Movie director Jacques Rey (Mathieu Amalric) is writing the script for his next film, or so he says; his producer tries to nudge him to complete his work and to collaborate with Isabelle (Jeanne Balibar), Jacques' lover and the star of all his recent movies. Isabelle informs Jacques she expects a starring role in the coming film and endlessly importunates him via mobile phone. Jacques, who seems blocked, takes up with Laura (Julia Roy) a young performance artist and they rent a sprawling oceanside villa on the Portuguese coast, presumably to aid Jacques' concentration on his work. Jacques drives his motorcycle recklessly and during an unnecessary shopping trip he is involved in a suicidal road accident and killed. Laura stays in the villa and gradually conjures up an image of Jacques, who seems helpless and speaks in lines that he used in life; at times, the specter is herself.
There are some nice directorial touches, some humorous. At the cremation ceremony for Jacques Isabelle delivers the speech to Laura's chagrin, who tries to sabotage the proceedings. The hapless owner of the villa appears twice; first to rescue a dresser, then, his expectations lowered, just to be paid the rent. Music at times sounds like Bernard Herrmann's themes for Hitchcock movies, especially Vertigo (both films deal with the conjuring up of the departed in different ways). The arrival of the spectral Jacques is announced by a noise already heard when he was alive, but now having a new meaning of premonition..
The movie is based on the 2001 novella The Body Artist by Don DeLillo, who cowrote the adaptation together with actress Julia Roy. The resulting script does not integrate some elements in a coherent way and some parts seem to be unrelated to the rest. For instance, Laura watches endlessly footage of a highway at night from security cameras (with emphasis on an exit) and then uses it for her performance act. One could assign various superficial meanings to this, but what did the script actually attempt to tell us? And, why Never Ever as the title? Is this supposed to make us think of Ever After? And so on. The final result is a disappointing , disjointed movie that one senses could have been better with a batter script. It still deserves a watch. Production values and acting are excellent.
There are some nice directorial touches, some humorous. At the cremation ceremony for Jacques Isabelle delivers the speech to Laura's chagrin, who tries to sabotage the proceedings. The hapless owner of the villa appears twice; first to rescue a dresser, then, his expectations lowered, just to be paid the rent. Music at times sounds like Bernard Herrmann's themes for Hitchcock movies, especially Vertigo (both films deal with the conjuring up of the departed in different ways). The arrival of the spectral Jacques is announced by a noise already heard when he was alive, but now having a new meaning of premonition..
The movie is based on the 2001 novella The Body Artist by Don DeLillo, who cowrote the adaptation together with actress Julia Roy. The resulting script does not integrate some elements in a coherent way and some parts seem to be unrelated to the rest. For instance, Laura watches endlessly footage of a highway at night from security cameras (with emphasis on an exit) and then uses it for her performance act. One could assign various superficial meanings to this, but what did the script actually attempt to tell us? And, why Never Ever as the title? Is this supposed to make us think of Ever After? And so on. The final result is a disappointing , disjointed movie that one senses could have been better with a batter script. It still deserves a watch. Production values and acting are excellent.