L'avversario

What a chilling experience, this terrific movie. Jean-Marc Faure's loneliness in conference halls and on the highway is so painful that it's hard not to feel compassion for him. All my credits to Auteuil and Garcia for this moving film. As you probably know, L'adversaire was based on a tragedy that truly happened some ten years ago. It didn't just inspire one, but two directors. The other film based on this story is L'emploi du temps, by Laurent Cantet. I watched it yesterday, and I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. Having read the very enthusiastic comments on this site, I expected a film of equal quality as L'adversaire but the latter outclassed it by far. I missed the palpable loneliness and desperateness in l'Adversaire, and Daniel Auteuil is in my opinion simply a more interesting and accomplished actor than Aurélien Recoing. If you haven't seen either of the films, I recommend you watch L'emploi du temps first, or just L'adversaire. It's always interesting to compare, but if you have already seen L'adversaire, you might be in for a little disappointment.

The magnificent Daniel Auteuil is ... well ... magnificent once again in this study of a common man whose world turns unaccountably pear-shaped, and who is powerless to get out of the increasingly large hole he's dug for himself. The sequencing of the film is very neatly done - we know from the word 'go' that Faure has done something horrendous, we're pretty sure what it is, and we are led to find out why through a complex series of flashbacks. The art of Auteuil is in his ability to make Faure a sympathetic character, despite his many flaws and the gruesome crime he commits. The painstakingly constructed portrait of a man in torment may get painted on a little too thickly at times, but Auteuil's descent from mixed-up family-man to lethal psychopath is gripping stuff.

Excellent performance by Daniel Auteuil; very inspired and gentle music; The image is great, too. But one should ask himself : Why? Why make a movie about someone who suffers senslessly his entire life, and eventualy kills his whole family because of his insanity .. Is it worth seeing? Well I guess you'll have to figure out the answer for yourself. But even with enough popcorn for 3 hours, one should never waist 2 hours of his precious life.

I must admit my French is a little rusty and I could have done with some subtitles so I was having trouble following the first half of the film on DVD. I borrowed it because I think Daniel Auteil is a good actor and had no idea what it was about except something about a man who lives a lie.

I watched it through to the end and recalled reading so many similar true stories in the last few years on cnn.com that I really got a shock by the end. As one of the scriptwriters comments in the extras on the French edition of the DVD says, "those scenes brought the film back into reality".

I found some of the editing a little jarring but perhaps that was intentional. It all makes sense in the end. Interestingly the producer - again, on the French edition of the DVD - said that she just wanted to follow the main character through his life without judging or diagnosing him, so perhaps those of you who know something about psychiatry will have a different perspective.

Stick with it, revel in the details of the film, and hug your family tightly afterwards.

This true story had already been told one year earlier, back in 2001, with L'EMPLOI DU TEMPS, a film that many viewers found less interesting than this one. Let me say that I don't agree at all. Both are outstanding films. Nicole Garcia's film and the Laurent Cantet's one. Here, Daniel Auteuil is purely awesome, but he is not alone, the whole result is engrossing, riveting, the perfect example of a flawless movie. Such a story has not been remade by the American film industry, at least as far as I know,, and that's very strange. I mean such a scheme has not been made before, but maybe I am wrong after all. A real must see. From a true story, I repeat. Chilling.