Uma Tão Longa Ausência

For many amateurs associated with cinema, a successful film need to be entertaining with too many sequences occurring with great speed. If such is the concept which defines 'cinema' and 'films' then it would not be incorrect to apply the concept of slowness to many films whose 'real action' come into being only when all the characters and their roles have been clearly defined. This is the case with "The Long Absence"/"Une Aussi Longue Absence" directed by Henri Colpi. Among its important awards one can mention two important recognitions-Palme d'Or award 1961 and Louis Delluc prize 1960.Nothing spectacular happens within the first thirty minutes of this film. However, what gets shown during this time duration has a direct bearing on this film's title. Henri Colpi has set his film during post 14th July ("Quatorze Juillet" parade) holiday season in a quiet Parisian suburb where very few cars can be seen on roads, people know each other quite well and meet regularly at the local bar to listen to music and radio while having a few drinks. This film's 'real action' takes shape when the woman bar owner meets a tramp. This meeting has fatal consequences for both people. For a film based on a real story involving people who lost their families and memories during the war, Italian actress Alida Valli is excellent in her role as the female bar owner who is too obsessed about the memory of her husband who was left to fend for himself during deportation. It is her immense love for her husband which persuades her to view the tramp as her late husband. Actor Georges Wilson portrays his role with utmost care to reveal a tramp who is conscientious to the core. He is the one who delineates himself as the master of his destiny in all situations whether it is about appearance, choice of music or dwelling. There are not so many films which feature mature themes like companionship, life, loss of memory, obsession and war. Henri Colpi's film is considered a classic as well as a masterpiece due to its perfect handling and treatment of these life affirming themes.

Although it might not belong in the 'neglected masterpiece' category this tender, poignant and beautifully understated film deserves to be far better known.

Henri Colpi and Yasmine Chesnay had together contributed superlative editing to 'Hiroshima, mon amour' and 'Last year at Marienbad'. This is Colpi's directorial debut and Chesnay is credited with montage. The tempo is 'lento' throughout and severely tests the attention span of the average viewer. It gradually draws you in however and is ultimately richly rewarding.

Therese feels sure that she recognises in the tramp who passes her bistro every day the husband that was arrested by the Gestapo and deported fifteen years earlier. He is suffering from amnesia and she sets about helping him to restore his memory. Even when he suddenly departs she does not give up hope and says "I will wait until Winter."

The two central performances of Alida Valli and Georges Wilson are simply stunning and the last thirty minutes or so represent film making at its best. The scenes that stand out are those in which she uses the amnesiac's love of Rossini's operas to try and unlock his mind and that in which she discovers the deep scar on his skull as they dance to the delightful 'trois petites notes de musique' of Georges Delerue.

Both the director and writer Marguerite Duras have succeeded admirably in depicting the strength and constancy of a woman's love but also, in Colpi's own words, "the fundamental impossibility of two human beings to communicate."

Generally the simple name of Marguerite Duras makes me yawn my head off.But here,not at all.Released in 1960, this little gem has almost sunk into oblivion,and for good reasons : Henri Colpi was not part of the Nouvelle Vague and it was a curse when His Majesty Godard's reign began.

Hindsight displays the great charms of this movie: the subject is finally close to "Un long Dimanche de Fiançailles" ,Jeunet's extravaganza,but it's an intimate drama and much more moving.

During WW2,Thérèse (Alida Valli,the great Italian thespian,excellent as ever) lost her husband;he had been reported missing in Germany.In her small bistro,she is still waiting,waiting...One days she spots a tramp on the street (George Wilson).Might he be the one?Might he? A film about souvenirs,lost illusions,fear of loneliness,nostalgia,hope against hope,"Une aussi longue absence" is all this and more.Enhanced by George Delerue's (who else?)delicate score,which features the little song "Trois petites notes de Musique" (= three little music notes) , an infinite poetry emanates from Colpi's work.

In 1960,there was not only Truff' or God' in France!Please give the non nouvelle vague directors a chance!They were not out of breath either.

Maybe, more than an admirable film but one of great definitions about truth. The story is just the seed for a special state of soul, one escaping to each temptation to precise it. One of beautiful roles of Alida Vally , giving to Therese Langlois entire brillance and bitterness in admirable manner. A film about love, a meeting and the force of hope. For so many reasons, a masterpiece.

A film that is slow, subtle, inconclusive. For life moves slowly, is full of subtleties which escape us, and fails to offer neat conclusions.

Shot in black and white in an authentic corner of Paris (including the huge Renault factory since demolished) populated by typical locals, it is a work of intricate art dealing with universal themes.

How can Europeans who lived through the traumas of World War 2 forget them? If your husband was captured and tortured by the Gestapo and then disappeared into a concentration camp, how can you have a normal life? After fifteen years Thérèse has not remarried and keeps her lover at arm's length: could her husband one day return from the dead? By intuition she might recognise him, but would he recognise her? While they could obviously not pick up where they left off, could they even pick up at all?

So begins the slow game in which Thérèse tries to make the amnesiac tramp recognise and accept her. A soundtrack of beautiful evocative music adds richness and feeling to the deep emotions the two characters are undergoing.

PS Similar themes can be found in two French postwar novels: "D'entre les morts" (1954) that was transposed to San Francisco for the immortal film "Vertigo" of 1958, and "Le retour des cendres" (1961) which was less successfully made into "Return from the Ashes" in 1965.