Known for Acting
Written in 1760, Carlo Goldoni’s comedy has never been performed at the Comédie-Française, perhaps overshadowed by the famousHoliday Trilogy. A satire of the Venetian merchant class, embodied by narrow-minded, complaining and intolerant men whose mistrust of the fairer sex borders on the absurd, The Boors perfectly illustrates Goldoni’s theatre, a “theatre of life with a real content, characters observed in reality, and a natural expression.” Thus, a theatre in which the man Voltaire described as “nature’s son and painter” scrutinises his contemporaries, their relationships and their social behaviour. His work served to entertain while providing posterity with an acute testimony of the morals of his time. Indeed, Jean-Louis Benoit warns against reducing the author to a simple “photographer of reality”.
Olivier, Rémi and Pascale are three friends who have known each other since childhood. As they approach middle age, they each experience something of a crisis in their lives. Olivier, a doctor before becoming wheelchair bound, faces a bleak future after the break up of two relationships. The fact that Rémi and his wife Estelle are unable to have children puts an increasing strain on their marriage. And Pascale, a filmmaker, is on the point of leaving her husband to pursue an affair with an opportunistic career politician.
The poet Jean Sénac, also a radio host, chose to stay in Algeria after his country's independence in 1962. Ten years later, a protester and libertarian, he was monitored by the regime's police. His poems attract a popular audience and his show is a real success with young people. Also, when Hamid and Belkacem, two students, learn that the play they wrote and presented at the first national Algerian theater festival is downgraded under the pretext that they performed it in French, their pain will be alleviated by the presence behind the scenes by Jean Sénac who congratulates them. The latter will become close friends of the poet and witness his fight for the freedom and culture of Algerian youth. A fight which would lead Sénac to martyrdom: one night in August 1973, he was assassinated in the cellar which served as his apartment. Hamid is accused of the murder.
Antoine Rivière, a highly-reputed psychoanalyst, is visited by a new patient, Edouard Berg. When Berg claims to have killed his own wife, the doctor suspects he is a compulsive liar. How could he know that he has been caught in a trap and it's already too late for escape?
Benoit Blanc loves living, he loves women, he loves daring. He is a famous businessman who suffers from stomach-ache. Fabiolini, a would-be actor, is a policeman and he too suffers from the same sickness. The two man face suffering in opposite ways: Benoit Blanc is optimistic while Fabiolini, always unsure of himself, is persuaded he is seriously ill. The two men meet by chance while doing a gastroscopy and become friends. After having known their real different conditions, they will change and will understand better their lives. Around them, other people, women and men, will see their lives changed, by chance, by love or solely by the life stream.
The film is a wonderfully accurate portrayal of the three stories: The stories are tied together with original dialogue and scenes by Martha / Anne / Freda / Judith (Valérie Stroh) and René Feret which follow a Golden Notebook/Anna Wulf theme: she is "writing" the stories and has a boyfriend named Paul who is a psychiatrist. A Man and Two Women: Anne, a young woman, a slightly bohemian painter: "in love" with her newborn, she abandons her husband while Isabelle, her best friend, attracted by to him and becomes little by little her rival. Each Other:Fréda finds her brother every morning in the secret of her bedroom,they leave themselves and incestuous effective becomes the only possible relationship for both. Our Friend Judith: Judith, a cold and warm intellectual, secret and complex - Beautiful, Judith is careful not to show it, she knows interment and that is enough. Intelligent, she does not bend to the rules of fashion nor seduction.
A death in the family. Patrick dies and his three sisters gather at their parents' home in Normandy. Anne, the oldest, is steady, married with two children, showing little emotion. Isabelle, who's cut herself off from her family for eight years, returns from Paris. Claude, Patrick's twin and still a student, grieves for her other half. Along with their parents, each must face family grievances first before they can grieve together for Patrick. Then comes the revelation of how he died, and new feelings come to the fore. Can a death help a family to heal, coax an aging mother back to sanity, bring a couple into each other's arms, and enable two sisters to grow?
