La belle vie

Robert Enrico's first work (three sketches which formed a seamless whole) "Au coeur de la vie" is the great lost masterpiece of the early sixties ,when France was caught up to its neck in the Nouvelle Vague pretensions.Its tales of war were desperate ,in spite of the title,and death was the keynote."Au coeur de la vie" ,Enrico's first is also his best ,which was more praised by the Americans than in its own country ("la rivière du hibou " became "an occurrence at owl creek river" ,the original title of Ambrose Bierce's short story) "La Belle Vie" is ,along "les aventuriers" and the overlooked "Tante Zita" ,one of Enrico's finest achievements.Some sequences -notably in the streets of Paris-made me fear he might have succumbed to the vices of the Young Turks.But he was not a New Wavelet follower.He was at the time an artist with a genuine creativity to offer.

Like " Au coeur de la vie","La Belle Vie" is about war.A dirty war,the Algerian war.A war which stole the most beautiful years of his life from a young man (Frédéric De Pasquale)"Since he came back,says his wife -he got married after his return- he is not the same again."How could he? The scene when the ex-soldier destroys the paratroopers 'ashtray is revealing.There are no flashbacks which describe the hero's sinister past.Enrico uses news films which all revolve around war,military world ,and proud parades to the sound of "la Marseillaise"-not to mention atrocious pictures of the concentration camps.Always this sound of boots marching which comes back as an ominous leitmotiv.It's this terrifying noise which concludes the film,an ending which is one of the most desperate I know: has man really become a slave to the military machine?Hence the connection with "la rivière du hibou" : all that happened in Paris is perhaps only a mirage ,even if Frederic's story is realistic to a fault.

"La belle vie" had problems with the censorship ,which made sense.This film and "Au coeur de la vie" are Enrico at his most adventurous.