Mon Oncle D'Amerique
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gérard Depardieu, Nelly Borgeaud, Nicole Garcia, Pierre Arditi, Roger PierreDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-11-28
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: New Yorker Video
Movie Reviews of Mon Oncle D'Amerique
Movie Review: Who Are We?
Summary: 5 Stars
"Mon Oncle d'Amerique" is a film that explores and tries to explain some very profound things. Who are we? What makes us do the things we do? Is human behavior really predictable?
These questions in the hands of another filmmaker, say Ingmar Bergman or Andrei Tarkovsky, could have been turned into a somber chamber piece that most audiences members would describe as "bleak". But, in the hands of French filmmaker Alain Resnais we have a film that is at times joyous and carefree. The movie blends elements of drama and comedy so effortlessly we sit and wonder why can't more films be like this.
Gerard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia and Roger Pierre star as the three leads characters whose lives will intertwine. As we see of the story of their lives, the soundtrack plays Prof. Henri Laborit (who also appears in the film as himself) as he explains human behavior. We then immediately get the connection. These characters are really pawns that we be used to take on greater dimension. It isn't so much their story we are watching, but instead our story.
Rene Ragueneau (Deparddieu) grew up on a farm, and pretty much had his life planned out for himself. His father wouldn't to give him and his brother the farm after he dies. One day Rene stands firm and tells his father he is not going to follow in his footsteps. Rene has other plans for his future.
Jean Le Gall (Pierre) is running for Prime Minister. He comes from a wealthy family, they even have their own island. Which is where Jean was born and spent most of his childhood. Jean is married with two children, but is having an affair. And he even leaves his family for the other women.
That other woman is Janine Garnier (Garcia) a young actress who grew up as a member of the young Communist club. Her parents never wanted her to become an actress but Janine was determined to follow her dreams.
"Mon Oncle d'Amerique" is not just about human behavior. I also felt the film explored elements of the effect art plays on our lives. Rene loves to watch movies with Jean Gabin. Janine is an actress. Through-out the film Resnais inserts clips from various movies that correspond to the characters emotion. Does life imitate art or art imitate life?
And as for the title, all three characters speak of an uncle from America. But the uncle is never shown. Perhaps there never really was an uncle. America is suppose to represent an idea. A place of freedom. An escape.
The film was written by Laborit and Jean Gruault, who worked several times with other great French directors. Namely Francois Truffaut on such titles as "Jules and Jim", "The Wild Child", and "Two English Girls". He also worked with Godard on one of his best films, "Les Carabiniers".
For those unfamiliar with Alain Resnais, he was at one time a highly experiemental filmmaker and part of the French New Wave with titles "Hiroshima, mon amour" and "Last Year at Marienbed". "Mon Oncle d'Amerique" would find Resnais playing around with story structure again. And many feel it was the best work he did since 1967's "The War Is Over".
In the end "Mon Oncle d'Amerique" is a movie that makes us laugh and think. It never takes the subject matter too serious. The film never becomes a lecture, yet it is thought provoking.
Bottom-line: One of Alain Resnais best films. An ambitious films that doesn't over reach. A thought-provoking, highly entertaining piece of work from a great director.
Summary of Mon Oncle D'Amerique
Following a pair of films (Stavisky, Providence) that were more conventionally narrative than his explosively experimental early works (Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad), French New Wave pioneer director Alain Resnais began a cycle of films beginning in 1980 (all written by Jean Gruault) that delved deeply into his philosophical and aesthetic concerns again. The first of these was Mon Oncle d'Amerique, starring Gérard Depardieu as one of three middle-class characters undergoing great degrees of personal stress. Presented as a docudrama of sorts with some pulp-fiction qualities, these parallel tales don't really resolve themselves within their own borders but gain another dimension of subjective resolution when Resnais ushers in a real-life scientist to discuss certain kinds of behavioral triggers in humans. The results are actually very satisfying and witty for viewers who can see the overt psychological elements not as a smug commentary on the action but a means of opening the action to a viewer's subconscious experience. Resnais takes the bold step of creating a new kind of filmed story here, and largely succeeds. --Tom KeoghSimilar DVD Movies
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