A NOS AMOURS Movie Review

To Our Loves

Despite nearly continuous international critical accolades and a parade of film festival awards, Maurice Pialat's low-concept, intimate slice-of life dramas have never really caught on with the American art-house crowd. A good example of his work is this startlingly intimate domestic nightmare about a teenage girl (the amazing, 17-year-old Sandrine Bonnaire's screen debut) whose bed-hopping seems excessive until it's seen against the backdrop of her utterly dysfunctional, violent, and incestuous family life. Pialat's specialty is the detailed portrayal of such hothouse family dynamics; but it's his steadfast refusal to draw neat, simplistic conclusions about his characters that is the primary reason for his unjustly remaining one of the least-known of France's contemporary masters. Not surprisingly, A Nos Amours received little exposure in the U.S. outside of film festival showings, yet it was awarded France's César—the equivalent of the Oscar—as Best Picture of 1984. One year later, Bonnaire herself would capture the Best Actress César for her equally intense incarnation of disaffected youth in Agnes Varda's Vagabond

NEXT STOP … Vagabond, Loulou, Monsieur Hire

1984 (R) 99m/C FR Sandrine Bonnaire, Dominique Besnehard, Maurice Pialat, Evelyne Ker; D: Maurice Pialat; W: Arlette Langmann, Maurice Pialat; C: Jacques Loiseleux; M: Henry Purcell. VHS, LV COL