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Kennedy et moi
1999 Comedy
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Credits
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Director: Sam Karmann
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Script: Jean-Paul Dubois, Sam Karmann
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Photo: Guillaume Schiffman
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Music: Pierre Adenot
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Cast: Jean-Pierre Bacri (Simon Polaris),
Nicole Garcia (Anna Polaris),
Patrick Chesnais (Paul Gurney),
Sam Karmann (Robert Janssen),
François Chattot (Victor Kuriakhine),
Eléonore Gosset (Alice Polaris),
Lucas Bonnifait (Thomas Polaris),
Stéphane Höhn (Thibaut Brentano),
Bruno Raffaelli (Dr Munthe),
Francine Bergé (Lydia Brentano),
Jean-Claude Brialy (Benny Grimaldi),
Patrick Bonnel (Dantiac fils),
Jean-Philippe Andraca (Le dépanneur)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 86 min
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Aka: Kennedy and I
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Summary
At 48, writer Simon Polaris feels he has come to the end of the road. He cannot
work, his adolescent children irritate him, and he hardly cares that his wife has started
having an affair with his doctor. Tired of life, he begins to see a psychiatrist,
a strange man who continually clasps a watch in his trouser pocket. The watch, it
transpires, was worn by John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in 1963. From that
moment, Simon becomes obsessed with the watch and its original owner…
Review
This unusual comedy-drama about a man failing to cope with a mid-life crisis is the first
full-length film from actor-director Sam Karmann. It follows his 1992 short film,
Omnibus, which won both the Palme d’or at Cannes
and an Oscar. The film stars Jean-Pierre Bacri, who seems to have made a career
of playing depressed middle-aged men, and Nicole Garcia, an actress who has recently begun
to make a name for herself as a director.
Kennedy et moi is an engaging film that
tackles the subject of depression and ennui with a sense of irony and a nice dollop of
political incorrectness. It’s a thoughtful reflection on modern life, with situations
that switch between the realistic and the frankly bizarre. There have been so many
films recently, particularly in French cinema, which explores similar themes, and it’s
not clear that this film has much more to say on the subject of mid-life crisis.
However, Karmann’s cinematic style is refreshingly innovative – sombre but oddly not depressing,
with some deliciously downbeat comic touches – and Jean-Pierre Bacri’s tragicomic portrayal
of a man who is losing his grip on reality certainly makes this a film worth seeing.
© James Travers 2006
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