Notre histoire

This film is just about unclassifiable. What rubric do we put it under: melodrama, comedy, political satire, Pirandellian experiment? What is clear is that Alain Delon goes further towards demolishing his sexy warrior image than he ever did before or since. Here is an extroverted actor at home playing cops or gangsters, the only French actor I know who could team with Charles Bronson in a thriller and bring it off, and here he is playing a cheerless, withdrawn alcoholic garage owner. There is hardly any plot to hang on to, just a series of vignettes with characters describing their various joys or troubles. Somebody should have told Bertrand Blier that assembling 20 or so people in a house and getting them to philosophize is NEVER funny.

Delon does his new persona very well, and deserved the César award he got. Nathalie Baye has a big part, playing three different women, and is always funny and touching. The other players have much less interesting things to do, and the picture is overlong at 1hr.50min.