24 June 2021

André Téchiné's Les Innocents (1987)

Jeanne (Sandrine Bonnaire) is from northern france and goes to Toulon for the wedding of her sister Maïté (Christine Paolini) to Noureddine (Krimo Bouguetof), although her main intention is to meet her deaf-mute brother Alain (Stéphane Onfroy). She meets Klotz (Jean-Claude Brialy), a bisexual orchestra leader with alcoholic tendencies and a lust for the young Saïd. Jeanne discovers that Alain has become a petty thief along with Saïd (an early appearance of Abdelatif Kechiche before he became the famous director). She spends the night with her brother but he robs her in the early hours, even of a precious family heirloom.

Jeanne goes to see Klotz to find out where her brother is, but meets his son Stéphane (the lamented Simon de La Brosse, who killed himself at thirty-two), who has only recently come out of a coma so can behave a little oddly at times. Jeanne and Stéphane are attracted to each other and he takes her to see Klotz rehearsing. Alain is staying with Saïd, to whom Jeanne is also attracted. All this is played out against the background of Stéphane's extremely violent, extreme right-wing history, and in the end both Saïd and Stéphane are shot dead, lying next to each other as Jeanne stares at them.

There's an air of Greek tragedy about this film.

No comments: