Regis Wargnier's directorial debut "La femme de ma vie" ("The Woman of My Life") is a solid and fascinating film about a man's struggle with
alcoholism, his inner demons, and his tumultous step towards rehabilitation both as an artist and as a married man deeply in love with his wife. While
the premise sounds heavily cliched, the story and its presentation are not. In fact, it comes with plenty of realism while dealing with serious topics
about addiction and relationships, with little touches of dreams of what we'd like reality to be.
Simon (Christophe Malavoy) was once an accomplished violonist with plenty of talent before his alcohol addiction sets in to the point he has to
drink before performing on the concerts sponsored by his wife Laura (Jane Birkin). Atfer a meltdown during a concert and after hitting his stepsons
(the father is a fellow musician of the orchestra), he runs from home, and goes to a bar to have another drink. Unable to even grab the wine glass
as delirium tremens hit him hard and his hands are useless, a helping hand pours him the wine. The mysterious man (Jean-Louis Trintignant) invites him
to his house, and a slow process of recovery begins, one day at a time without drinking and finding ways to keep himself busy.
This exact initial encounter and future relationship is the reality we'd like to happen (rare but it happens) and if you're attentive to the images
and unspoken moments you'll understand why the other man helps Simon; on the context of addiction and recovery it goes on the lines of seeing a suffering
person and helping him out. And Pierre, the mystery man, does that with Simon by taking to an AA meetings and also providing insights on setting goals
to forget about drinking.
Through hard work, Simon reaches sobriety but not without hard choices to be made: he returns to Laura but decides he must
quit music and concerts; which upsets the woman since she knows it's the only thing he's good at. Is love strong enough to keep them together? It's such
a curious case here that she was never against his bad habits, she loved him like that as well, but doesn't accept easily his sobering up, and it goes
to the point of abandoning him - as a sober person. Add to the difficult scenario, a young girl (Dominique Blanc) from AA who isn't confident enough
without Simon's presence, and he helps her just like he was helped by Pierre.
What fascinated me about this film, while treating such a serious theme, is how audiences are able to break down the circumstances of addiction, as a
disease and not a flaw in character, without being excessively dramatic to the point where the audience avoids the situations presented. It makes you relate
with the characters, their flaws and their little moments of happiness. Unlike the usual drunk character who suffered some trauma or some loss, drinking
himself to death to forget about everything, Simon's abuse of substances is due to a complete lack of security with all the aspects of his life, specially
live performing. That's the real issue, and that's a lot more common than people think, and that's what adds to the complexity of the film in not being
just another alcoholism tale.
It's not a perfect film, it goes with some faulty areas (mostly related with the aggressive nature of the characters in moments where just heated
dialogues would suffice) and the simplicity in tellings that only the AA meetings and change of habits were good enough - Simon isn't treating the actual
problem, his anixety is what's killing him through drinking. However, one can think that he simply just rearranged his thinking and his decisions, it also
helps even though he took to some extremities - either without the one he loves (Laura) or without the thing he loves (music). But some of us in the audience
may wonder: what will be left without those things and without drinking? What's the replacement? Just helping others?
For the things we like about movies, the acting is strongly effective and very enjoyable to watch. If Malavoy is very good as this tormented sufferer,
but also delivering some bits of humor (the hot/cold play with the kids while trying to find the bottles in the house is quite funny), Trintignant is what
makes this hihgly memorable. Soul of the movie, his Pierre is so in control of everything, always with the right advices and right actions, alligned with
a mysterious nature that we keep waiting to see what's the real tragedy behind this man. He has demons of his own, as we later find out in an amazing
monologue he has with Laura. The problem with Jane Birkin isn't about the acting, it's about the character. It's a toxic wife who fails to understand
the problems of her husband, and she thinks everything must be about her, revolve around her when the sick man's context should be the one to matter the
most. It's almost hard to understand why Simon thinks so highly of her, or why the film has such appealing title - it also relates with a song performed
by her daughter.
This is the kind of film that I was hoping "Our History" (1984) would be when I read the description. Both French films released in the 1980's
related with the addiction theme, but the film starring Alain Delon and Nathalie Baye actually took a different turn with his fusion of drama, comedy and
heavy use of dreams (a fine movie too). I really believed in those characters, their situations and above all, their humanity while navigating through
life experiences, slowly learning to cope with what comes their way. 9/10.
