Après la vie

Lucas Belvaux's trilogy of films is meant to be taken as one multi-faceted unit, and is best viewed as such. The first (as I saw them), "On the Run," was a `thriller,' with Lucas Belvaux as a terrorist escaped from prison to settle scores and look up an old flame (Catherine Frot). In that film, there were the first glimpses of events in the romantic comedy, "An Amazing Couple." The trilogy ties up with this character study (or `melodrama'), "After the Life" ("Après la vie"), about the relationship between a pathetic and suffering drug-addicted teacher (Dominique Blanc) and her down on his luck and co-dependent cop husband (Gilbert Melki). The thriller was hobbled a bit by it's involvement with the other interwoven stories, but the romantic comedy and `melodrama' work fine as stand alones, and are even enriched by the angles explored and explained by the other films. All three should be seen together. Or, as a friend of mine has supposed, maybe I should just rent Kieslowski's `Three Colors' trilogy instead…?

The problem of drug addiction is even worse today than 15 years ago when Lucas Belvaux's film was released, and unfortunately he adds little to nothing here.

An attempt at a different approach fails miserably, as the first half of the 2-hour feature is deadly dull - a combination of police procedural and domestic drama. Gilbert is a corrupt cop and he plays the role blankly: all we know about the poker-faced, handsome guy (should have been cast as a gangster instead) is he babies his teacher wife Dominique Blanc in her addiction to morphine (which he acquires illegally through his job) and he is attracted to her friend Ornella Muti (duh!, who wouldn't be?).

Blanc's underplaying for nearly an hour is wearying, until in the second half the script turns from kitchen sink dreariness to overheated melodramatic outbursts, thoroughly unconvincing. Tying up the case he's working on with his wife's predicament is a ridiculous "neat" script ploy, and Belvaux himself intrudes in the nothing role of the arch villain of the piece, played flatly by him.

What this proves is that even a serious approach by a serious filmmaker can end up as routine and pointless as any exploitation film about oft- exploited subject matter. I much prefer the extremes of the genre, namely "Christiane F." on the docu-style well-meaning end of the spectrum, or a good, old-fashioned sexploitation approach at the other.

Apres la Vie shows what is happening physically to a drug addict woman and what is the life is for her husband who is a sort of corrupted cop. This is a Al-Anon typical story is the best I ever seen in this type of drama. In the same order movies like Barfly or Leaving Las Vegas are in the same class of movie. I recommend you to watch this movie because it shows a lot in special type of psychologic syndrome. The sole reason to live for the cop is bringing the substance to his wife. The thing is that guy really doesn't know this, she's addicted since ten years all their lives have been ruled by this injection drug.It is an instructive movie and it is totally realistic, it will update your consciousness. Even if it is a dark story the love that the couple is showing is very impressive and sensitive. When the drug dependence goes to the point of a lethal convulsion and if, by luck if you have only a criminal hand to save your life then you will take it. In that state of miserable situation this movie is showing an exceptional way to share a difficult situation in a sort of opportunity. 8/10. A good drama for teachers and students in psychology.

Après la vie is a part of a very interesting cinematographic experiment. The other parts are two other films made by Lucas Belvaux: Un couple épatant and Cavale. The three films are set in the same city (Grenoble in the French Alps) during the same period of time and share the same roles. The point is, in each of the three movies the focus is on different people. The leading actors in one movie are the supporting actors in another one, and vice versa. Some scenes in the movies are exactly the same, some are the same but filmed from a different viewpoint, and most scenes are unique to one of the three movies. Belvaux has chosen three different genres: a comedy (Un couple épatant), a drama (Après la vie) and a thriller (Cavale).

So far, so good. The experiment works: after seeing all three of the films, a fourth imaginary film emerges in which all the different pieces of the puzzle come together. There is only one little problem: not all three films are good. The comedy is not very funny, the thriller is not very thrilling, and only the drama is in a way dramatic. I found Après la vie (about a cop who has to become corrupt because he needs dope for his drug-addicted wife) by far the best one out of the three. But perhaps this is because I saw this movie after the other two and knew the story already more or less. Cavale was the first one I saw and, to be honest, I had trouble understanding everything that happened (although a friend I saw the movie with had no trouble at all). But perhaps this is an inevitable consequence of the experiment. So if you want to enjoy an unusual experiment, go see all three movies. If you think that takes too much time and costs too much money, go see Après la vie - a decent drama - and forget about the other two. Unless you want to admire the breathtaking beauty of Ornella Muti: then Un couple épatant is your best choice because she has a leading role in this movie.

I've just seen the trilogy on successive nights on Tele-Quebec. An Amazing Couple, said to be a comedy, is painfully bad: there isn't a joke worthy of the name throughout the full two hours. On The Run is better; it's a good little thriller about a man whose obsessions lead him to join a Baader-Meinhof-type gang. Finally, After Life is a character study of a dedicated detective who unknowingly marries a drug addict, then goes around desperately trying to score drugs for her.

Here the actors finally come into their own. Dominique Blanc gives one of the best portrayals of somebody in the grip of addiction that I have seen. Her drug behavior is integrated into her personality in a very convincing way, not just sketched in. The overdose scene is powerful. Her marriage and her role as teacher are suffering from her habit, and she'll have to make a choice. Gilbert Melki shows the tenderness in his cop character; you can believe he'd wreck his career for his wife.