Themes: Rise and Fall Stories, Actor's Life, Social Climbing
Main Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger-Pierre, Marie Dubois
Release Year: 1980
Country: FR
Run Time: 123 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Alain Resnais' Mon Oncle D'Amerique is presented in the form of a "case history," replete with a pedantic narrator, played by real-life behavioral scientist Henri Laborit. Gerald Depardieu plays a plant manager whose behavior is inspired by the films of "macho" French film star Jean Gabin. Nicole Garcia portrays an actress who has patterned her conduct after stage and film luminary Jean Marais. And Roger-Pierre is a TV executive whose main influence in life is lovely cinema actress Danielle Darrieux. Though it may sound like a Woody Allen comedy, Mon Oncle D'Amerique eschews satire for the most part, treating both its subject matter and its subjects with intense seriousness. The film scored a hit with moviegoers and critics alike, and was honored with six French Cesar Awards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One rarely associates the austere films of Alain Resnais with comedy, but in his first real hit, the director's exploration of the theories of behavioral scientist Henri Laborit is surprisingly amusing. Resnais has often dwelt on the influence of the past upon the present, and the determinism that renders freedom chimerical. Here, he returns to the theme, in following the lives of three French professionals whose lives never intersect until the latter part of the film. The doctor appears onscreen in a white lab coat explaining the vagaries of their behavior, which is illustrated by human-sized mice responding to carrot-and-stick incentives. Like Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes, it emphasizes the way in which the character's intention or plans rarely come pass in the way they imagine, and is especially funny and discerning on the fate of '60s self-proclaimed revolutionaries turned '80s yuppies. If the film is finally as sobering as his more overtly serious about the way social phenomena mold behavior, the journey is much more fun than usual. Gerard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, and Roger-Pierre all are excellent as the trio in search of an elusive happiness. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
René (Gérard Depardieu) leaves the family farm to become an executive at a French textile firm. Janine (Nicole Garcia) leaves her proletarian family behind to become an actress/stylist who becomes involved with Jean (Roger Pierre), a well-educated bourgeois writer/politician. All three characters face difficult choices in life-changing situations that are designed to illuminate Laborit's ideas.
L'aventure de Guy (1936) ·Schéma d'une identification (1946) ·Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (1946) ·Visite à Oscar Dominguez (1947) ·Visite à Lucien Coutaud (1947) ·Visite à Hans Hartung (1947) ·Visite à Félix Labisse (1947) ·Visite à César Doméla (1947) ·Van Gogh (1947) ·Portrait d'Henri Goetz (1947) ·Le lait Nestlé (1947) ·L'alcool tue (1947) ·La bague (1947) ·Journée naturelle (1947) ·Van Gogh (1948) ·Malfray (1948) ·Les jardins de Paris (1948) ·Châteaux de France (1948) ·Guernica (1950) ·Gauguin (1950) ·Statues Also Die (1953) ·Night and Fog (1955) ·Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) ·Le mystère de l'atelier quinze (1957) ·Le chant du Styrène (1958)
