La maison des bories

One of the young Turks of les cahiers du cinéma,the nouvelle vague bible ,Doniol-Valcroze was not lucky when it came to making his own movies;his seventies works 'l'homme au cerveau greffé' -which was not bad though- and' une femme fatale" vanished into thin air.And who feels like watching his early works?

And then there's "la maison des Bories".It's by far Doniol-Valcroze's most sustained piece of work.It has worn so well it compares favorably to Jean Renoir's "une partie de campagne" as the precedent user points out .The Provence landscapes are a feast for the eye,so is Marie Dubois's luminous beauty.The plot is simple:a family,the father,a grumpy scientist,his beautiful wife,and their two children live in "la maison des Bories, a remote house in a hot sunny part of the provence .There comes a young man Karl Stephan who falls in love with the mother (who falls for the young man too).It is banal I hear you say;not at all.They will become platonic lovers.that's why we can say Dubois's character is a modern princess of Clèves who favors duty -or her family here- over sex.

Nevertheless,this film contains one the most beautiful love scenes that was ever filmed:The two "lovers" lay naked in their beds at night,in their bedrooms: a stunning editing make us believe that they're actually making love.

A wonderful score enhances the beauty of the cinematography;the cast is excellent:Marie Dubois found here her lifetime part :had the Cesars existed at the time,she would have deserved one hands down;it's too bad that this excellent actress,now sick,can no longer play.Matthieu portrays the young German with sensitivity and his relationship with the children is wonderfully depicted.Maurice Garrel,in the thankless part of the sullen husband ,makes all his scenes count.

In a nutshell,if you tired of films where people sleeps together during the first fifteen minutes and where sex kills any emotion,this is a must-see.For that movie alone,Doniol-Valcroze should not be forgotten.

The story? The husband is a scientific man. He's boring and severe with his wife and two children. The woman is the victim. She's bored with her husband and her life. And here comes the third one : a German translater. He's young, handsome, loves life and the children can play with him. You know what happens next! O.K., we saw that a thousand times in movies! But this simple French movie is very beautiful, because of the photography. Views of countryside looks like the works of a great painter. Indoor photography is also superb! This movie looks like Terence Malick before Malick. I really don't understand why the Internet movie database says this movie is like Le dîner de cons (1998)! It's not a comedy and had really nothing to do with this movie! If you want to compare, look at Jean Renoir's Une partie de campagne (but that Renoir movie was in Black and white!) Or compare it to any Malick picture.

All I know about Director Jacques Doniol-Volcroze is that François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddar regarded him as a fellow member of the Nouvelle Vague that rolled over French cinema over the late 1950s, through the 1960s. Ironically, LA MAISON DES BORIES bears none of the usual traits of a Nouvelle Vague flick with its classically composed bucolic cinematography, exceedingly beautiful musical score (the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto 21 is put to more inspired use here than in ELVIRAN MADIGAN), restrained acting, and a deceptively simple screenplay that hides immense spiritual complexity.

The serenely beautiful Marie Dubois plays the loyal wife and mother who has fallen in love with a handsome young visitor but know better than to cheat while her husband is away on a job interview. Maurice Garrel plays her rather boring, disciplinarian, conservative university professor of a husband, who rules over the house with a tight grip, but ultimately proves able to change.

Then wunderkind Mathieu Carrière, handsome and fit, fans change into the household as he gets on with his job of translating Garrel's geology work to German, plays with the kids, falls in love with Dubois and ensnares her emotionally. However, the evil mendacity of manservant Ludovic in the house of dry stone huts (i.e. Bories, a construction style typical of southeastern France) enlightens her as to the straight and narrow path for a clean and balanced approach that saves the family unit and gives it a future, as Garrel returns with good news: a job in Paris that will prevent having to place the kids in boarding schools away from home.

I found the film stunningly beautiful and its moral etiquette delightful. Heartily recommended viewing. 9/10.