Summary
After breaking up with her latest boyfriend, Alice recalls her previous relationships.
She has had many previous boyfriends, whom she loved intensely for a while. She
is forced to reflect that, perhaps, she is ultimately doomed to go on having short-lived
romances for the rest of her life.
Review
This is a bittersweet romantic comedy which was quite controversial at the time. Catherine
Deneuve, in one of her best performances, plays a beautiful career woman who is unable
to sustain a monogamous relationship. In some ways, the film is a modern day version
of Flaubert’s novel, Madame Bovary, questioning the validity and basis for long-term
relationships, whilst exposing the pain and tragedy that the alternative offers.
Through a series of cleverly nested flashbacks, we glimpse periods in the life of Alice,
as she herself might - the good times mingling with the bad. What gives the film
its poignancy is that events are juxtaposed, so that we see the break-up of a relationship
before its commencement. The film also benefits greatly from a smattering
of delicious magic moments, such as the scene where Catherine is singing nervously alongside
Serge Gainsbourg.
The unstructured nature of the film may put off some viewers, but, unlike in some films
which adopt this approach, this does not greatly effect the film’s momentum or clarity.
Rather, this is what gives the film its emotional impact and depth.
Unfortunately, because there have been so many men in Alice’s life, we don’t really get
to understand any one character in any depth, and characterisation - coupled, possibly,
with a lack of direction in the narrative - is probably where the film falls down.
© James Travers 2000
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