Patrice Leconte's "Monsieur Hire" may be a tragedy concerning loneliness and erotomania, told concerning 2 solitary people that don't have anything else in common. It involves a murder, and also the gap shot is of a stiff. adult male rent may be a scrawny, hairless old tailor WHO lives by himself. Alice may be a stunning, tender-hearted 22-year-old blonde WHO lives alone across the court from rent within the same residence.
On the night of the murder, a small man was seen by witnesses running toward the building. In his investigation among its residents, a officer learns that no-one likes rent. rent is that the initial to agree. He admits he appears to strike individuals oddly. As a neighbor from across the hall peeks at him from his entryway, he asks, "Want a photo?" As he walks through his court, white powder is drop on his impeccable black suit.
Everything concerning rent (Michel Blanc) is impeccable; his suit, his tie, the shine on his shoes, the perimeter of his hair thus showing neatness cut. Alice (Sandrine Bonnaire) is sunny, open-faced, with a heat smile. One night throughout a electrical storm a flash of lightning reveals a person look her from the shadows of the flat opposite. this can be rent, WHO watches her for hour when hour, night when night: Sleeping, waking up, dressing, undressing, ironing her garments, love life together with her lubber of a lover, character (Luc Thuillier).
What will she do once she discovers this? The script relies on adult male Hire's Engagement by Simenon, however it's nothing like his Inspector Maigret policiers, rather more of a standard novel with carefully-observed behavior and details. Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was fascinated by peculiarities of human temperament, that he represented in elegant, easy prose, not not like Leconte's controlled visual vogue here.
The film is in color, however Hire's world is black and white: His suits, shirts, the white mice he keeps in very little detain his tailor look. His skin is thus pale he would possibly ne'er go outside in daytime. Alice, on the opposite hand, likes red: Her covering, her lipstick, the grocery huge of ripe tomatoes she "drops" on a stairway so that they roll toward rent as he opens his door. will he leap to help her? No, he merely stands and regards her. what's the aim of her contrivance?
Another day, she knocks on his door, however he does not answer. He should recognize it's her, as a result of he ne'er has guests and he should understand she's simply left her own flat. She knocks consecutive day, and he invitations her to go to a restaurant—in a terminal, which can be a clue to bound of his thoughts. Eventually he confirms that, yes, he has seen her and her lover love life. And he witnessed one thing else that he believes explains her fulminant and surprising friendliness toward him.
So it may, at first. however Alice's feelings for him grow a lot of sophisticated, and he or she is touched by his declaration of affection. Her lover character, on the opposite hand, may be a crude physical kind whose plan of an ideal date is taking her to a match and ignoring her. Later, once he must leave of a window quickly, he steps initial during a cradle fashioned by her hands, so on her shoulders. rent shares his secrets with Alice. He makes extended use of prostitutes, he tells her, and as he describes the method of a brothel her face reflects fascination, maybe that a person like rent may have such sexy experiences and describe them thus sensuously. however he will ne'er visit a prostitute once more, he explains, as a result of he has fallen gaga together with her.
Hire may be a man with several secrets. One night within the course of the police inspector's investigation, he takes him on to a bowling alley, wherever he rolls strike when strike cleanly, even backwards between his legs, even unsighted, and is applauded by the regulars WHO have seen this before. He collects a payment from the owner, joins the cop at the bar, tosses back an attempt and says, "You see? i am not unlikable all over."
What's going on between rent and Alice? For that matter, what area unit her feelings for the lover, Emile? That relationship appears pretty normal for a movie noir; he appears to be a senseless nickel-and-dime criminal, and solely her loyalty will save him. Her devotion to him is pointless and unmerited, as so much as we will see, and though sex figures between them, she's too complicated for that to elucidate everything. She's ne'er met a person whose love for her is a lot of profound and devoted (and obsessive) than Hire's. character would not even be able to realize it.
At the middle of this film is nice unhappiness, captured during a late fast-motion shot that slows for a rapid to point out a detail lingered on in sorrowful flick. Then the ending wraps everything up, however to not everyone's satisfaction.
Patrice Leconte, born 1947, is one in all the foremost versatile of French administrators. He switches designs and genres from film to film, and you'll be an addict of his while not realizing it. "Monsieur Hire" (1989) was his initial extended success, premiered at port, that is wherever I saw it. He additionally created "Ridicule" (1996), a few provincial landholder throughout the reign of Louis XVI, WHO seeks to win the favor of the court by active the fast wit beloved by the king; "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" (2000), a few condemned killer awaiting death on a French-Canadian island till AN slayer will be foreign from Paris; "Man on the Train (2002)" with Jean Rochefortand grayback Hallyday as a suave provincial gentleman's likelihood encounter with a thief; and another of my nice Movies, "The Hairdresser's Husband" (1990), once more stellar Rochefort as a person thus enraptured by alittle city journeyman that he marries her, buys her a beauty shop, and needs solely that he be allowed to sit down in it, day when day, adoring her.
"I do not suppose that a film producer is manipulating puppets," Leconte told American state at the 2002 Toronto festival. "On the contrary, i think a film producer is a lot of sort of a chemist. you combine parts that don't have anything to try and do with one another and you see what is going to happen. The start line for 'The Man on the Train' was the meeting of the 2 actors. place during a few drops of grayback Hallyday, a number of drops of Jean Rochefort and appearance what happens. typically it blows up in your face."
I asked him AN obligatory question concerning the French New Wave and he same, "Well, I did not recognize Francois Truffaut in the least. I ne'er met him, as a result of he died too early most likely. one in all the items that I favored most concerning Francois Truffaut was that he favored movies. and that i would love that on my tomb: This man favored to form movies.