bob998

Jean-Daniel Pollet was an obscure director of the generation of Godard, Truffaut and Chabrol who didn't achieve the acclaim of the better known men. I'd seen only his sketch for the film Paris vu par..., and it wasn't very good. Now TFO has shown this feature on its nightly film series, and I got a chance to assess the man's work. It isn't good. Claude Melki made a half-dozen films with Pollet, they seem to have worked very well together. Melki's minimalist style of acting goes with Pollet's minimalist direction to put us to sleep during the first hour. Then--miracle!--Dalio bursts into the shabby apartment and brings life to the story. Chantal Goya's delight is palpable: at last we're going to have fun. And so are we, the spectators. Jean-Pierre Marielle made so many good comedies during his career, and this isn't one of them. He's a boring thug here. Bernadette Lafont played slutty so very well--for Truffaut in Une belle fille comme moi, for instance--that she could do it in her sleep; maybe she's a bit comatose here. I give 5/10.

I don't know who Jude Bauman is; perhaps this is his first feature. I do know that it's pretty boring and the time did not fly by. I wonder if Miss Jodorowsky is related to the man who made El Topo and The Holy Mountain back in the 60's. Alexandre Mesguich is probably the son of Daniel Mesguich, an actor whose work I enjoyed years ago.

The story is pretty dull: two girls sharing an appartment are financially strapped and having a tough time making the rent. A succession of prospective roommates parades by (think of Single White Female) finally Mesguich gets the nod. He turns out to be a possessive troll with some really bad instincts. So much for the plot. The performances are minimal--the two women show very little talent--and the direction is non-descript. Best to ignore this one.

The cast--most of them anyway--from Paris Police 1900 are back, and we are satisfied that the attention to detail that marked the first series has carried forward here. Jeremie Laheurthe plays Jouin as rigidly as before--God, this man is boring--but there are fascinating characters around him. Meg Steinheil is as cold and calculating as ever, and her doomed husband Alphonse, the painter who's slowly going mad with syphilis, is both touching and repellent.

The ambience of the Bois de Boulogne is well described, men cruising for sex in the winter mist (excellent cinematography here) under the watchful eyes of the police. The morals squad is as disgusting as you would expect, given the time and the social conditions. An excellent evocation of Paris of a century ago.