La chute d'un corps

I did not know that Michel Polac was a director, but he actually was before being nation wide known as a journalist in charge of a TV talk show. A TV program where the guests were free speech. So, speaking of this film, you have here the story of a wife who, during the absence of her husband, invites a stranger in her apartment and is witness of the fall of a young woman, who jumped from the upstairs flat terrace. This kind of story looks like a Roman Polanski's film. Marthe Keller gives an interesting performance and Fernando Rey an even greater one too. You can see this film as a sort of existential tale, not always easy to follow and certainly not for all audiences. This is an intellectual movie, full of metaphors.

Having this movie watched for the second time, I was intrigued by several things more and more.

First, the material world in which the main character lives, is depicted by a mechanical way of living. Then,by the law of coincidence, (in which we see both the force of negative masculinity and also the force of positive masculinity) and in an unexpected way, she is confronted with her deeper self. Her upper mysterious neighbour is entering into her spiritual life and shows her another way of reality. Upper and spiritual are the same in a sense here.

She is met with another girl through this unexpected way. This girl acts as an example which shows the main character that you should be your self all the time . It shows the very struggle for an independent life.

The main character is challenged in several ways. We see a glimpse of another being in the strict sense of the word, a student who is willing to change, although not immediately,

The music is mystic as are the room and visitors of the neighbor. Lovely vague movie whcih deserves to think about for a while and being watched several times. .

Apart from the actors, this film looks like a failed film student project. The story (if you can call it that) is a combination of improbable, often toe-curling scenes, that, if you succeed in suppressing your spectator scepsis, works quite sympathetic. The so called "Fourth Wall" however, is constantly broken by the period sound track which sounds like a 4-year old trying to imitate the Soft Machine, without attaining the intended tension or even atmosphere. One meets one's viewing partners' eyes in sympathetic bewilderment. But you struggle through to the end, not entirely without being entertained.