DVD
Errance

Starring: Laetitia Casta, Benoit Magimel and Yann Goven
Tartan DVD
RRP: £19.99
TVD 2556
Certificate: 18
Available 24 October 2005


Jacques, an Algerian war veteran, struggles with his drinking and gambling. No real problem except that his wife has just had a baby, his son Cesar. Jacques is by nature an unpleasant man, who continually moves himself and his family trying to rescue his marriage from its untenable position. But more time and more moves just succeeds in fragmenting the family. No matter how far Jacques runs he can't get away from his past or his own emotional and moral vacuum that makes up his present...

Errance, directed by Damien Odoul, is part of his Trilogy of the Double, whose best part, Le Souffle, was released to critical acclaim and much prize giving in 2001.

The film charts the story of Jacques and Lou tumultuous relationship between the years 1968 and 1973. It takes place in three separate geographical and temporal locations, starting in the Gevaudan region, where we are first introduced to Jacques who is urinating against the road, before driving off erratically to turn up late for the birth of Cesar. These first few minutes sum up Jacques perfectly - drunk, erratic and ultimately irresponsible. No manner how many times during the film he tries to justify his actions, he only deludes himself. At heart Jacques is an unpleasant man and a looser.

In an effort to help him stay with his wife Lou, played by the very beautiful and brilliant Laetitia Casta (whose best known in the UK for playing Falbala in the 1999 Asterix film) he moves his family to the coast. But even his best intentions do not last long as he continues to drink gamble and cheat on his wife, culminating in him burning down his work place and battering his wife. Lou retreats to the loving and supporting arms of her family, which brings up the question as to why this beautiful middle-class woman would stay with Jacques in the first place. Lou's abiding belief that Jacques can change, his behaviour, borders on the tragic, a belief that swallows his every promises of change - only a love that deep could be so blind. She leaves the safety of her family and joins him in 1973 in Paris.

In Paris things, at first, seem to have changed. Lou and Jacques dance tenderly to Dusty Springfield and for once both of them appear to be happy. Unfortunately for Lou this is another façade. Jacques car crash of a life is about to come to its logical conclusion.

Beniot Magimel, who had previously appeared in the brilliant La Pianiste (2001) and La Haine (1995), portrays his character of Jacque to the hilt. Rarely have I seen a performance which portrayed such an odious loser, the type of man that would give brain dead misogynists everywhere a bad name. Casta's portrayal of Lou is beautifully understated making her allegiance to him all the more tragic. The film does not make for easy watching, so will not be to everyone's tastes. The narrative plays out like a slow car crash with the audience well aware to the eventual consequences of Jacques' actions even if Lou refuses to see it.

This disc comes with a selection of subtitled audio options including DTS, 5.1 and stereo. To plump things up you get the original trailer and a Cine Lumiere reel which gives a taster of four other films in the Lumiere series. The picture is nice and clear, and whilst the inclusion of DTS is a pleasant surprise it add little to the films overall impact.

If your tastes run to moody and broody then this could be a film for you, it's not the strongest of the trilogy and it won't be to everyone's tastes, one mans filmic introspection is another's long dull movie.

Charles Packer

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£14.99 (Moviemail-online.co.uk)

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