ON CONNAIT LA CANSON (SAME OLD SONG)

INTRODUCTION: This unusual little film is the latest offering from the grand old man of French cinema Alan Renais. A basic plot provides an excuse for a homage to Dennis Potter with characters expressing their hidden, and not so hidden, emotions by lip-sinking to popular French pop songs.

SYNOPSIS: While leading a tour party through the historic thoroughfares of Paris history student Camille Lalande bumps into Nicolas (Bacri) an ex-boyfriend of her older sister Odile (Azima). Odile's husband Claude (Arditi) is less than pleased to see Nicolas return into his wife's life as their marriage is going through a rough patch, and Odile is searching for a new apartment for them.

Odile and Camille arrange to view a flat together, but when Odile is delayed Camille finds herself falling for the estate agent Marc (Wilson). Meanwhile Nicolas who also on the house hunt is viewing a nearby flat with Marc's assistant Simon (Dussolier). Simon is a sometime radio-playwright and history buff who has in turn fallen for tour-guide Camille.

Marc finally manages to move Odile and Claude into their new flat, and to celebrate everyone is invited to the housewarming party where the hidden tensions are exposed and everything comes to a head in what is literally quite a song and dance.

REVIEW: Renais, last seen directing the Alan Ackbourne penned "Smoking" and "Non-Smoking" film in two parts, returns to the silver screen, once again indulging his anglophilia, with this homage to the late great Dennis Potter. The plot pales into insignificant as the characters take centre stage to belt out a French pop medley.

Arditi and Azima head up the cast with a faultless portrayal of the dysfunctional couple at the heart of the story. Claude and Odile seem to have little in common and the steady collapse of their marriage seems far from unexpected, but the two play their parts with such skill that we are able to bare witness to their deep affection no matter how well hidden it is.

Bacri and Jaoui not only appear as Nicolas and Camille respectively but were also responsible for the script. Both tasks are undertaken with a passion and conviction that is rare in Renais recent works. Acting up a storm no-less effectively than in their acrimonious ridden scenes together, they play off each other as only old compatriots can.

Dussolier and Wilson offer superb support as Camille's estate agent suitors one bookish, one slimy yet each in their own way charming, who once again play off of each other with expertly judged precision. The legendary Birkin makes a brief but entertaining guest appearance as Nicolas' English wife Jane, and finds herself lip-sinking to one of her own songs.

Renais uses the Potteresque gimmick of characters lip-sinking pop hits, as a way of giving the audience direct access to the inner emotions and turmoil of the leads, rather than to act as an ironic counterpoint to the action as Potter did in "Pennies From Heaven", "The Singing Detective" and "Lipstick On Your Collar". Renais film does not travel well, unless you are intimately familiar with the French pop scene the film looses a lot in translation, stripped of their cultural context the carefully selected songs come to mean very little.

Mutt's Rating: ***

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