Summary
Once a successful dancer, Miriam has abandoned her career to bring up her son, Serge,
after her boyfriend walked out on her. During a holiday in Venice, she meets an
art forger Pierre with whom she falls in love. During a trip to Canada, Miriam loses
both Pierre and her son in a tragic accident. With her camcorder, she records images
of the places her son wanted to visit, but her camcorder is later stolen. Meanwhile,
Marc Deschamps is giving lectures on futurology, claiming that there is no such thing
as chance or coincidence in life. He has the opportunity to test his theory when
he buys a stolen camcorder and sees Miriam’s last recordings. Marc determines to
find Miriam and return the camcorder to her, certain that they were destined to meet this
way...
Review
Since his popular 1966 film Un
homme et une femme brought him international fame, Claude Lelouch has continued
to make bitter-sweet romantic films which have found more favour with the cinema-going
public than with film critics. Hasards ou coïncidences is the latest
film in this series and is arguably one of Lelouch’s better efforts, less marred by awkward
sentimentality and cinematographic excesses than his earlier films.
Hasards ou coïncidences appeals both intellectually and artistically - the
film has an unusual plot and it is shot and assembled with both originality and genuine
artistic merit. It combines dramatic and comedic elements with the effortless grace
of a prima ballerina (one of the film’s recurring motifs). More significantly, the
film manages to convey both the trauma of bereavement and the nature of obsessive love
without going overboard, showing that Lelouch is capable of making respectable films when
he is able to exercise a little self-restraint. Where the film gets into difficulty
and starts to lose its audience is when the director gets carried away with his artistic
impulses. Fortunately, compelling performances from Alessandra Martines, Pierre
Arditi and Marc Hollogne more than compensate for any weaknesses in the plot or in the
direction, and the end result is a satisfying and attractive piece of cinema.
© James Travers 2002
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