Alice et Martin

The French movie Alice et Martin (1998) was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Alice and Martin. The film was co-written and directed by André Téchiné.

Juliette Binoche portrays Alice, a professional violinist who lives with Benjamin Sauvagnac, a gay playwright and actor. (Benjamin is played by Mathieu Amalric.) Alexis Loret portrays Martin Sauvagnac, Benjamin's half-brother.

Martin comes from the countryside to Paris, and moves in with Alice and Benjamin. Naturally, he falls in love with Alice. The rest of the plot spins out as a relationship story between Alice and Martin, as the name of the film implies.

Téchiné is a great director. Brioche is a great actor. This should have been a don't-miss movie. Sadly, it didn't work out that way. I think that part of the problem is that Alice is depicted as unsure and dependent. That's not really the way we usually see Juliette Binoche, and she appears unsure and dependent playing that role. Anyway, the magic doesn't happen.

We saw this movie on the small screen, and it worked well. It has a dismal IMDb rating of 6.3. I thought it was somewhat better than that, and rated it 7.

Although the performances were good, this movie is quite frustrating. While a non-linear narrative can be effective and compelling, the disjointed plot or lack of one leaves the viewer bored and confused. The story line is further strained by the lack of development of much of Alice's and Martin's characters. For instance, one can't understand why Martin's father was such a brute or why Alice would choose to stay with Martin. It's a shame because this movie could have been a lot better.

Martin, age 20, runs away from his rural French home under mysterious circumstances and ends up at his half-brother's flat in Paris, where he meets and falls in love with the half-brother's female roommate Alice, age somewhat older. When Alice informs him, halfway through the film, that she is pregnant, he has a flashback (which we don't see for a while yet) of what happened to make him flee his father's house, and for the rest of the film, while Martin languishes in a psychiatric facility, Alice must resolve the situation Martin created, a labor of love she doesn't hesitate to perform even though it involves the sacrifice of her own happiness.

The bad news: This is a long, slow movie, and the characters are not really as well-defined as they perhaps could have been, especially given the film's character-centered plot. The good news: It's really beautiful to watch, and when the end of the movie sneaks up on you, and you've given what you've seen a little while to sink in, it's so brilliantly sad that you just want to fly to Paris and find Alice and hug her or take her to dinner or something. Not a good choice for a first-date movie--rent the video and have a close friend over for wine and cheese.

In her review of 'Alice et Martin' in Cinopsis, Marina Bergamelli states that the reason why Techine made this film remains obscure.

For those people who understand and know that such emotional worlds exist, it is a cathartic masterpiece of great value.

It takes courage to make a feature film of this nature and am grateful to the people who undertook such an artistic endeavour.

Film would be dead without them.

Julian Flynn

Andre Techine is a director that likes to portray the problems young people are facing, which seems what attracted him to "Alice et Martin", a film that gives us a strange take in how the past catches up with a young man that challenged his father's authority. The screen play is by Olivier Assayas and Gilles Taurand, two men that have had written better things for the cinema.

The film's opening sequence is puzzling since we have no clue as to what makes Martin run away from home. This seems to be a disjointed way to make the film work, because even though we might guess what could have happened, when the final truth comes about, we just don't care about it.

Then there is the problem of Alice's attraction for Martin. Alice is a woman that seems to know what she wants. She is older than the young guy that comes into her life, and should have been wiser to avoid, at all costs, but she falls for him, anyhow.

Basically, what attracted us to the film was Juliette Binoche, an actress that is always interesting to watch. Unfortunately, because our lack of interest in the story, we stop caring about her long before we get to know what really happened. Alexis Loret is a weak choice for Martin. Mathiew Amalric and Carmen Maura fare better in their supporting roles.

"Alice et Martin" is a slow moving film that will get in the nerves of viewers. Better luck to M. Techine in his next effort.