Could it be we ask ourselves that what Terence Rattigan described as - and exploited in his plays - the English Disease, by which he meant an inability to express emotion and/or repression, has crossed La Manche and is now living happily in La Belle France or is it perhaps more likely that Stephane Brize admires and is influenced by Rattigan, just as, for example, another fine French director, Alain Resnais, admired the English dramatist Alan Ayckbourne. No matter, however he arrived at it Brize has made a magnificent film virtually plot less with two actors who should, by rights, have taken every award open to them but did, of course, wind up with nothing. Like Louis Jouvet Helene Vincent's first love is the theatre, in which she has distinguished herself many times, unlike Jouvet she has not had the good fortune to appear in a string of classic films but if A Few Hours Of Spring were her sole appearance on film it would be more than sufficient to secure her place in the pantheon. Co-star Vincent Lindon has appeared in some very fine movies and does so yet again as the middle-aged son who, on his release from prison, is obliged to live with his mother thus reigniting a lifetime of bitterness. He soon discovers that his mother has a terminal illness and has made arrangements to enter a Swiss clinic and end her life peacefully. Still there is no overt emotion and when Lindon acquires a girl friend of sorts in the shape of Manu Seigner he is unable to communicate with her also on anything remotely resembling an emotional level. Brize is not afraid to tell his tale slowly with long takes and cutting at a minimum - when, for example, Lindon spots Seigner in a supermarket car park and walks over to her their entire conversation is in mid shot from a fixed camera position where other directors would have been cutting back and forth between them. Until now I had thought that Brize had peaked with Not Here To Be Loved - another film which was little more than a two-hander with supporting roles - with an honourable mention for Madmoiselle Chambon but this one is light years ahead of both. Not for everyone but highly recommended just the same.
Review of A Few Hours of Spring
