15/05/2005

The screening of the La Moustache, the French novelist Emmanuel Carrère’s first full-length fiction film at the Quinzaine des réalisateurs was marked by a very enigmatic atmosphere today. The film is an adaptation of a novel published in 1986 and depicts the harmful relationship of a couple acted by Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Lindon. The elegant story flirts with fantastic and madness without diverting from the acidity of married dramatic life. A mysterious subtlety which aroused the curiosity of film critics, and there will be many after-film debates on performances. The filmmaker who maliciously specified in his scrap book : "The story’s distinguishing feature is that its sense eludes me as well as the spectator" won’t mind the result.

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This moustache which triggers a profound psychological conflict starting in Paris, is Marc’s one (Vincent Lindon), an architect in his forties. Although his wife disagrees, the hero decides to shave his moustache off completely. Bad decision since neither his wife, (Emmanuelle Devos), a couple of friends, nor his two work colleagues notice the change. The worst thing about it is that everyone thinks he never had one. After the joke, and the frantic attempts to prove that he actually had one, Marc buries himself in dark doubts and paranoia with his wife with whom he shares tiring moments in their comfortable and dark flat. The film which is always seen through the main character’s eye, shifts when Marc’s fathers dies although he heard him on his answering machine the night before. Marc who is close to confinement runs away in Hong Kong where he will wander on a ferry (symbol of a man who is between two banks and who refuses to keep his feet on the ground) before his wife finds him concluding on a strange, unreal or dreamlike final scene when they take up again as if nothing had happened. An epilogue different from the novel (in which he suicides) which strengthens Marc’s profound nature of madness harboured by plots and space-time landmarks losses. Critics liked it for the quality of its impenetrable plot and performance. La Moustache benefits from atmospheres and from the very experienced cinematographer Patrick Blossier.

Produced by Les Films des Tournelles with Pathé Renn Productions and France 3 Cinéma (600 000 euros support) as co-production partners, La Moustache cost 5.14 million euros, including a conditionally repayable loan from CNC, 367 000 euros support from la Région Ile-de-France and presales from Canal + and TPS. The film is distributed in France and sold abroad by Pathé. It will be released in France and in Belgium on July, 6.

(Translated from French)