by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $10.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Cecile de France, Vincent Macaigne, Stacy Martin
Intro:
... tedious in the extreme
The French post-Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard (Vincent Macaigne) was – if the way he comes across here is any indication – pompous, selfish and self-important. Not the kind of qualities which make for a sympathetic or even interesting character in a film. And sure enough, this examination of the five-decade-long relationship between him and his life partner Marthe (Cecile de France) is tedious in the extreme. We feel very sorry for her, but she’s a bit of a dullard too.
The story begins in 1893. She models for him, they go to bed and she has an asthma attack while they’re having sex; not the most auspicious beginning to a love affair. Before you know it, Pierre has announced that he intends to revolutionise art, as if deciding to do so is all it takes. He’s something of a control freak, but they’re mutually smitten. They live an idyllic life in the countryside, on the banks of the Seine, and there are a succession of scenes in which they chase each other naked around a lake or through a forest, all the while accompanied by intrusive violin music to let us know how supposedly tempestuous it all is. Famous friends like Manet and Monet drop in.
But then there is trouble in paradise. Marthe has other health problems … Pierre is unfaithful, and she becomes understandably embittered …
The plot thickens a bit, particularly with the advent of Pierre’s mistress Renee Monchaty (Stacy Martin), but it doesn’t become any more interesting in the process. We spend so much time in the company of these people that we want to know what happens to them, but that’s about as far as it goes.
