Olivier, Olivier (1992)

The Age of Commercialism

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A nine-year-old boy disappears without a trace. Six years later, he reappears in Paris but there are doubts about his real identity. The film entered the competition at the 49th Venice International Film Festival and won an award at the 1992 Valladolid International Film Festival.I don't really have much to say about this film. Having now seen about half of the director's work, I would not go so far as to say I am a fan. Some of it, like "Angry Harvest", I thought was really good. But then we have this film, which never really held my attention. Some of the early scenes are good with the children interacting, but it becomes much less interesting once Olivier (if that is really him) appears as an adult.

I'm surprised that none of the previous posters has mentioned the glaring connection to Martin Guerre, in fact given that the protagonist is a child rather than an adult it could almost be called Martin Guerre lite. This is not to disparage an excellent film in which Brigitte Rouan stands out in the midst of some extremely fine performances. As her Christian name indicates Agnieszka Holland is actually Polish, born in Warsaw, trained in Czeckoslovakia and there is something fitting about this in a film where things are not always what they seem. The 'logical' questions that occur - for example when he is first noticed by the cop who investigated his disappearance six years earlier the youth could have no idea of who he resembled yet when questioned he is able to state categorically that he had no brothers, only a sister named Nadine. It's straining credulity to the utmost to accept that a male prostitute living presumably on the streets would have 1) read about the case when he himself was only six and 2) retained such explicit factual detail - are more or less swept aside by the high quality directing and acting on display. A fine film.

Of all the French films I have seen so far, this one succeeds the most in creating a mood the French are known for doing so well: a sense of melancholy. After watching this film at the young age of 16, I was immediately taken in and mystified. After watching many other films, I can still say that this is one of my favorite films.

"... Holland is 'one of the great film makers in telling a story, unlike so many Europeans who emphasize character. The American public takes to a film where a story is told well'" (Film Quarterly: Vol.52, No.2, Winter 1998-9, pg3).This comment, made by Orion's Michael Barker, is not far off the mark--at least with respect to Holland's film: "Olivier, Olivier" (1992). Despite the plot's non-fictional premise--the idea for the film, in fact, is based on a French newspaper item from the early 1980s--Agniezca Holland's ability in fully capturing the truly bizarre nature of this story leaves viewers wondering if she, in making the film, could actually have been working from real-life experiences. Holland lays the storyline out in a traditional, chronological manner but makes sure to jump ahead several years at a time, where necessary, to retain her audience's attention. I am American and I did 'take to' this film. In this sense, Michael Barker is absolutely correct. However, I imagine anyone would enjoy a story as well told as Holland tells this one.Highly recommended.