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Les Uns et les autres
1981 Drama / Romance
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Credits
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Director: Claude Lelouch
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Script: Claude Lelouch
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Photo: Jean Boffety
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Music: Francis Lai, Michel Legrand
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Cast: Robert Hossein (Simon Meyer),
Nicole Garcia (Anne Meyer),
Geraldine Chaplin (Suzan),
Daniel Olbrychski (Karl Kremer),
Jorge Donn (Boris Sergei Itovitch),
Rita Poelvoorde (Tatiana Tania Itovitch),
Macha Méril (Magda Kremer),
Evelyne Bouix (Evelyne),
Francis Huster (Francis),
Raymond Pellegrin (M. Raymond),
Paul Préboist (Le grand-père d'Edith),
Jean-Claude Brialy (Le directeur du Lido),
Marthe Villalonga (La grand-mère d'Edith),
Fanny Ardant (Véronique),
Jacques Villeret (Jacques),
Jean-Claude Bouttier (Philippe Rouget),
Richard Bohringer (Richard),
Nicole Croisille (Herself),
Ginette Garcin (Ginette),
Jean-Pierre Kalfon (Père Antoine),
Geneviève Mnich (Jeanne),
Alexandra Stewart (Alexandra)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 184 min
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Aka: Bolero; Within Memory
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Summary
Forty-five years of turmoil, passion and tragedy, seen through the eyes of two generations
of four families. In Moscow, 1936, an aspiring dancer Tatiana marries a man, Boris,
who will give her a son just before he is killed during World War II. In Berlin,
Karl Kremer’s success as a pianist is confirmed when he receives praise from Hitler
– something which will haunt him throughout his life. In Paris, a young violinist
Anne falls in love with a Jewish pianist, Simon Meyer; they marry and produce a son, but
they end up on a train bound for a Nazi concentration camp. In New York, Jack Glenn is
making his name with his popular jazz band. Twenty years on, their children are
reliving their experiences, and Anne Meyer continues her hopeless quest to find the son
she was forced to abandon.
Review
Claude Lelouch’s sprawling epic Les Uns et les autres originally ran to six
hours and cost 50 million French francs to make (by far Lelouch’s most ambitious
film). Even when reduced to three hours, it is still a daunting film to sit through,
in spite of its impressive production values (which include some stunning photography
and an excellent musical score). Like much of Lelouch’s work, the film feels
over-long, self-indulgent and somewhat unfocussed. It is also a painfully
uneven film – the beauty, drama and sheer poignancy of the film’s first third
are far less visible in the rest of the film. Whereas the segment covering the period
1936-1945 is both interesting and moving (having a resonance with Louis Malle’s
Au revoir les Enfants
), the following segments (set in the 1960s and 1980s) appear to tell us nothing,
except perhaps to remind us how dull and sanitised life has become. Another difficulty
with the film is that the same actors play multiple parts with little – if anything
– to differentiate their characters. Not only does this risk confusing
the spectator, but it also undermines its credibility.
These criticisms aside, Les Uns et les autres is a bold artistic endeavour and
should be considered one of Claude Lelouch’s main achievements. The grand
operatic scale of the film has something of a Tolstoyan vision about it: epic in character
yet showing a great deal of compassion for and understanding of the human spirit.
Amidst the grand set pieces (musical interludes which create a false impression of gaiety
and optimism) are strewn the remnants of broken lives, wounds that are unseen, unhealed
– a suggestion perhaps of Lelouch’s own painful experiences during World War
II.
© James Travers 2003
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