I’m Going Home (2001)

Simply Perfect

Powerful

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Blistering performances.

One may be surprised by the first scene of this film. One expects something else but finding oneself in a theater for a Eugene Ionesco play. I dare say that these excerpts of well-known plays are a good hint for the main character's life, an old actor who lives mainly for his art, more on stage than at home (the loss of his family makes him leave in a hurry, but he never cries for that). As a Ionesco fan, I salute the choice of "Le roi se meurt". As a Picoli fan I am surprised a bit by his look, but, well, I was young once, log time ago, and so was he. Anything goes to an end on earth and an actor's career can't last forever. Still, the end is quite surprising, honestly, I thought Valance could resume his work the next day. All in all, I liked the film and I am glad I could see it.

How could Piccoli blow it so big-time after appearing in more than 200 pictures? Did no one tell him that he would appear with his back to the camera for about 15 minutes in the first reel, performing with very bored-looking actors, including a completely wasted Catherine Deneuve who does not even get a close-up? It seems almost unimaginable that the stars of Belle De Jour (1964) bomb together in this utter dud all these decades later. How does a movie director of 93 years old dare to demonstrate that during a long life in the industry he has learnt next to nothing about building character and plot? I'm Going Home makes The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (in which Piccoli also starred) seem like Gone With The Wind by comparison. For example, the joke about the Figaro=reader who fancies Piccoli's seat in the café is played, not once, not twice, but a third time. Did nobody in the production team have the heart to save the Great Man from his own feeble wit? For a few pretentious cinephiles this film might hold some archival interest, but the overwhelming majority of intelligent movie-buffs will be paralysed with boredom in the first two minutes. Low budget is no excuse: Sex, Lies & Videotape was made for far less than this picture cost. And as for age, all the director demonstrates is that he has learnt nothing about pleasing an audience.

it might be a spoiler I walked out of the cinema and I felt joy, overwhelming feeling of happiness. The movie has (had on me) such a positive impact. So I'm walking completely bemused rewinding the movie in my head. And I realize it is a sad, sad story. So sad.But I don't feel sad, I still feel peacefully calm. And I wonder: how does one make such a sad story, not getting remotely near pathetic and by far surpassing sad, making it.positive? I'm still rewinding the film trying my best to remember every scene, because each one is amazing, but I can feel my forgetfulness creeping up on me. I only had that one chance to see it, on this movie festival. I never got to cinemas, I wasn't expecting it to. Thus it will never get to video-clubs or video-stores (in my country, anyway).The movie is about life. As simple as that. All the little things we do, so trivial, yet so true. Like the habits we hold on to, or admiring the new shoes you just bought. That is the most beautiful scene for me. He meets his agent for a drink. They are sitting in a café, talking, chatting. But all throughout the conversation the camera is set a level lower. Not above the table, on their faces, but below the table, on their legs. Because he just bought a pair of new shoes. And his legs can't keep still. He is looking at them from this angle, admiring from that one. We all do that. For that brief period while something is new our eyes just keep glancing at it. We all do that, but we just don't pay attention. This is just a fragment of what you will find in this magnificent movie. It is a work of art. If you ever get a chance to see it, don't miss it.Unless, of course, you like all the same Hollywood movies that have a world saving plot, but are ever so completely empty, in which case this movie is far beyond your comprehension and you will find it meaningless, plotless, boring and painfully slow.

I like to think of myself as a movie buff, but I'm not. I am a novice, in training. I had never heard of Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira but it turns out he is 93 years old, still active and has therefore been making films for most of the era of "talkie" cinema. So, "I'm Going Home". This is a film I would never have dreamed of going to see. I ended up at the cinema by default without realising that it would change my view on a lot of things and make me feel better without realising that I felt down.I had no idea or preconceptions of what this would be like. The only person I was familiar with was John Malkovich (sp?) I'll get back to him later.The film starts off with a play, and it's a play I would love to see. The audience (in the film) watching the play are enjoying it immensely and it is obvious that Gilbert Valence (the wonderful wonderful Michel Piccoli)is a well known stage actor, much loved by his French audience. Valence comes off stage to huge applause but then receives the worst kind of life-changing news.Cuts to "some time later" We hear no dialogue from him until we see him in his next play. This is clever- unless he is on the stage, we only see him from an outsider's point of view. He is in a bar and we can see him talking and ordering but all we can hear is the white noise of Parisian traffic. And then vice-versa so for a while, he is always on the other side of the window to us.He meets his agent who is a partonising, unsympathetic character. Valence doesn't understand why he keeps offering him roles he would never take. Valence feels out of sorts with society. His world has been reduced and he is surrounded by people he doesn't understand and whom in turn, don't understand him.Enter John Malkovich. He is John Crawford a director of a Franco/American production company who desperately needs Valence to be in his new version of Ulysses (James Joyce you idiot!) (no, I've never read it either). His opening speech to Valence is a text book example of tactlessness and I wonder if M. de Oliveria has often found himself on the receivng end of the same, ageist treatmentMy favourite scene is when Valence is trying his absolute hardest to get the part right. Malkovich is trying to keep his cool but is obviously getting infuriated with this poor frenchman who is trying to read an English-speaking part in an Irish accent (which he has three days to prepare for). The scene consists of a close-up of Malkovich's face as he winces and squirms, looks hopeful then despairs again, whilst we listen to the sound of Valence doing his best in a part that he wasn't born to play.The film is full of so much apart from the story line and gives much food for thought on leaving the cinema. Is he really so out of sorts with the world? How can he be, when his grandson adores him completely and young girls find him very attractive (a fact that he finds hard to deal with)? Surely it is the bad side of modern society that he can't cope with in the same way the rest of us can barely cope either?There are also shots in this picture that would make Martin Scorsese drool. I won't bother describing any because that never works, but if I noticed them, they must be good!I probably make it sound like a melancholy old-duffer movie but it isn't. The dialogue is sharp and often very-funny, there are nice little sub-plots and elegant touches such as people drinking in sync with each other except for Valence. Subtle stuff that you have to watch out for.I won't give the (abrupt, but for a reason) ending away but the way the title is used- it's something we can all relate to and wish we done ourselves!