06/09/2013 - Philippe Garrel is back at the Mostra with a family portrait inspired by his own relationships with his father and son who plays in the film...

We had left Philippe Garrel in a relatively bad shape at the 68^th Venice Mostra with That Summer [+see also:
trailer
interview: Philippe Garrel
film profile], only to be reunited for the best two years later with Jealousy [+see also:
trailer
film profile], presented in competition in the Barbera section. Behind the author cinema black and white atmosphere is in fact an intimately personal family story, which remains accessible. The director’s son (Louis Garrel) plays a character inspired by Maurice Garrel, Philippe’s father. Louis (Garrel) is a penniless actor who decides to leave the mother of his daughter to live a love story without money with Claudia (Anna Mouglalis), an actress out of work herself who loves Louis in her own way and goes wherever her troubled personality takes her...

In the complicated relationships between the characters (Louis Garrel’s sister, Esther, makes an appearance as the sister of the character), the feeling of jealousy is unavoidable and plays a certain role, but the film’s title is nevertheless definitely not its main theme. Jealousy however gives Philippe Garrel the opportunity to demonstrate all the affection he has for his son through young Olga Milshtein who plays his own daughter in a very comical way. Her character is certainly the most moving. Her interactions with other characters are always the ones with the greatest emotion. Whilst Jealousy is more inspiring than That Summer, it probably remains inseparable from its autobiographical dimension which gives depth to what could otherwise rapidly become a collection of anecdotes with no real interest. The editing by Yann Dedet (one of Garrel’s regular associates, but also a partner of Truffaut’s greatest years) and the separation into chapters thankfully save the film from the confidential black and white cliché that alienates the Franco-French art house scene. The structure helps the narration which manages to avoid lengths despite a study of the characters that lacks depth.

Louis Garrel is not always accurate but there is sincerity in his acting that frees him from his usual postures. The film goes slightly too far in the second part (a suicide attempt taken a bit too lightly), but it does not have the pretention of being anything but one of life’s little things that are sometimes unpleasant to live and nicer to talk about.

(Translated from French)