Mon Oncle D'Amerique
starring Gerard Depardieu
Director: Alain Resnais

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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.

Synopsis
Director Alain Resnais, whose "Last Year at Marienbad" and "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" employed cutting-edge narrative and cinematic techniques, now takes an amusing, very personal look at scientific theories of human behavior. Based on the work of scientist Henri Laborit, "Mon Once d'AmTrique" follows a trio of characters as they search for happiness: Rene Ragueneau, who has abandoned farm life for a stressful career in the city; Janine Garnier, an aspiring actress who's having an affair with a married man; and Jean Le Gall, the ambitious and ruthless politician who's Janine's lover. Laborit himself appears between sequences, explaining his own research and linking his findings to the 3 protagonists' unfolding drama.

Video Description
A behavioral psychologist bases his theories about human ambition on the lives of three subjects: Jean, who wants fame in politics; Janine, who trains herself to be an actress; and Rene, who faces a decline in his profession. Academy Award Nominations: Best Original Screenplay; Special Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival; Best Foreign Film, New York Film Critics.

 

 

 

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