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Ne fais pas ça !
2004 Drama
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Credits
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Director: Luc Bondy
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Script: Luc Bondy, Philippe Djian
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Photo: Christian Berger
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Music: Alain Wisniak
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Cast: Nicole Garcia (Edith),
Natacha Régnier (Nicole),
Miki Manojlovic (Francis),
Fabrizio Rongione (Joël),
Rüdiger Vogler (Jérôme),
Dominique Reymond (Sonia),
André Marcon (Paul),
Igor Widerski (L'enfant),
Jean-Pierre Kalfon (Le monologuant au comptoir)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 90 min
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Summary
After a violent row, Nicole walks out on her boyfriend Joel and returns to live with her
parents, Francis and Edith, taking her infant son with her. Unable to accept that
their relationship is over, Joel continues to harangue Nicole, but she is no hurry to
return to him. This domestic crisis has unexpected consequences and begins to unsettle
the apparently tranquillity of Nicole’s parents. For the past few years, Edith has
been having an affair with another man, something that Francis has been unable to deal
with – until now…
Review
Ne fais pas ça is the third film from
the greatly respected Swiss theatre director Luc Bondy (his previous two films being made
in Germany). It is one of those uncompromising French realist dramas which has much
in the way of technical and artistic merit but which, from the point of view of characterisation
and narrative, feels disappointingly empty. Watching the film is a bit like spending
a dull solitary evening in a motorway service station - stark, atmospheric, offering the
occasional insight into the human condition, but overall pretty grim.
For a while, the unremittingly sombre mood of the film and the disjointed editing
serves the film well, emphasising the dark undercurrents that threaten to engulf all of
the characters involved in the drama. But after a while this heavy stylisation becomes
monotonous and quickly stifles the storyline, making it hard for an audience to sustain
any real emotional attachment with the characters or their situation. This is a
pity because the film boasts some very creditable performances from an excellent cast,
and the cinematography, whilst marred somewhat by the jarring editing, has a haunting
poetic quality that is, at times, extraordinarily beautiful.
© James Travers 2007
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