VA SAVOIR
by
Chris Dashiell
Veteran director Jacques Rivette has made a comedy of
relationships called Va Savoir that is his most relaxed
and self-assured work in years. I say a comedy of relationships rather
than a "romantic comedy" because the latter entertains us with variations
on the romantic illusion, while Rivette's film entertains us with something
closer to the real difficulties and dilemmas that men and women face
when they try to love one another. Still, the picture displays the director's
usual interests in performance and play - both in the sense of theater
and of children's play. It's a lighthearted film that makes fun of itself
and its themes.
Camille
(Jeanne Balibar), an actress returning to Paris after three years to
play the lead role in Pirandello's As You Desire Me under the
direction of her Italian lover and co-star Ugo (Sergio Castellito),
seeks out - against her better judgment - her ex-lover, the philosophy
professor Pierre (Jacques Bonnaffé), who is now settled down
with a dance teacher named Sonia (Marianne Basler). Meanwhile Ugo goes
to the library to seek a goldmine - a lost play by Goldoni that he hopes
to direct. There he meets the beautiful Dominique (Hélène
de Fougerolles) who turns out to be a descendant of the friend to whom
Goldoni reportedly gave his play. While she assists him in his search
(falling in love with him in the process), her brother Arthur (Bruno
Todeschini), a thief, romantically pursues Sonia.
Got
that? It actually becomes more complicated, as the script finds a way
to get each of the six main characters involved with one another, or
almost. But the bedroom farce structure is subsumed within a leisurely
style that allows the characters to interact naturally, at least until
Rivette starts to pull the rug out from under us in a mischievous conflation
of real life with theatrical artifice.
Balibar,
with her lithe figure and crooked smile, is the soul of the movie. Camille
is at a crossroads in her life, unsure of where to go or what to do,
and the actress brings impulsiveness and passion to the role, giving
it depth and setting us up for the story's many humorous reversals.
In the sequences where she is on stage, in a blonde wig, she is great
at contrasting the fiery nature of her stage character with the more
tentative personality underneath.
It's
an expert comedy by a major director, in a minor key. True lightness
is such a rare quality in films these days that I think Va Savoir
has intimidated some critics. With comedy it is not always so necessary
to explore motivation. It is enough to propel the elements into action
and enjoy the results. The film stands back from the story and doesn't
try to whip things up in order to get laughs. The viewer is invited
to apply his or her own experience, and I think many people have gotten
out of the habit of thinking for themselves. A comedy like this, with
its willfully impartial attitude to character, can be disconcerting
if you've been spoon-fed romantic pap long enough.
Rivette
tries something unusual here. The fictional dream - what is often called
suspension of disbelief - is upheld firmly at first, and then gradually
undermined by narrative devices that become more and more theatrical,
until we reach an ending which is happy in a way only plays can be.
But unlike in Six Characters in Search of an Author (the obvious
Pirandello reference), the resolution for Va Savoir's characters
is acceptance - of life as play, of the artificiality of roles - and
the ability to drop the mask and go home. The film, then, does not offer
a criticism of life, but a criticism of art imitating life. Love of
the theater, with all its lovers rushing in one door and out another,
and pairing off with one partner and then a different one, requires
the sanity of knowing that it's just theater, and the assurance that
life, with all its difficulties, is a much safer haven for love.
©2001 Chris Dashiell
CineScene
