man to be her pimp and later picks out someone in a bar to be the father of her child; when the pimp leaves jail he's instantly met by a woman who's been waiting for a convict to befriend, and so on. The closing note of male contrition could be taken as a pallid attempt to redress the balance of a film that often seems to enjoy the advantages for the male ego of freely offered female desire, and yet the remorse is real and touching. The movie expands the theme to encompass economic and social impotence - particularly in the wrenching scene where the husband can't get work and loses it. The note of proud possession in the title of a film that ultimately finds only loss and compromise is ultimately ironic I think, as much as the overblown Barry White score, grabbing boldly at sweeping gestures and passions which we all know to be generally unattainable. The gleaming visuals, often shot from a composed distance, give it the slightly metallic sheen of science fiction: in some scenes the crowd moves like a mechanical construction, powered by a single desultory consciousness.

The old and yet always new story of sexual addiction is told here in a fresh, cheeky, provocative and very French way.

One night, a self-sacrificing prostitute (Anouk Grinberg) from Lyon picks up a completely neglected homeless man (very virile: Gerard Lanvin). And then it happens as it has to happen. A strange love story of a very special kind takes its fateful course.

Other roles include Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (the more talented sister of the more famous Carla Bruni), Olivier Martinez (The Hussar on the Roof, 1995) and some well-known French actors. Director Bertrand Blier (son of the wonderful Bernard Blier) directs the film bluntly and directly. As a viewer, you fluctuate between fits of laughter and embarrassment.

Anouk Grinberg was awarded the Silver Bear at the BERLINALE 1996. Totally deserved!

Definitely a very original film!

As usual with a Blier film, the narrative is elliptical and challenging. In this study of the relationships between the sexes, Blier employs his considerable directorial skills in a bleakly funny "story" that follows the happy prostitute Marie, who befriends a tramp who later becomes her pimp. The film constantly challenges the male and female stereotypes, though some of the depictions of women in the film do raise the suspicion of misogyny on the director's part. However, a male character's apology to "all women" - made straight to camera at the very last moment of the film - seems to suggest that he is being deliberately provocative. I will need to see the film again to make up my mind.

I will say, though, that this movie is well worth watching. It's inventive, clever, funny, and just great cinema.

Director Blier got two things right in this film: casting of two actresses Anouk Grinberg (who won the Silver Bear for this role) and Valeria Bruni Tadeschi (who was awesome in Olmi's segment of "Tickets") and the choice of Henryk Gorecki's (Terrence Malick has used his works, so has Sorrentino) religious music in his Symphony no.3. An above average work of the director.