Unforgivable (2011)

Purely Joyful Movie!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

For forty years now, Andre Techine has made films that have delighted me (Les roseaux sauvages, Les voleurs) or annoyed me (Le lieu du crime, Rendez-vous). He seems to be on safe ground when he deals with homosexuality, the need for family ties, and beautiful surroundings (here he can film Venice in all its splendour). He flounders when dealing with straight relationships: what is going on between Dussolier and Bouquet, anyway?-- they seem to be in different films.Carole Bouquet is so splendid to look at that I can forgive almost any deficiency in the script in order to drink in that lovely face. Adriana Asti (Gina in Before the Revolution, the film that moved me more than any other) has the best line: "You turn everybody on but nobody turns you on!" It's so true, you admit ruefully. Melanie Thierry has a small part as Dussolier's daughter and leaves a good impression.

This movie is about love relations with voyeurism. Husband and wife, daughter and father have no other aim than the blunt show of their sexual ineptitude going adrift. Add to this that the other themes are about hopelessness and dissatisfaction, disrespect and bad communication, etc... This is boring, just a bad idea, bad ideas. Venice is great, nevertheless, as a character in itself, beside that the actors are great too. Bad time spent watching this even if Dussolier plays perfectly the sad father and husband, hiding feelings with bitterness so well, but Sorry All the other movies of André Techiné are better than this one.

Andre Techine's 2011 film "Impardonnable" was shown recently on a cable channel. The idea of a new production by M. Techine, as well as the people involved in it, was a deciding factor for our interest in watching it. Sadly to say, the film is a disappointment, compared with better, more accomplished films by the director. The main problem is one of credibility. The premise sounds false from start to finish, but we went along hoping for the best, a promise that alas, did not pan out as expected. Supposedly, this picture is based on a novel by Philippe Dijan, which of course, we have not read. M. Techine and his collaborator, Mehdi Ben Attia, have tried injecting some life into the proceedings, with mixed results.The excellent Andre Dussolier, seen as Francis, has the unfortunate task to give life to the blocked crime writer who comes to Venice to get out of his funk. Instead, he gets involved into an affair with a younger woman, Judith, played with multi talented Carole Bouquet. Their love affair does not make much sense, and since doubt enters his mind, the writer engages Anna Maria, a private investigator, a woman who was Judith's lover to look into her imaginary affair that has been bothering Francis. Andre Dussolier had the difficult assignment of baring it all in a couple of nude scenes, where a much modest Carole Bouquet keeps on her clothes. One can hope the next film by Andre Techine will find him in a different frame of mind.

Andre Techine is something of a poster boy on the Academic-Pseud circuit and clearly they're going to love this in the Senior Common Room and the BFI Boardroom - expect an article in Sight and Sound any time soon. Clearly it has something very profound to say about something. What exactly? You tell me, naval lint. Very possibly. A middle-aged writer is looking for a quiet retreat; a female estate agent slightly younger (in real life Carole Bouquet is eleven years younger than Andre Dussollier) gives him details of a house a short distance from Venice. He says he'll take it providing she will go and live there with him. She agrees. I know but this is Techine, the darling of the pseuds. His married daughter, who has left her husband to take up with a deadbeat, violent druggie, leaving her own daughter with grandfather, subsequently drops out of sight. The estate agent, who swings both ways, recommends a former lover, ex-private detective, to search for the daughter. The tec is reluctant because she is worried about her low-life son, due out of prison imminently. There's more but do you honestly CARE. Naturally, being Techine he shoots the film on location around Venice but does nothing so crass as offer any 'touristy' scenes of Venice, best leave that to the real filmmakers like David Lean and Visconti, pseuds are above pandering to entertainment. I've given it five out of ten for Dussollier and Bouquet, who deserve something for enduring this drek. Luckily Dussollier went straight from this to work with a real artiste, Ann Fontaine and significantly the film they made together is called My Worst Nightmare.