Movies at Home: La Separation, Drive My Car and Anything For Her

 

A strange little film about infidelity, this time the guilty party being an amazingly restrained Isabelle Hupert. Her husband played by Daniel Auteuil is angry, but his wife wants him to stay. So she wants it both ways. Although she cannot look at him and he cannot take his eyes off her. She is too cool, he is too upset. He wants her to leave but she refuses. It gets predictably messy, but there is little else to find in this movie. There is no conclusion.

I had seen this excellent film before, but no mention on this blog. Hidetoshi Nishijima is outstanding as Yusuke, a theatre director engaged to put on a performance of Uncle Vanya. His job is to select the cast and train a group of actors of different nationalities. This whole process is presented in detail that I found exceptional. From the read through of the text around a table, to later rehearsals outside. someone says "Chekov is terrifying". 

Alongside this part of the film, we see Yusuke being driven backwards and forwards to his hotel near the sea by a young female driver. Toko Miura plays Misaki with a reserved sadness. Their conversations are at the start are short as Yusuke wants to listen to a cassette where his dead wife is running lines of the play. We hear about their relationship: "Oto loved me so naturally, while betraying me". They had a kind of pact which somehow led to her success as a writer. Much later, in the car, he tells a story that Oto told him that may have been an allegory of their marriage.

But there is so much more in this brilliant and emotional film. The growing friendship between Yusuke and his driver, finding out her background. The young actor who will play the much older Vanya and a deaf girl who signs her part. There is so much here. I thought I may want to see the play again, having seen it in April 2008 at Milton Keynes Theatre. But as I said then, it is a pretty stodgy story and that is why it's rarely performed. This film is the way to hear it. Critic Peter Bradshaw gave it a deserved five stars. It was nominated in many categories at the Oscars and won best international feature. It's list of other awards goes on and on.

"Escaping is easy. The hard part is staying free". Actually Vincent Lindon's preparation to engineer the escape from prison of his innocent wife, played by Diane Kruger, is not at all easy. It's the detailed preparation that is the most interesting part of the film. The last part is all too much. It did need an awful lot of luck.