A French family of rich silk manufacturers has gotten in hot water, due to careless investments. In order to save both the family fortune and the family name, it is decided that the son and heir of one of the owners will marry a rich heiress. This is not to the liking of the said son, who is a jolly, carefree lad with a romantic streak. In the middle of this domestic crisis there arrives an old friend. The man is an unwelcome reminder of an old scandal - or is it an old crime ?
Excellent movie, halfway between psychological drama and thriller. The French word "revenant" (he-who-returns) has a double meaning : it is both a playful term indicating a long-lost acquaintance who turns up unexpectedly and a far less playful term meaning a person who has come back from the dead. "Revenants" of the second type tend to be dangerous : at best they are desperate to rejoin the community of the living, at worst they harbour some kind of grudge. And indeed, the movie is about a person who desires retribution for a vicious wrong... There is some memorable acting going on, especially by protagonist Jouvet, who conveys a masterful blend of threat, charm and deep-seated anger.
The plot is intelligent ; it is also told in an intelligent way, creating a movie which is vivid, evocative and suspenseful. "Un revenant" is also quite witty. It contains a nice array of rapier-sharp portrayals, blistering observations and darkly funny scenes. (Watch the scene near the end, when a crucially important letter is burned - and then watch the use to which the flames are put, during an exchange of the most blameless and conventional politeness. That "Please do" alone is worth a monument.)
The satire is not there as an adornment, it serves a purpose, which is to identify and condemn evils human beings are prone to. One of these evils consists of an undue reverence for money, especially old and ancestral money : you get whole dynasties, reaching back for centuries, where young people are made to marry people they don't love. This is where that gruesomely distorted reasoning kicks in : yes, yes, young Sylvie (or young Nini or young Mathilde or young Marie) absolutely does not want to share the rest of her life with that person, but if she marries him she will get richer than she already is and that will make her happy ! Give this whole "crying for seven weeks" thing twenty or thirty years and then SHE will make HER children cry THEIR hearts out ! And that will make everybody happy ! Oooh, if only all families were as caring and responsible as ours... In the movie, there is a scene where someone demands respect for the silk firm, which has been around "since Restauration". Unless I'm forgetting my French history lessons, this is a period somewhere between 1815 and 1830, when the French dynasty of the Bourbons occupied the throne once again. It's a clever touch, linking the family of the silk manufacturers to a mouldering and creaking regime of dynastic kings. And yes, one can be sure that the Bourbon family tree itself contained many an inoffensive soul who was forced to marry against his or her will...
Another asset : "Un revenant" is partially set in the world of classical ballet, what with the lead character being a choreographer of some reknown. Lovers of the ballet, or of the history of the ballet, will be sure to appreciate the (fragments of) performances shown.
Excellent movie, halfway between psychological drama and thriller. The French word "revenant" (he-who-returns) has a double meaning : it is both a playful term indicating a long-lost acquaintance who turns up unexpectedly and a far less playful term meaning a person who has come back from the dead. "Revenants" of the second type tend to be dangerous : at best they are desperate to rejoin the community of the living, at worst they harbour some kind of grudge. And indeed, the movie is about a person who desires retribution for a vicious wrong... There is some memorable acting going on, especially by protagonist Jouvet, who conveys a masterful blend of threat, charm and deep-seated anger.
The plot is intelligent ; it is also told in an intelligent way, creating a movie which is vivid, evocative and suspenseful. "Un revenant" is also quite witty. It contains a nice array of rapier-sharp portrayals, blistering observations and darkly funny scenes. (Watch the scene near the end, when a crucially important letter is burned - and then watch the use to which the flames are put, during an exchange of the most blameless and conventional politeness. That "Please do" alone is worth a monument.)
The satire is not there as an adornment, it serves a purpose, which is to identify and condemn evils human beings are prone to. One of these evils consists of an undue reverence for money, especially old and ancestral money : you get whole dynasties, reaching back for centuries, where young people are made to marry people they don't love. This is where that gruesomely distorted reasoning kicks in : yes, yes, young Sylvie (or young Nini or young Mathilde or young Marie) absolutely does not want to share the rest of her life with that person, but if she marries him she will get richer than she already is and that will make her happy ! Give this whole "crying for seven weeks" thing twenty or thirty years and then SHE will make HER children cry THEIR hearts out ! And that will make everybody happy ! Oooh, if only all families were as caring and responsible as ours... In the movie, there is a scene where someone demands respect for the silk firm, which has been around "since Restauration". Unless I'm forgetting my French history lessons, this is a period somewhere between 1815 and 1830, when the French dynasty of the Bourbons occupied the throne once again. It's a clever touch, linking the family of the silk manufacturers to a mouldering and creaking regime of dynastic kings. And yes, one can be sure that the Bourbon family tree itself contained many an inoffensive soul who was forced to marry against his or her will...
Another asset : "Un revenant" is partially set in the world of classical ballet, what with the lead character being a choreographer of some reknown. Lovers of the ballet, or of the history of the ballet, will be sure to appreciate the (fragments of) performances shown.