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Jun 10, 2009
« Les voleurs » : high-definition cinema. (5/10)
« Les voleurs » is incomplete to the extent that an Ingres admirer may deem a Picasso painting incomplete, but nevertheless has, unlike too many movies, a true beginning, or at least an entry point -the failed car robbery- and a true end -plus a « prologue » and an « epilogue », which are more than mere titles-.
At « Les voleurs » end, Juliette has escaped to a new life and a new city, away from Alex and Marie ; Alex is alone again ; Marie commits suicide. The film entry point has taken us to its conclusion : the failed car robbery and Ivan’s death have eventually saved Juliette’s life, by putting her into jeopardy and cornering her into drastic action.
The film could go on from there : as the saying goes, it would be another story.
« Les voleurs » marries the best of two worlds, by steering clear of their respective pitfalls : it avoids both the excessively rigid -by contemporary standards- three unity rules -action, time, location- of French classical theatre and the lack of structure of the chronicle, but combines the tightly packed narration of the former with the openness of the latter.
As they move their focus from character to character, choral films run the risk to get us interested into one character only to leave it for another. We could grow emotionally attached to Justin and be frustrated when the film abruptly switches to Alex’s voice over and perspective. Likewise, when Alex’s narrative gives way to Marie’s
It does not happen : not because individual characters fail to sustain our attention for long, because their respective stories are so tightly interwoven, such an integral part of each other that, as we shift from character to character, we never lose the common thread which joins them and runs through the film, from its « prologue » to its « epilogue » : Alex’s voice over continues to inform us about Justin, Marie’s about Alex, Alex’s and Marie’s -with Téchiné’s filmmaking help- about Juliette.
As opposed to Michel Blanc’s « Embrassez qui vous voudrez », « Les voleurs » is not coerced into being a choral film by the shallowness of its individual characters ; it is a choral film by choice : each character is further enriched by the network of relationships which connects him to the other ones, interaction is the opening key to additional aspects of each personality.
« Les voleurs » is a high definition film in which no detail is left to chance. Each scene is filled with a luxury of details : narration-wise through the characters’ psychology and their carefully spun relationships ; visually through location scouting, set decoration, costumes, camera work, film editing ; sound-wise too, through the original score, additional music, clearest sound recording and editing.
The film polyphony does not limit itself to the successive voices which narrate it, but extends and translates into all technical areas. The result is a many-layered diversity, echoes and counterpoints among characters and scenes, and a level of reality enhanced by the compounded accuracy of all details : the characters appear truer because their whole material environment on screen looks genuine to the last flake of paint on a window frame, and vice versa.
The relationship between Alex and Juliette is as much defined by the bleak -but carefully characterised, be it by their wallpaper, the noisy nearby speedway or the view from their narrow balcony- second rate hotel rooms where they meet as by their on screen intercourse.
The bathtub in which they tenderly water each other similarly defines the disturbing quality of Juliette’s and Marie’s -love ?- affair.
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